VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Diane Maggipinto]

donna, i think i missed something. how does postel rhyme with fuzzy?




randye! hi! great story--i wondered about that...
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[Michael Schoen]

I used to do lots of video and audio news releases which pretend to be news stories but are really promoting something. They required a "lockout" so I used pseudonyms always.
My favs were: Clint Oliver and Chris Thomas.
So the lockout was a generic "This is Clint Oliver reporting"
That business has nearly completely dried up after a mini-scandal in which a government agency was doing it, and the person voicing it was severely criticized.
TV news departments wouldn't use them anyway, they would take it and have their local reporter read the script verbatum and act as though it were a real news story.
But it was very good money while it lasted.
One day I sat in a studio as we waited for a drug to be approved by the FDA. I did an initial one waiting for approval, another one after it was approved and a third with additional information -- audio and video so there were six fees attached.
Those days are rare. sigh!
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http://MichaelSchoen.com

[Donna]

Diane, your observational skills are excellent!




Fuzzy rhymes with Muzzey.
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Dangerous.

Donna Postel
donnapostel.com
donna@donnapostel.com

[Lee Gordon]

When I was working at my first full-time job in radio I replaced a guy whose air name was Tom Foolery. Before I arrived, that was the overall theme at the station and they were just beginning to abandon it. We also had a newsman who went by Hammond Eggar. And the mid-day guy was Hap Hazzard (he had a choice between that or Buster Cherry; he chose wisely).
Not long after I arrived, the station got new jingles and the program director (Penrod Rideout) ordered a couple of extra names in order to be prepared for any new hires. One of those generic contingency jingles was for a "Mike Harrison" and so that was the name arbitrarily assigned to the next guy to join the station. Not a bad name, except the guy's real name was Cliff Blake. And you could hardly ask for a better air name than that.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Bruce]

For those who didn't read this four years ago here, here's my radio name story:

I went through some name game business in my radio career. I started out with my own name, Bruce Miles. A couple of jobs later the who hired me at the big country station, KNIX, said:

"Would you like to be Tom Kelly?"
"Not really. Why?"
"Well, when we had them sing our jingles I had 'em do an extra name and that's what I've got on tape."
"Thanks, I'll pass."
(I tried singing my own, but that didn't last more than an hour)

Next station, Top 40 KUPD, I start my first shift at midnight and 45 minutes in this strobe light flashes in my face. Scared the Styx out of me. It was the hotline. Chuck Browning the (and former RKO Boss Jock) asked if I'd said my name yet on the air. I said:

"Yep. Three or four times."
"Aw sh*t. I was going to have you call yourself Billy Biscuit."
"Sorry 'bout that."

Next station is KSEA, a really nice Top 40 FM in San Diego. The program director catches me before I go on the air and says:

"I don't like the name Bruce Miles. It sounds too artificial. Can you come up with something else?"

I complied and came up with Charlie Rider, also known as C.C. Rider. He liked it. Oh and the air name of the who didn't like contrived names? Red Mountain.

A few years later, still Charlie, I ended up in Phoenix at KRIZ and the said:

"I've already got a Chuck and a Charlie on the air during the week and Charlie Tuna does a countdown show on the weekends. Can you call yourself something else?"
"Sure. How about Bruce Miles?"
"Yeah. I guess. Whatever."

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[anthonyVO]

I love that story, Bruce! I missed it the first time around.

[JBarrett]

All these stories are a blast to read!

A couple years after graduating from high school, I worked the graveyard shift at a local AM station for about a year. Being a small-town station, it wasn't exactly a hotbed for clever pseudonymming, and I went on the air each night as myself. The guy in the shift before mine, though, changed his last name from Lindseth to Linden when on the air, and the sports director (who's still there) dropped Howard in favor of Scooter as a first name. In the latter case, though, I have a hunch he picked up that moniker long before his radio days.

Later on I thought that if I ever got back into radio, I might craft an on-air name out of my first initial and middle name. Alas, Jay Spencer never appeared, but I still think about him from time to time.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[todd ellis]

por jay spencer - we hardly knew ye.

bruce - that's HILARIOUS!

also - a wanted to call me Two-Dollar Bill once. i actually thought he was joking - erupted in laughter and walked away. turns out i really pi$$ed him off. as it turned out - the station was sold a few weeks later and we both got fired. so everything worked out.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Nikki]

Okay, I'm hugely curious. And I don't think I saw an answer, but....

Why would a production company want you to use a pseudonym? I mean, I always have one in the back of my head cause my mom has such an awesome maiden name I've had friends since high school tell me I should change mine...but frankly, I like my dad's name too. So it works!

I feel sorry for a future husband because really, I like my name and his would have to blow me out of the water to use it in more than social situations

[Deirdre]

[SkinnyJohnny]

I went to work at a station and was given the choices of....
Kris O'Kelly, Kris Kelly, Mark Damon, Mark O'Kelly, Mark Kelly or Kris Damon...
They had 2 "stolen" shouts...Kris O'Kelly and Mark Damon. I chose Kris Kelly and the edit didn't work, so I ended up being Kris O'Kelly.
Fast forward a year later...I'm in Nashville to apply for a job and decided to call the other top 40 station and get the 's name. The night guy says, "Mark Damon". I laughed and he said, "What's so funny?". I told him the story and how odd it would be to send an aircheck to Mark Damon, if I had chosen that name.
A few years later when I was in Pensacola, I get a call from a guy who's there on vacation and wants to know if I remember him when we worked together in Montgomery. I had to explain that I never worked in Montgomery and he worked with the "real" Kris O'Kelly. I had to explain the name thing to him. He said that I sounded a lot like the real Kris O'Kelly!
I've also used Skinny Johnny Franklin, John Weeks (real name & vo name), John McGraw and now John Donovan (for radio).
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John Weeks Voice Overs
www.johnweeksvoiceovers.com

[Brad Venable]

When I did high school and college sports on the radio, I was Brett Bradley. Alliterative names always seemed to be a hit on radio, So I made my first name my last name, and took the name of what would have been my brother's name if my sister had been a boy. So there it is. I actually think it would be a good industry name.
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Brad Venable
The Voiceover Superhero!
"Saving the world thirty seconds at a time."

[Lizden]

Well...with a name like mine?

...yeah I've kept it!

Except for one very short.shift on the AM side of the station I was at...the jock was late coming in & no one else was around so the owner said "You're on!"... I had NO clue what I was doing but I knew I couldn't use my real name ...So for about about an hour in the fall of 1989, "Nina Matthews" was a star on WNNJ-AM in Newton NJ! (ha!) It was a combination of my Grandmother's name & one of my nephews' names. I actually kinda like it.

For my business I use my name, and even kept it when I got married.
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Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[ronharpervoice]

I used my real first name until I got to a market where there were already FIVE people using that name. I took "Ron" because when the guy hired me, there was an album proped up against his door. It was Heart Like A Wheel by Linda RONstadt. The last name came from a character in a story I wrote. Perfect three syllable name for radio.

I had it before the basketball player did.

As for my "tax name" Nope..not tellin
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"When I was your age, we had to dial to get online"
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[whalewtchr]

Used my real name at KZAP early 80's in Sacramento until scary looking people from the hills visited the studio one day claiming I was representing Satan with a name like Jonah. Since people were showing up at my front door at all hours of the night, I decided I had enough and changed my name to gain some privacy...Jon was the first three letters of Jonah and Robbins was my favorite author (Tom Robbins)---also all of our bills etc were in my wife's maiden name. Stalking was a huge problem back in the 70's and 80's, combine weird souls with drugs and you have a circus of people wanting to be your new best friend at 3am. TV is worse, they actually know your face and if you're a weather person...watch out for the old ladies in the grocery store when the forecast is wrong.
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jonahcummings