Archives for October 2023

Gratitude Post.

Doing some work in between volleyball matches at The University of Maryland. I’m in a beautiful conference room, in the house that Gary Williams built recording voice overs and editing audiobooks. In a week I’ll be recording Coach William’s audiobook. In 2 hours I’ll be back on the mic for the Maryland Tournament vs Coastal Carolina. If you would have told me 30 years ago that I’d be doing any of this, while I was announcing lunch menus, at Springfield High School, doing carrier current AM radio at Towson University while cheering on the Terrapins on TV, or while editing Comcast Cable Guide listings, I would not have believed you. Has it been easy? Heck no. I’ve worked by butt off, and continue to each and every day, but sometimes, as my friend Dr. Robyne has taught me, it’s nice to reflect back with gratitude on how far you’ve come. Oh and did I mention Maryland now has Wawa? What a world.

Whew…it’s been a while.  Not that there haven’t been things happening in my voice over world. It’s just…well you know…life. Plus, whenever I write a blog, I have the constant nagging thought, “Does anybody care?” Heck, Do I? I’m not sure I have the answer to that yet. We’ll see where this goes.

Anyway, a few pretty exciting things  have happened in my life as a voice actor.

First, the podcast that I host with Sean Daeley, hit 100K downloads! Shortly after that we published our 100th episode! To say we are shocked is an understatement. We started out very much on a whim. Partly as a way to stay busy and practice our craft. Then it became a sort of chronicle of our own journey. We would talk about the first commercial we booked. The first time we heard ourselves on radio or television. Our first video game, etc. Then it became a  vehicle for passing on knowledge. The voiceover community is incredibly helpful and Sean and I certainly benefitted from lots of kind souls who helped us along the way. We thought the podcast could be a way to give back. It was, and continues to be. The  funny thing is, we became sort of pseudo celebrities in the VO world. We were sponsors and speakers at conferences, on stage at industry events and the like. People would come up to us and tell us they were fans. Its been 7 years now and I still get surprised every time someone tells me they have listened. I thank everyone for their support and taking the time to lend an ear.

On another front, I’m BACK as a public address announcer! Announcing live sports was actually one of the first ways I ever used my voice professionally. Way back in the early 2000s, I was working for my alma mater Towson University. I took a “forced” hiatus when there was a change in leadership and thought I may be done entirely with that aspect of the industry. Then, I attended an audition for the Arena Football League in Washington at the Capital One Arena where the Washington Wizards and Capitals play. There, I met some other local announcers and got the bug again. I continued to network with many of them over the next few years. Jarrod Wronski and Bob Johnson in particular. The former runs a facebook group about announcing which I joined. I hung around mostly observing, until I saw a job posting by Mark Fratto, announcer for the Wizards and Commanders. I applied, not even knowing for what organization it was! It turns out it was for the University of Maryland, and you know what? I got the job! I started doing fill in for all sports there. Shortly after, I became the full time Volleyball announcer, then Wrestling. Since then I  have been referred to a few other jobs, and applied to a few more.  Before I knew it I was working for nearly every school in the state! I’m currently doing sports at Georgetown, University of Maryland, Towson University, Stevenson University and The US Naval Academy! I even got to work an NCAA Regional and Quarterfinal event! I was asked to work the World Lacrosse Championships, Athletes Unlimited professional Lacrosse, Oh, and some Minor League Baseball for the Aberdeen Ironbirds. I am sometimes doing a half dozen events a week and have adopted the moniker “hardest working man in PA” That’s Public Address, not Pennsylvania!

I have always said on the podcast follow the money and that is now true more than ever.

Okay I didn’t really mean to talk this much about one thing, but there you go. I guess, I don’t really know what people want to read in a blog anymore. I’ve certainly tried a lot of different directions, but for now, I’m sticking with shameless self promotion!

I’ll just leave these two other tidbits of updates for now. In the past 6 months I’ve also done voice work for BOTH PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Amazon. Can’t say I expected that, but I am grateful.