Hired Voice Hands

[RadioKnowwhere]

A simple request, if everyone will allow.....

IF you are blessed and talented enough to do voice work for others, it really is a business in basic terms, right? You get paid and have demands and the responsibility to treat your customers and end users in a professional manner, right?

So.....if this is...you... I have but one request for Christmas....

If and when you do spots for others, at least have the common courtesy to send the scripts, either by email, by fax, even by pigeon mail....

I really respect your talent, but the fact that I, and others, have to sit and transcribe your spots, simply because you are not completing all your responsibility in the deal, frankly, makes you look rather spoiled and lazy.

Enough!

[Clay JD Walker]

I don't think I follow your request. In my dealings, my clients e-mail me the scripts, then I do the reads, and e-mail them back. This is also the same method I use with the voice artists I use at my own station...I write the copy and they read it...that's it.

Maybe you can give us an example?

[Arp2]

We would really need to know more -- namely the reason you're transcribing the spots. However, I can tell you right now that it sounds like you're trying to get away with not paying someone.

If you're getting a spot a client "likes" and wants duplicated but there's no script, it really sounds like somebody's trying to rip off a writer, producer, and/or talent. You shouldn't do it, and you shouldn't go along with it.

If you're getting a spot from a client who has "properly" paid to have it produced and used wherever for however long and you're needing it for co-op or something, there's no reason that the client wouldn't have the script. Get it from the client.

[Tom Taggart]

Usually we run into this problem with spots produced elsewhere (typically another station in the market), e-mailed to us, that we need to do the co-op paperwork for. A script often needs to go in with the affidavit of performance.

[bongo]

I would love to be a voice over guy

[Rock]

In bigger markets, I've heard of stations charging their competition to use their spots for a shared client; based on that, we probably have it pretty good. If it's co-op I always send script, but I don't always receive the same courtesy. Bah, a little typing is worth my time to make sure I get to keep eating pizza.

[Lester]

Every station I've worked for provided a "fee" for spot production that was going to a station outside the company.

[Swing'n Dick]

Charging? Serious? I'd almost pay to have one of my guys voicing a spot on the competition's station.

Hrm, maybe that's why your transcribing spots... I wouldn't want my competition running on my station either.

Transcribing is really anal though. I've had to do it before and I think I'd rather roof or bail hay for the same amount of time.

[Scott Reppert]

I get yelled at if the spots I send out don't have the script with them. I don't like getting yelled at. So when I email the stations to let them know that the spots are read, produced and stored in our "drop point", I send the scripts along as attachments. That way I don't get yelled at. I don't like getting yelled at...

[Hoosier Daddy]

When reading through some radio history some time ago, I learned that Charleston's WTIP/WTIO-FM (1240 kc and 102.7, with a Beautiful Music format back in the day) mandated that only in-house talent be heard on any commercial spot. The way I understood it, this was a non-negotiable item for clients. You couldn't have that station across town do your spots and (*car dealers*) clients who wanted to voice their own commercials were politely told "no".

Does this arrangement occur anywhere in radio anymore, or was that policy a relic of days gone by? From listening around, a big percentage of spots are voiced by in-house air talent, but it isn't unusual to hear voices from your competitors, from ad agencies, and (*car dealers*) clients who probably insisted on "rolling their own". Just curious.

[Clay JD Walker]

Honestly, for the sake of argument, I prefer to not have any of my jocks on spots, other than endorsements...out of market voice talent is the way to go...affordable, and they don't just rip and read to plow through the production order after a long airshift. Plus, by having a signature voice for the client's brand, it adds validity to their campaign, rather than having four spots in a row in a stopset by the same overworked produciton director.

[Arp2]

Car dealers now have "schools," seminars, and coaches....they've generally gotten a lot better, and some are quite, quite good at doing their own. Plus, some have hired their marketing, communications, or PR folks from radio and tv, giving themselves in-house talents who can cut spots, do remotes, and coach and direct others.