VOICE OVER TIPS FOR RADIO PERFORMERS

store.danoday.... This excerpt is from a live panel session for radio professionals, produced by Dan O’Day and starring Michael Bell, Nancy Cartwright, Joni Gerber, Ken Levine and Dick Orkin.
Michael Bell: Joni and I have both trained DJs, who have a tendency to listen to their own sound. You have to break from that. Acting is very important. Most of us are actors who have that background.
There's a certain kind of visceral approach when you're doing a script and a good cold reading quality. Cold reading is imperative -- to be able to call read very fast, to make a make a decision quickly. What is this character like? Who is this character? You need to make those choices very, very fast when you read a spot and you’re going to audition for something.
I you're doing straight copy, and if it's person-to-person, you have to say, “All right, what is the product? If the product is food, who am I talking to? Am I talking to guys? Am I talking to ladies? And I want to make this food sound good, so I have to develop a food voice.”
There is a food voice. There is a car voice. There is a voice that one adapts if you're a woman who is speaking to other women. Obviously, you're going to be adapting a voice if you're speaking to men. Is this woman supposed to be sexy? A common fault for many women who try to sound sexy when they do commercials, is they get very, very breathy and they sound like they're tired. That's not really a good approach.