"Get this off my neck... NOW!"

 So I was going through my pic folder on my laptop and came across this one from way back .Here's an oldie but goody of me trying to remote broadcast from the South Florida Fair back to the main station-WIRK. I was yacking away, when all of a sudden, I felt a quiet, strange, pressure on my neck from behind. I turned my head while still live on the air and saw this enormous snake trying to say hello to me. The "snake keeper" thought it was funny. The little girl in the pic being hoisted in the air by Dad thought it was cool. I wanted to get the snake off my neck IMMEDIATELY! By the way, a hair stylist friend of mine talked me into going "bleach blond" for summer. I hated the look and couldn't wait to get it all cut off.

                                                                    

I'm living on the air at... WCLW in Mansfield, Ohio

 The start of my radio career wasn't exactly like the TV show "WKRP in Cincinnati," but it had a few wacky/odd moments. (None like the hysterical "turkeys dropped from high above" episode. A must see on You Tube!) As I write this post, Loni Anderson, who played the sexy secretary Jennifer Marlowe on the show, has passed away at 79. RIP.

Upon graduating from high school in Strongsville, Ohio, I told my Dad I wanted to go to a broadcast school in Cleveland to become a radio deejay. He said, "Son, I don't know about that. It's a dog eat dog business." As usual, he was right. After considerable begging, he agreed and gave me a very reluctant nod of the head to enroll. The cool thing was that the instructors were deejays I heard on the radio in the Cleveland market. One of mine was "The Real Bob James." He was on WGAR, a very popular station at the time. Bob was very funny on air with his recorded comedy bits and would go on to co-found the American Comedy Network. It was a comedy service that radio deejays subscribed to for funny material they could use on their radio shows. I listened to Bob on the radio and held him in high regard. In short, I was thrilled to have him as one of my teachers. Upon graduation from the school, I started sending out my demo tape to radio stations around the country. Much to my surprise ( and my Mom and Dad's too), I got a phone call from a radio station in Mansfield, Ohio which was about 45 minutes south of where I grew up. It was a Mom and Pop AM/FM station called WCLW. They had a reputation for paying low wages and hiring guys like me who had zero on air experience, but wanted to get in the radio business as a deejay. After a telephone interview, they hired me to do an afternoon show on their low wattage AM station. ("Hello. Is anyone out there?") My Mom and Dad had to have been in a mild state of shock. I actually got a job at a radio station!Thus began my very long and journeyed radio career. Even though at first I was awful on the air, I knew, with dedication, I could improve and work my way up to the better stations and actually make a living being on the radio. WCLW was owned by an elderly couple and their daughter Lynn ran it like a drill sergeant. One day, early into my employment there, she told me I was going to do a remote broadcast on an upcoming Sunday afternoon from a pet cemetery! The goal was to get people to buy a burial plot for their beloved pet. I'm thinking, "What in the world am I going to say on air for three hours about a pet cemetery of all things?" It would be the very first of many awkward on air assignments she would give me that were very much a "sink or swim"situation that eventually would make me a better broadcaster down the road. Other remote broadcasts would include a ladies clothing store in downtown Mansfield with a bubbly Julia Child- like owner on microphone with me talking about all the wonderful selections to buy. And at another broadcast chatting on air (very carefully)about the love making virtues of a waterbed with the inventor Charlie Hall, who was doing a live appearance at "Aquarius" waterbed store. I had many on air assignments at that first radio station that would force me to ad-lib and be on my toes. It was all quite the crash course and it turned out to be a very good thing  in preparing me to work at much bigger stations in the years ahead.

WCLW will always have a special place in my heart. It gave me my start. For that I am truly grateful. 

Do you have "audio gremlins" in your auditions?

 (This post is mainly for beginners. Experienced talents should know better)

Nothing kills your chances of winning a prime voice over job quicker than bad audio quality. As many of us work from our home studios, there are usually plenty of unwanted background noises to deal with---barking dogs, little ones playing in another room squealing, laughing and running around, air conditioning and fan sounds, loud car mufflers, honking horns, motorcycle rumbles from the street, your neighbor's riding mower, distracting, mysterious, low vibration hum from somewhere, a jet flying over your house, city garbage truck, and beyond. You don't want ANY of that in your audition submissions. It's a deal breaker and screams "unprofessional." Did I ever tell you about PG&E (local power) coming down my street and camping out for MONTHS with their jackhammers? It sounded like they were in my living room!

The man who founded and runs his successful voice over casting website out of Germany, Armin Hierstetter( "Bodalgo") said you would be shocked how many auditions or voice demos come in to him with awful sound. The folks listening to that are going to discard your audition and move quickly to the next one. Don't be one of those unaware/misguided voice over talents! You may record a great audition but be eliminated from winning the job because you're sending out lousy audio. And yes,that means no  lazy recordings made from your phone on the fly in a hurry to get to the gym. 

Just because you have a vocal booth doesn't mean you won't have to guard against unwanted sounds. Many times, VO booths, while helpful, don't get rid of ALL the pesky sounds getting into your recordings. Listen carefully (headphones on) before you send your audio out to a potential customer/client, and yes, it's a big deal. Otherwise you're just wasting your time, money and talent.

If all of this seems a bit much, it might be well worth it to hire a competent audio engineer to help you get rid of those pesky gremlins and fine tune your recording space. The second set of ears can be most helpful.

 

"They don't love me" (sniffle...sniffle) Handling rejection in the VO world.

 So I was going through my book collection and pulled out one I bought several years ago. It's called, "Secrets of Voice Over Success" by Joan Baker. And while there are many voice over books on the market, I particularly like this one, as it features some of the top voice over artists in the industry talking about their path from unknown to the A list. Each chapter features a different voice, and the first one, fittingly, is the late movie trailer superstar, Don LaFontaine. (famous for his big, bold "In a world"...)

As anyone in this business knows, auditioning is the norm for landing jobs. I was taken by Don's observation about not only auditioning, but apparent rejection. Here's the direct passage...

"No matter how good you may be, you're not going to book every job for which you audition. Sometimes the answer is going to be no. I never let it bother me. I keep in mind that this is a very subjective business. I am certainly not right for every job. As an actor, rejection is the first thing with which you learn to deal. It's not so much rejection as it is a process of elimination. You do it all the time. If you select Burger King over McDonalds, you're not rejecting McDonalds; you simply prefer Burger King. That's the way it is in this business. Don't dwell on it. Move on. Believe me; your career is not over."

This coming from one of the most successful voice actors of all time. Powerful stuff indeed.

Cool thing is the updated version of the book comes with a CD with demos on it. This is not a book that teaches voice over technique. It's a book with lots of real world advice from the best in the business about how to elevate your career.

The book is a great read.  You can find it on Amazon.

"Come on over baby there's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on"

 It's hard to believe, I've been back here in the San Francisco Bay Area for roughly 19 years after leaving my radio career behind back in Charlotte, North Carolina. Despite the ungodly expensive cost of living here, it has much to offer. For one, if you're a sports fan, the activities are off the hook. I know there are LOTS of Bay Area haters around the country. That's what happens when you have winning teams like the SF Giants and NBA Warriors with superstar Steph Curry. Teams here are used to being trashed by hostile, out-of-market fans and media talking heads around the country. As they say, "it goes with the territory." (Not Taylor Swift level haterism but...)

So I was sitting here in my recording studio the other evening when a pretty harsh earthquake hit. By far, it was the strongest jolt I've felt since moving back. It didn't last long, a few seconds, but I had no mistake it was an earthquake. The neighborhood dogs started barking. Within seconds, the local TV news had their "crawlers" on screen that a 3.9 had hit the Bay Area. There was no major damage of any size. It got me to thinking. Since I moved back here, it was one of only a few that I've felt. Another one was during an episode of "American Idol" I was watching. I was laying in bed all comfy, when I heard a very pronounced snapping sound for a few seconds around my room. It was eerie.

Before I moved back to the Bay Area, I informed a client of mine I would be moving from Charlotte to back here to continue recording voice overs from my home studio. My friends thought I was crazy. To be honest, I had some doubts. It was a very long trek across country via U-Haul (much thanks to a friend Ron who jumped in to co-pilot with me) and there were no guarantees that my business would continue to flourish. Upon telling my lovely, longtime client, Kathy, of my pending move, she said with some despair in her voice, "Oh John! I can't believe you're moving to California where they have all those earthquakes!" I chuckled as she lived in tornado prone Texas! Dorothy, Toto and Kansas immediately came to mind. I can't remember what Kathy said when I challenged her on her living in tornado friendly Texas. They say everything's bigger in Texas. I'll bet; including the tornados.  

My radio broadcast career put me in earthquake zones, hurricane states, and tornado active places. I figure, no matter where you live, you have some kind of bad weather possibility. I grew up in Ohio where daily tornado warnings were the norm in the summer. The awful 1974 F-5 tornado in Xenia, Ohio took 39 lives and caused unheard of damage. Thousands were injured. I lived 13 years on-air in the West Palm Beach South Florida area, and all those years, I had no major hurricane event roll through. Tropical storms yes, but no huge, destructive hurricane. (I'll chalk some of that up to good luck). Now,  I live right on the Hayward Fault Line here in the Bay Area where the next really "Big One" is expected to hit. The little jolt I felt a few nights ago was a gentle reminder of where I live. I guess, wherever you go, there you are. You're bound to be in some kind of destructive weather path at some point. Life goes on.  

Hey! It's the Motel 6 voice over dude. He'll leave the light on for ya (and how he got sober)

 What an amazing voice over career Tom Bodett has had. CBS Sunday morning did a really cool profile of him.  There's no way you haven't heard his folksy vocal delivery. For a while, his voice was everywhere. Besides the bucket loads of money he made for his "We'll Leave the Light on for Ya" radio and TV commercials for Motel 6, turns out he's an accomplished author and wood worker. He says his love of woodworking helped him to get sober. He can't woodwork and be drinking at the same time.He never sells any of his woodwork; doesn't want to get caught up with selling. His home recording studio looks killer. (OK. As a fellow voice actor, I'm a bit jealous). All these years I've heard him on the Motel 6 spots but never knew what he looked like. At 69 years of age, he seems happy doing his woodworking and writing. Loving sobriety. Good for him.

Here's a link to the very entertaining interview on CBS. It's short and well worth your time. He's an inspiration to me. Now that the interview has aired, I hope he's an inspiration to many. We need more Tom Bodettes in the world. Nice guy. Modest. Down to earth and helpful! Hey, he'll leave the light on for you. Thank you Tom.