VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Moe Egan]

My children chide me all the time for making snarky comments at the radio when jocks mispronounce things etc. in spots.

This morning I just had to turn the radio off and walk away before someone got hurt.

Locally produced spot was for FillintheBlank Coiffeurs. Every sentence of the spot contained the client's name. Jock pronounced it coffers (kaw-fers) EVERY time. AAAAAAHHHHH

Maybe it's time I get satellite radio.
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~

[Philip Banks]

Try summink different! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/ and click the listen online. Good if you like music based radio.

[Hart]

It's Mardi Gras season and a local ad here is promoting a formalwear shop's tuxedo rentals. According to the voiceover you can rent the "costume dee rigor" for any ball. I guess that's what you're required to wear when your dead huh?
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Brian Hart Productions

[Philip Banks]

I listened to the radio in my hotel room whilst in New York. It was someone firing music at me and no attempt was made to inform, engage or entertain. If I want a great mix of music I listen to my mp3 player. Great mix for me but I doubt anyone else would like it.

[Lee Gordon]

[KaseyKruz]

One Word to identify the problem: Corporatization

I could elaborate after being in the business for nearly 20 years as could many here, but the bottom line is that more attention has been paid to the bottom line than the final product. Decision makers have done nothing to keep the quality at a premium. To the contrary, many decisions have been made that run counter to increasing the listenability of radio; less "talent", less content, less effort.
Nowadays most anyone can apply for and get a job in radio making minimum wage, and eventually will end up doing an airshift not having any kind of training on how to create compelling content. It takes no talent to introduce a song or plug a website that no one wants to visit.
Many stations no longer serve the public interest as many of these local stations are not manned by a live person 24/7 like in the past. Computers have contributed to this for the most part, but greedy suits that serve Wall Street have insisted on cut after cut after cut of the only real place to cut - on air talent. Now you have a jock that goes in and records breaks for a 4 hour shift in about 20 minutes, and that person may not even be in the same state as the station being tracked.
My position is indicative of this as I report local radio news for many local stations across the United States from my home studio in Michigan. It's often hard to "be local" when I have to "be local" in several different markets in the span of 2 hours. That is the new face of radio unfortunately, which is not a local face at all, but someone somewhere pre-recording "live" radio.
As for jocks mis-pronouncing words, these stations are getting what they are paying for; no talent workers working for the lowest wage possible.

And the corporations wonder why people don't listen to radio anymore. I don't think radio can buy listeners at this point as most feel pushed away from boring, bland corporate radio-in-a-can that plays more commercials than music and no longer connects with them. So much for the "Less is More" ideology.

I will relinquish the soapbox now.
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Does life start at 40?

[bransom]

What Kasey said.

And if you'd like a window into radio's future (or lack thereof), ask a teenager or young 20-something about what radio station(s) they listen to. Radio's future is written all over the blank stare you'll receive as a response.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

[Chuck Davis]

...and yet with all of the indicators we're talking about here...we get the "radio is healthier and more listened-to than ever" from the corporate CEO's. I get that speech every 6 months or so.

Some of it is factual info and applies to the few major market stations out there that still provide compelling/original content.

In some most cases though I think it's painting a happy face on a corpse.
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[Jeffrey Kafer]

I've said all along that being a radio jock is not a feeder into the voice over industry. They are completely different skills and jocks doing crappy commercials is prime proof. If radio jocks think that they are shoo-ins for VO just because they talk into a mic, then by that logic, we can expect a flurry of new VO hopefuls who used to be bingo callers, auctioneers, and emergency dispatchers.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[todd ellis]

HEY!!! i used to call bingo! it's not as easy as it sounds, bub!
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[Moe Egan]

I was told by the teacher in my first ever VO workshop (a six- eight week class in Boston many moons ago) that I would never be able to do VO work full time, never mind support myself with it- because I had "smiley plastic veneer" over all of my reads. I was radio ca-ca.

I had to scrape off 20 years of nasty radio habits. This first teacher (Will Lebow) was a straight shooter and told me like it was...AND made me mad enough to actually do the hard work. I'll show him who can't do VO....

You're right Kafer, radio/VO is not an if/then relationship....but the jocks can't hear it, and most aren't willing to do the heavy lifting to get to where they need to be for VO.

The only thing more sad today than the state of local radio is the state of local newspapers. Going the way of the Dodo.
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~

[Lance Blair]

Will Lebow! He's a great guy and I recorded him for a few things when I was back in Boston. Definitely a straight shooter and very talented.
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[Michael Schoen]

I have to disagree with what's been said here
The problem in radio is that it is operating with a far smaller piece of the advertising pie -- there's far more competition, not only from TV but cable, internet ipods and more. Sat radio is another small bit of competition.
Budgets are lower and the least of it is people who pronounce things incorrectly -- the craft is no longer lucritive.
to use the restaurant analogy-- it's like the difference in service from a 4 star restaurant to a diner.
Many local radio stations have not survived, or survive with imported syndicated shows.
Citadel in bankruptcy, other groups having trouble surviving -- it's not that all broadcasting management is stupid (I'm not defending any) but the industry has been spread too thin.
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http://MichaelSchoen.com

[Deirdre]

Broadcast radio has been strangled by bungling corporatists. They killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
It is indeed spread thin, as you say, but radio's demise was not inevitable until it was railroaded by greed.
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IMDB

[Drew]

Ditto that.
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