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What was your road to VO?
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DougVox
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 1706
Location: Miami

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bob Bergen wrote:
Tracy Kinkead wrote:
The radio industry has changed so much over the years, it's hardly recognizable to when I started.


I say this all the time, I am beyond grateful I got in when I did.


Ditto and amen.
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tracy Kinkead wrote:

The radio industry has changed so much over the years, it's hardly recognizable to when I started. And for someone who wants to do "real radio", it's been a source of extreme frustration and disappointment.


Oh boy, can I EVER relate. In the mid to late '70's when I was working in radio in New Orleans, you grabbed a pile of albums and mostly picked what you wanted to play. The ONLY direction you got was a paper "play clock" up on the wall stating "Group vocal"... "Instrumental".... "Solo artist".... and so on. Beyond that, it was your choice.

You stacked up the 4-track spot carts for the commercial breaks and grabbed an hourly PSA index card from the box to read a local PSA. You basically weren't limited to no more than :15 of talking and you pretty much weren't told what you had to say. Oh, and you had to have your 3rd class FCC broadcast license (and the test WASN'T easy!) and you had to actually know how to take meter readings every half hour or so.

Radio was fun then. We had devoted listeners who we knew by name. Lots of mom-n-pop stations that had REAL local ties with the communities they were in. And it was pretty hard to get fired from a station.

All that has gone by the wayside. Radio is a shell of what it once was. A mostly empty, corporate shell, loaded with consultant-chosen songs pre-loaded into the computer, voice-tracking across the country, and zero job security, pay or benefits.

That's why I'm SO honored to have my voice associated with NPR today. It's about the closest thing to the way radio USED to be that we have.
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Scott R. Pollak
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todd ellis
A Zillion


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
Posts: 10532
Location: little egypt

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i started here:



mom & pop WINI AM 1420, 500w daytimer. i learned so much about radio (all the stuff scott mentioned) plus a lot more about life. it was a good start.

i weep for the generations coming up without REAL local radio.
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heyguido
MMD


Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2507
Location: RDU, the Geek Capitol of the South

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And who got to sleep in the trailer? Laugh
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Don Brookshire
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Monk
King's Row


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 1153
Location: Nestled in the Taconic Hills

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Employee benefit package? One night free in the trailer?
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Mike Harrison
M&M


Joined: 03 Nov 2007
Posts: 2029
Location: Equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia, along the NJ Shore

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scott opened the memory portal.

One of the stations I worked for ('78-'82) was WDHA(-FM), 'The Rock Of North Jersey.' In 1963, it was one of the first FM stations to go stereo, and about 20 years later, was THE FIRST station in the U.S. to play a compact disc on the air.

Scott mentioned the tape cartridges (aka carts) that were the workhorse of the industry back then. While they were made the same way, they only looked like the consumer 4-track tapes, but had different track configurations (2 for mono, 3 for stereo). This is the 8-minute Fidelipac.



Not a station I ever worked for, this is what a typical studio looked like in the 70s (Gatesway 80 console with four ITC cart players on top and Gates CB77 turntables):



Slip-cueing records and backtiming songs to meet the network at the top of the hour. <sigh> Those were the days!

Todd: The tower in your WINI photo looks a little 'tired' (slightly bent). Is that just a distortion in the photo, or had the tower suffered an accident at some point?

If anyone is interested, an online acquaintance has written a two-part article on what was known as 'Free-form' radio, which began in the mid-to-late 60s and where what-to-play was pretty much left up to the air talent. New York's legendary WNEW-FM was one of the first and best. The two parts of this article can be found:

http://www.onoise.com/radio-then-now-part-1/

http://www.onoise.com/radio-then-now-part-2/
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Last edited by Mike Harrison on Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike, the first 'real' station I worked at straight out of college (also in New Orleans) was in 1977, WEZB-FM "All eeeeeasy music, all the time". Stuff like Andre Kostelanetz, Frank Chacksfield, Henry Mancini.... all the easy listening orchestras. And to make matters worse, I had the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, THEN went from there to my day job (10 a.m. - 6 p.m.) at the now-defunct Tape City USA, selling music, car stereos (8-track units, of course!), and home stereos (remember when Marantz was king??).

But the whole point here is the format shift that WEZB went through in 1978, when they went from EZ listening to the country's first all-disco station! Yikes!

That's when I went, along with the Hobo Laughing, over to WWIW, the oldies station. And you mentioned slip-cuing. At WWIW, it was not at all unusual to have one of the two turntables die on you during a shift, wherein you bounced between putting on a multi-artist album and chatted during the grooves between the various cuts, and then popping in one of the few carts that had music on it while you swapped to another album.

Fun, fun, fun!
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Lee Gordon
A Zillion


Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6866
Location: West Hartford, CT

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scott Pollak wrote:
remember when Marantz was king??


The only way I was able to get the cheapo management to provide me with a CD player for the production studio (and this was in the 90s), was to get a salesman to work a trade with a local stereo store for a high-end Marantz unit. I then had to get a trade with a record store for some smooth jazz CDs before I eventually discovered a production library (Canary) that we could get with a no-cash, 100% barter deal.
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todd ellis
A Zillion


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
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Location: little egypt

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mike - i think that's some sort of distortion in the photo - but, then again, i went through 3 major tornados in that building, so ...

don - that only LOOKS like a trailer - it is/was, in fact a MOBILE broadcast studio - complete with turn tables and marti. state of the art, baby!
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heyguido
MMD


Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2507
Location: RDU, the Geek Capitol of the South

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh....My....Gawd.... Rolls Eyes
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Don Brookshire
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Leslie Humble
Contributor IV


Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 145
Location: Cape Coral Fl

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I rarely talk about what I have done or what work I am currently doing. People who go on and on about their bookings, and themselves, tend to bore me. I have found one of the great truisms of Show Business is you can be anything except boring. That's the great sin. But in the interest of "sharing the Path":

I won the state Speech tournament my senior year in high school. Then getting a Radio/TV scholarship I left the Ozark Mountains and my country home for the first time at 18. The nearest house to us was three miles down the gravel road country. The next house was three more miles. I lasted almost one whole year in college before the newly discovered partying and not attending classes, and flunking out and losing the scholarship.

Washed up at the age of 18.

Being poor I went to work on the Auto Assembly Lines in St. Louis. After a year of that and realizing what I'd lost I went back to school. First at the Broadcast College of St. Louis and then to Washington University. Every night I worked the assembly line hell and days I went to school. This time straight A's.

Now the Radio part:
I was an intern first at the famous KSHE (home of Sweet Meat) then to my first fulltime Radio gig at KHMO Hannibal Mo. home of Mark Twain.
I went on to stations like WSM Nashville Home of the Grand Ole Opry, KHYS Houston, WSUN Tampa, WNOE New Orleans, and to National Syndication on 80 stations from Coast - to - Coast. There were quite a few other stations along the way.

Currently I earn about 100,000 yearly as a high end Event DJ in the rich Naples Florida area. And making a little VO money too,in an area covered in top Voice Talent such as Chris Corley, Peter Thomas, Caryn Clark, Randy Thomas, Tara Tyler whose smiling face now greets you everytime you open V uno dos tres, Brian Lee, and more.

There is no question in my mind or anxiety over the time needed that Voiceover will lead me home, or to the entropy that is the gradual winding down of the universe. A city boy now for the last 30 years, that tough little country boy that plowed the garden, fed the pigs and chickens, cut wood for heat, hunted deer and squirrels for meat and that learned never to quit is still inside you see.
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Last edited by Leslie Humble on Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:33 am; edited 1 time in total
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todd ellis
A Zillion


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
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Location: little egypt

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

great story leslie! if you're ever driving from florida to st. louis - stop by southern illinois and we'll fry up a batch of squirrel!
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heyguido
MMD


Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2507
Location: RDU, the Geek Capitol of the South

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Somehow, I knew Todd would chime in with that one.... Squirrel!!!! Wink
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Don Brookshire
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todd ellis
A Zillion


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
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Location: little egypt

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 2:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

threadjack

pic from sunday evening


/threadjack
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Fran McClellan
The Thirteenth Floor


Joined: 15 Feb 2010
Posts: 1314
Location: Middle of Nowhere, PA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

^^^LIKE!^^^
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