UPDATE: With thanks to @VoicesDotCom via Twitter where I first saw this new news posted, the family of Walter Cronkite has told CBS News this morning that it would an honor to have the voice of the late news legend remain as part of the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”. Read about it here.

As you might guess, I LOVE this decision.

You don’t think any of them read the blog post below earlier this morning, do you? Nah, nobody reads this digital rag!

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Original Post
“The CBS Evening News” broadcast has decided to stop using the newscast’s recorded introduction voiced by Walter Cronkite, following the famed anchor’s death at age 92 on Friday evening. The iconic Cronkite was known to be in failing health for sometime. The voice over introduction had been used for the broadcast since it became “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” in 2006. (Source: New York Times)

That’s the news, now for an opinion.

CBS News President Sean McManus said “it didn’t feel right” to continue to use Cronkite’s voice after his death. I understand the sentiment, I get it and I respect it.

But I do think two things about the decision:

I think you’re giving up the best newscast intro ever voiced – there was so much implied by his voiceover in addition to his great and immediately recognizable delivery.

I would also hate to be the man or woman who is chosen to follow that man as the new announcer.

Dan Rather wasn’t wise enough to really understand what a tough act Cronkite would be to follow when he lobbied for the “CBS Evening News” anchor job in 1981. Most announcers aren’t that oblivious.

Tags: CBS News, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Walter Cronkite (Photo credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department © 2006, Richard Roberts)

Iconic CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92. The newsman died of cerebral vascular disease at 7:42 p.m. ET in his New York City home surrounded by his family.

CBS News was the standard for television news during Walter Cronkite’s tenure.

After he left, the place was never the same.

He saw the country through the Kennedy assassination and the national mourning that followed and Man walking on the moon (I’m especially disheartened he’ll miss the 40th Anniversary of that monumental event this coming week).

He reported on the Vietnam War and of a Presidential resignation following something called Watergate.

I didn’t know him, I knew of him. I watched him. Everybody did.

My only connection to him was when I bestowed on him an honor I am pretty sure he never heard about: the best voiceover performance of 2006.

Good night Walter.

Tags: CBS News, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you’re like me (and God help you if you are) you work and then you’ve got kids. In between you grab a sandwich and you sleep a few hours.

So taking time let alone money out for voice over seminars is costly on both fronts. This is why I subscribe to many blogs. I will set aside time in my workday to read because that’s another way to improve – not only within voice over but also social media, marketing and overall business operations. And it’s free, except for the time.

A prime example for me recently was a great performance reminder from voice coach Marice Tobias (friends and fellow VO’s Bob Souer and Mary McKitrick are just two folks who go ga-ga for Marice’s teaching insights). My light bulb moment came courtesy of Tracy Pattin’s VoiceBank blog.

Among the many Tobias nuggets in the post taken from a recent AFTRA Mastery panel: “Go Too Far.”

If you’ve been at all trained as a voice talent, you may have been told that before. If not, then that phrase may seem odd. But for me it was a great kick in the pants.

Me of all people, sometimes the loudest person in the room if not the world when I carry on in a humorous way, needs to be reminded to make a performance bigger, more intense, more subtle, more brooding, more obnoxious (scary I know). But in taking my performance further, I can see how that sounds – see how it communicates and then, if need be, I can pull it back. But I need to dare myself to make it bigger, to take the risk, to get out of my comfort zone. I forget that performance imperative sometimes.

The nuggets are out there and today I found mine by reading Tracy’s blog post about Marice’s comment.

What performance or business nuggets have you found recently and where did you find them?

Tags: commentary, kick in the pants, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometime ago a voiceover friend gave me a tip on how to monitor craigslist.org through my Google reader. He threatened me with certain harm if I dared share this tip with anyone and, as I promised I wouldn’t, I won’t.

You have Google, you don’t need me.

I wanted to monitor craigslist.org because I was always hearing about voice over jobs on the site. If you’ve been on the site you know you’d have to click through every city and some drill down menus before you get to listings. This, to me, was an unworthy time suck.

So with the unmentioned tool, I can now receive these postings into my reader. The only problem being that for the past two to three months, the jobs posted have either been low to no pay or geographically prejudicial.

Therefore, for me, craigslist.org went from being a time suck to time waste. That’s like going from bad to worse.

If craigslist.org is going to be a cheap floozy of a classified ad site, so be it. On it, you can find crappy voice talent jobs, many other lousy jobs, hookers (allegedly), murders (allegedly) and antiques ((allegedly)).

Clearly, based on the web site’s success, there is a market for this schlock. But it comes across as being less than a bargain and more like an on line junk yard with the occasional treasure found.

Am I being an elitist? Is this just me being bitter about crappy voice jobs on craigslist.org? Did I go in expecting too much?

It’s just that I saw such potential for the site and it makes me feel a bit disappointed. We should all want to aspire to buy more than cheap crap on line, shouldn’t we?

Tags: advertising, commentary, internet, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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NOTE: this was supposed to publish two days ago and I thought it had. Obviously this is WordPress’ fault because I NEVER make mistakes! Stupid WordPress!

The nicest man (and one of the most talented) in voice over has updated his brand.

Bob Souer has unveiled his new web site and blog (likely the most widely read in the business) which now boldly proclaims him to be a “Professional Story Teller”. A more accurate description couldn’t have been created by Shakespeare himself.

Please stop by and have a look around. Now doubt he’ll be adding new pieces in the days and weeks to come but no one deserves the kudos more than Bob. Great job!

Tags: branding, commentary, internet, logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Boston Voice Talent Meet-Up Front row (l-r) Chris Fadala, Moe Egan, DB Cooper; Back row Diane Maggipinto (and son Lio), Peter O'Connell and Lee Gordon

Good Lord, what a week!

Starting off last Friday (June 26, 2009) I zoomed up to Boston for a heavy duty bit of marketing work at a client’s major trade show. So between that, client entertainment and trying to maneuver around all the celebrity corpses that sadly seemed to be falling everywhere, I didn’t have so much time to focus on V.O.

Sometimes you gots to follow da money!

But Saturday night I did get out to visit with voiceover friends in Boston who were so generous with their time when they came out for a Boston voice over meet up.

I am so energized by these meet ups (all SUCH talented people) and the conversations were so great that I didn’t want the night to end. Yet I knew my client responsibilities held a long day ahead on Sunday so I bid adieu.

My thanks to my fine and talented friends who shared their time and talent with me on Saturday. I am forever grateful to be in this business with them.

Tags: commentary, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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