In the left-hand column of the Detroit News there used to be a section called, “News in Brief. Simply, it was a collection of synopses for the top stories that could be found on the inner pages of the paper. When I was a boy, I would cut out the News in Brief section of the paper, organize the stories, and then tape them to a sheet of paper.

Holding the scripts and looking into a make-believe camera, I would pretend to be the guy on the 11 o’clock news.

For my 12th birthday, my parents purchased a desktop cassette recorder for me. It was the one I had begged for — mainly because it had a built-in condenser microphone. I thought that was the coolest thing that I could have.

To complete the gift I also received batteries and a 6-pack of blank cassettes. Remember those?

It was the perfect present because now I could see what I sounded like when I was reading, playing news guy.

Here in Detroit, Bill Bonds was on the air doing a nightly newscast. I watched every night. Afterward, I would pull out my collection of news stories that I had saved in a manila folder, and I would do my best “Bill Bonds” into my prized cassette recorder. Then I would listen back to the recording. Often I found that I didn’t like the way I read the news, or didn’t like the way I sounded; that meant there would be a take two — possibly more.

Regardless, I became a newsman in my bedroom at age twelve.

Over the course of the year that followed, I used that cassette recorder to read makeshift news scripts; to talk over the intros of my favorite records; to interview my family and friends; to read stories from my favorite books; to pretending that I was the next coming of Elvis Presley. I recorded music from my radio to try to capture my favorite song.

In fact, from the moment I opened that gift, I have been recording my voice in one fashion or another.

Even up to this day I am a news junkie.

Radio

I began my radio career reading traffic reports in the winter for thirty Michigan radio stations from the Triple-A office in Dearborn, Michigan. The group of reporters was known as the Michigan Triple-A Icicle Network. From there I have been heard on radio stations through-out southeastern Michigan. Although reading news was my passion, my early career was as a disc jockey playing the hits. Mostly country music.

I moved into radio production in 1990. The writing, the marketing of products for clients, and helping them reach the goals they have for their business and products has become my passion

Freelance

Today I voice and produce commercials for a radio group (7 stations)in Detroit, Michigan. I also record on-hold and in-store messaging for a number of businesses across the United States and Canada, including True Value Hardware’s 300-plus stores nationwide.

Voiceovers

I am available for:

Commercials
Promos
Voice mail, phone systems, and on-hold messages
Training, business presentations, sales, and web sites
Audio books
Video games
Documentaries
TV shows and movies
Movie and game trailers
Podcasts
Animations

I am available for voice overs for your business. See the Contact section to arrange for a personal demo for your project. In most cases voice overs can be provided within 24 hours.

Click on the DEMOS tab at the top of this page to hear samples of my work in Detroit, Michigan.

A Blast from the Past

Recently, I ran across one of those cassettes that I used to record myself. I don’t know if audio books existed in the early seventies, but here’s a sample of a read I did when I was twelve years old. The audio quality is poor, but you can see how long this business has been in my blood.

 

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