I’ve been working some years in phone centers as a CSR and a number of people have commented positively on my voice quality. Quite a few of them have said I sound like “the Moviefone guy.” I might as well play up to my strengths and am wondering about a career in radio. I don’t have the personality to be one of the talents but certainly could be an announcer.
Back in the day when I was much younger, it seemed the best way of getting a shpt behind the microphone was to hang around the station making a pest of yourself until they relented. I’m a bit long in the tooth for that and, besides, I’d bet the process is a bit more professional now.
so, have any Dopers managed this feat? I’m guessing making a demo disk would be the way to go but who is the best person at the station to send it to? Is there another way to come to the station manager’s attention?
I’m a professional narrator (primarily eLearning), but I got my start volunteering at the local PBS station reading the newspaper on the air to visually impaired listeners. I then had the opportunity to move into the broadcast booth. From there I did a brief stint on a Top-40 station…and smacked my head into the reality of radio. To make a living at it you need to move…a lot. Ratings are king. If you don’t pull the numbers, they pull you. Move to another market, lather, rinse, repeat.
Szlater has your answer…sort of. You don’t need to start a podcast, just narrate for one. I’ve been reading out load for several 'casts since 2002. These are mainly short story genre specific podcasts (Starship Sofa, EscapePod, Crime City Central, Tales to Terrify, The Drabblecast…). They are always looking for narrators. They are low pressure, produced by great people and you can start small and keep going or stop when you want. It’s a great way to give it a try.
IM me if you’d like to talk about it. You could also give a listen or contact me at my site MikeBorisAudio.com
Thank you for the replies, guys. to be honest, Szlater, I hadn’t thought of podcasts. I’m kind of a techno-troglodyte when it comes to some things. The idea is to get paid for the gig, though and starting my own seems a long way from achieving that.
I’d started down a similar path, TheBori, reading schoolbooks as a volunteer for Recording for the Blind (which seems to have rebranded itself Learning Ally) in the Bay Area. That was years ago, though, and when I moved, there were no chapters near me so it stopped.
Your comment about the reality of radio I knew already. That’s one reason I was aiming for announcer rather than one of the talents. That and the fact that my voice and demeanor would be more suitable for one of those hundred-watt smooth jazz stations.
Thank you for the invite; I’ll be paying your site a visit.
A good voice and you read well? TheBori probably has the best advice. This month marks 43 years of my doing this. It’s a dying profession, kind of like steamboat drivers on the Mississippi River.
Identify talent agents in your area and start asking questions(not of them, but of people who use them). The talent fee won’t let you retire, but it can be a fine supplement.
Szlater is right about the podcast. In the past, it was easier to start in weekends and overnights to hone your skills in radio before you got into key drive times. Now, however, modern technology allows for a lot more ‘voicetracking,’ or having a single DJ do most of the voice parts in one sitting, and then the station’s automation system play all the music and commercials. In fact, one announcer can voicetrack for several stations. It just seems like radio isn’t as much fun anymore.
Radio has consolidated to almost nothing. If you subtract Talk Radio, the number of stations with live, on-air talent is small. I visited the Kansas City Cumulus office with my brother to do his infomercial, and met up with one of his old radio friends. The guy was in there doing the next week of work - in one afternoon. He recorded all the ads, intros, outros and bumpers in a few hours, all of which will be inserted by the automation. And I guarantee that he did not get paid for a week’s work.
The other thing is national station identity. Rather than each city producing their own programming, they’ll buy a package complete with programming, on-air talent, logos, promotion, etc. The “station” is nothing but a transmitter and a sales person.
I see those ads on Chicago buses and trains for schools to “Learn Broadcasting” and it’s all I can do to not tear them down. I’m fairly confident that there are not 100 on-air people in a market the size of Chicago. The advice given here so far is solid.
I would suggest that you acquire the equipment to record yourself. Happily, the home studio revolution has resulted in a huge selection of decent equipment at very low prices. You can get a device to connect a professional microphone to a computer for $100 or so, and a decent large-diaphragm condenser microphone for less than $200 - you do NOT need a $6000 Neumann. Recoding software like Audacity is free. Spend the money on making your room sound better and deadening noise from the computer.
Then practice. Listen to established voice professionals and try to duplicate their results. Time how long it takes them to read something and learn to read the same text in the same amount of time - being able to hit the mark and get the information out in a particular amount of time is the mark of a pro.
If you have a local community radio station you might be able to work with them. If you’d like to do an actual radio show and you aren’t too picky about when they might be able to hook you up. If you’d just like to record some promos and such, they’d probably let you.
Granted, they’re not likely to pay you for any of this. But you’ll build some experience, plus a reel that you might use to get paying work in the future. Plus, it’s fun! I do two shows–a biweekly music show and a monthly cooking show–and it’s a blast. But it’s definitely a hobby.
This. I minored in radio broadcasting in college, interned at a commercial station in Baltimore every summer, and even managed to do some board-op work after graduation. I’m still friends with a couple of folks from those days – on-air talent types – and I’ve watched the industry pretty much collapse around them. Working in radio is enough of a struggle for those who have been doing it for decades: I don’t recommend targeting it as a new career. I loved radio and sometimes still miss it, but most of the time I’m glad that I wound up doing other work.
I know two similar guys. One had a very nice home studio that was easily a few grand. I think he started on local talk radio, then bounced around the south for a spell. He then recorded packaged radio shows, rock, country, etc. and sold them around the country to various stations. During this time, he largely worked from home. Eventually, he went to school to learn sound production for the movies.
The other guy took a low-fi approach. Moderately nice equipment and a podcast. He wrote his own material. The podcast was about RPGs, tabletop and PC, and the gaming community. He got hired by Warner Bros to manage their online fan community or somesuch - based on the strength and reputation of his indie podcast. Which of course he had to stop when he took the job.
Oh, I know a third guy in radio. He’s the classic DJ you picture. He’s been working for rock and classic rock stations in the same area of the state since at least the late 80s. Long hair, concert Ts, the works. Given the current state of radio, that seems like the sort of job you can’t readily get anymore. You had to start back in the day. Radio people keep working those gigs forever! They don’t get paid much, for one. And it takes a long time for someone’s voice to show age vs any visual gig in show business.
A great voice doesn’t make the show, for what it’s worth. It’s all about content, anyhow. I’d pick a passion and start podcasting.