VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Gregory Best · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject: a night of frustration and panic

I had one of those nights where I was fighting a deadline and didn't realize I changed a hardware setting on something. I started getting these electronic clicks and pops. I checked connections feverishly, software settings, which caused problems last week after an upgrade of one software product affected settings on another... that was another horror story.

Finally I finished the project at 2:00 am much too tired to figure it out. I spent some time this morning and realized some how I had accidentally turned (bumped) a knob (a very small one for these not as young as they used to be eyes) and I was overdriving my preamp and processor. ARGGGHHH.....

I hope I never have another nigh like that. Those little knobs are hard to see when you are franticly looking for what went wrong. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to set the knobs and lock them somehow so you can't inadvertently move them without unlocking them first?

Greg

glittlefield · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:

Well, imagine working on a client's database server and having the hard drives come to a screeching hault. You look up and see a blue screen of death staring you right in the eyes (which are starting to well up at this point). Frantically, you reach for the backups and discover that no one there has been swapping out the tapes while your main point-of-contact (who normally changes them like clockwork) has been on vacation, so your last good backup is about a month old. Payroll is due tomorrow and that database with everyone's commission data was on that scrambled array.

Then five other clients call you with what are normally considered urgent matters, but none are as life-and-death as what you are currently facing.

Daycare calls because your 3-year-old son has bitten someone AGAIN and they want to talk to you about finding another center for him.

You jump into your 98 Plymouth Voyager to pick up your child and after a dull *thud* from the front end of the van, it switches itself into what Chrysler calls "limp home mode" as the transmission has just pooped on you (a well-documented defect of that series of minivans).

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Why am I pursuing a VO career? Because I have days like the above quite a few times per year. The only thing that affects me physically, mentally and emotionally is the work stuff. If I'm going to give myself ulcers, it might as well be doing something I enjoy. Wink

Glad everything worked out for you, though. Nothing like a good forehead-smacker to start the day off with, eh?

Oh, and nice name. Laugh

I used Greg Allen as an on-air name for a while (first and middle name), so I do a double-take when i see your posts...
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Gregory Best · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject: I used Greg Allen on the radio

I used Greg Allen on the radio, but i chose Gregory Best for the VO work. I ahd a couple of people (including Harlan Hogan) tell me is sounded too radio-ee. I did a Google search and found there are a lot of Greg Allens.

Greg

glittlefield

dhouston67 · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:37 am Post subject:

I had spent a year or so using my real name on-air at a CHR station. When I found myself starting at a country station in the same market, I was told that the GM didn't want his station connected in any way to that "other" station, so I'd probably better pick another handle.

I glanced up at the automated wall of reel-to-reels, saw the manufacturer name "Harris" and spent my tenure there as 'Dave Harris'.

I'm just glad I never had some wacky moniker forced on me...
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Deirdre · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject:

No kidding about the "forced" biz.

I'm "GINA" on the air in Worcester by behest of the former Hobo Laughing

at the station. I've always hated it, but now the name has so much cache with the afternoon show's audience I'm stuck with it for as long as I'm there.
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Bruce · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:15 pm Post subject:

I went through some name game business in my radio career. I started out with my own name, Bruce Miles. A couple of years in the Hobo Laughing

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 Hobo Laughing

(and former RKO Boss Jock) asked if I'd said my name yet on the air. I said:

"Yep. Three or four times."
"Aw shit. 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 Hobo Laughing

who didn't like contrived names? Red Mountain.

A few years late I ended up in Phoenix at KRIZ and the Hobo Laughing

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."

Charlie/Bruce/Billy
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Bruce · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:17 pm Post subject:

Well that's fun. Everytime I type in the acronym for Program Director the little smiley pirate face shows up. Hmmmm.
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I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Deirdre · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:51 pm Post subject:

I like it, actually-- considering the demeanor of most PD's.

You can disable smileys in your message with a little check box below your message window.
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Bruce · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 4:03 pm Post subject:

Of course this could lead to the story of the Hobo Laughing

of a

radio station that was arrested in Pittsburgh's Hobo Laughing

s stadium by an officer of the local Hobo Laughing

for playing Hobo Laughing

-ed songs.

Arrrrgh.
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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. .

Hart · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 5:39 am Post subject:

I guess I've been lucky. I've always been Brian Hart on the radio and quite proud of that fact. However I did have one PD come into a station I worked at that started calling me "The B-Man" and then forced me to call myself that on the air. This after I had been there for two years as Brian Hart. I hated it. When I changed stations, but in the same market, I did a little stunt on the air where "The B-man" was gunned down outside a seedy bar. One of the happiest days of my radio life.
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