Ross Brittain
How long have I known Ross Brittain? Since ’way back when he was just a morning disc jockey.
Oh, wait.
I mean, I knew him was he was the Editor-in-Chief of the much beloved and non-remembered show prep service, Galaxy.
Sometime later, The Ross Brittain Report needed an editor & publisher, and I guess they hired him because of the similarity between the publication’s name and his.
But in this exclusive video, Ross reveals where he gets virtually all of his radio inspiration…
October 1995 (continued): Having the afternoon free, I walked up and down the main street of Hamilton, New Zealand, for a couple of hours, seeing much of the town. Seemed like a nice, relatively small town.
Steven Joyce, who had arranged for me to conduct the next day’s seminar, picked me up for dinner. Actually, Steven had a lot to do with my coming to New Zealand in the first place. The previous year, he had recommended me as a keynote speaker at the Radio Broadcasters Association’s national convention. That was my first invitation to visit NZ…and unfortunately for me in 1994 the R.B.A. convention was held at the same time as the NAB convention in the U.S., where I already had been scheduled as a speaker.
The following day typified my focus (and true enjoyment) of these trips: a full day playing tapes, telling stories, and “talking radio” with a roomful of disc jockeys who had gathered from The Radio Works’ various stations across the country.
At its conclusion, Leon drove me to the airport…stopping first (at my request) at a Burger King so I could “bulk up” before my flight. (I don’t like to fly on an empty stomach, and I wasn’t sure if there would be a meal on the plane.)
She tried to pick me up at the Burger King in Hamilton, NZ.
This was the scene of one of my favorite memories of the trip: The 15-year old girl who took my order complimented me on my “cute American accent.” This was the only time in my life that a teenage girl flirted with me, and I was most appreciative.
Driving into Wellington — Not Really, But I'm Pretty Sure It's Wellington
From Hamilton I flew to Wellington, where the R.B.A. convention was being held. The taxi ride from the airport into Wellington revealed a very beautiful harbor city. Just gorgeous, driving the winding road around the bay toward the night lights of the town.
That was Thursday night, and although I was not scheduled to speak until Saturday, I had been invited to be introduced to the attendees on Friday afternoon. So I had most of Friday to myself.
Shortly before this trip, I had joined CompuServe. This was to be the very first time I would try to “log on” to CompuServe from a “remote location” (i.e., away from my office). And I spent most of the night and all of Friday morning trying to do just that…to no avail.
(It might shock our younger readers to learn there was a time, when dinosaurs and personality jocks roamed the earth, when people connected to the Internet via something called a “telephone.)
That meant I had to connect my Macintosh Powerbook to the telephone in my hotel room, use the phone to call a local connecting number for CompuServe, and — hopefully — wait while my computer talked to theirs.)
It did not work. No matter what I did.
The nearest CompuServe customer service office was in Australia.
In desperation, I looked in the Wellington telephone book and found a listing for a local CompuServe office. I called up and explained my problem. The person I spoke to was very sympathetic and offered a couple of suggestions.
I tried his suggestions. They did not work.
When I called back, it was suggested that I bring my computer over to their office. Fortunately, the office was just a few blocks from my hotel.
I entered the elevator in the office building. Another passenger pushed the button for his floor and then asked me, “Third floor?”
“No, I’m going to the fourth floor,” I replied.
“Oh,” he said, surprised.
“Why did you think I would be going to the third floor?”
“Well, that’s where the Alcohol Advisory Council is, so I just figured that’s where you were going.”
(Let the record show that I don’t even drink.)
At last I arrived at my destination, where the entire New Zealand CompuServe office was waiting for me. His name was Ricky Berg, a transplanted American. Ricky was very patient and very generous with his time. Finally we were sure we had solved the problem, so I returned to my hotel to give it a try.
It still wouldn’t work.
Ricky suggested a couple of other methods; they didn’t work.
At last, a radio guy came to the rescue: Ron Wilkinson suggested that perhaps the cord connecting the hotel telephone was improperly wired for use with a modem. I walked a couple of blocks to a Dick Smith Electronics store — the New Zealand equivalent of Radio Shack (but apparently with more knowledgeable employees) and bought a new telephone cord. I knew this was a ridiculous waste of time, but I had no other ideas.
I walked back to the hotel, plugged in the $7 cord….and finally managed to “log on” from a country other than my own.
Exhilarated with this triumph over hotel telephone technology, I took myself on a walking tour of Wellington.
Little did I know this was to be the first of many frustrating attempts to “go online” from hotels all over the world….
Excerpted from Voiceover Career Secrets by Harlan Hogan & Dan O”Day
Dan O’Day: Voiceover auditions used to be almost exclusively cattle call style, a bunch of voice actors showing up to read for the same part. With the advent of the Internet, and also something people don’t think about — the ability to compress audio into manageable file sizes — that’s changed.
So Harlan, what percentage of your auditions is done at an outside location determined by the client and what percentage is done by you from your studio?
Harlan Hogan: Well, it has been a quantum shift, Dan, and at this point I’m doing about two percent away from the house and that would leave 98 percent from here. That’s a little different in different markets.
New York still has a lot of casting directors and a lot of voiceover people there actually go into Manhattan and run around from place to place. Which is a good thing in many ways because you get to meet people face to face.
Some of that goes on in L.A. and a little bit here in Chicago, but in my case the vast majority of the auditioning is done right from here.
Dan: So that’s really a quantum shift. You are at the very top of the field; do you have to audition?
Harlan: I’m just basking in the glow of that compliment. Yeah, see that’s the work of voiceover work: auditioning. You are right, it has changed a lot, there are still personal relationships and there’s still some reputation and promotion, obviously.
But a lot of things changed, including the people hiring us. I’m talking at this point mainly about commercial work. You have new people coming in, young people, they’re busy, they don’t have time to learn the talent pools.
At the same time we have now, because of the Internet, a huge talent pool. And so the tendency is for producers to take the copy in a Word file and zip it over as an email to the agent of their choice, or even at times directly to a performer.
Shortly thereafter a little mp3 file comes back to that creator or that writer or that producer. And they can sit there in their office cubicle and in a matter of a very short time listen to hundreds of people.
People don’t realize that many, many times that’s really how we spend the big chunk of our day: running a business and auditioning. The time spent just talking into the microphone is minuscule compared to the time we spend getting the work.
One of the things that has happened because of recording techniques and technology and sort of a burgeoning industry of people creating demos is that most people hiring talent have learned that they cannot rely on listening only to the demo. They need to hear you do what they wrote. And those of us in the business, if we’re smart, are happy.
Dan: You pointed out the immense amount of time that is spent actually doing the work to get the work. The top voiceover people I know all are in agreement that most of their time is spent on the work of getting the work. And you might have seen some kinds of inflated claims that some people have made about how profitable the voiceover industry is.
Harlan: Yes, and that’s been another one of those quantum shifts. It used to be that most people didn’t even know what a voiceover was. It was a small group of people, and this change saddens me to some degree.
There are legitimate, worthwhile people who are coaches and people who can help put demo reels together, but we also have sort of a subculture that’s rapidly developed of over-inflated claims and get rich quick schemes and bait & switch techniques that you can make just huge amounts of money.
In fact there was one, I think it’s no longer on the Web, but for a while they were making a claim that voiceover was one of the top three earners in the United States of America: a CEO, an astronaut and a voiceover performer.
Dan: And the voiceover performer, that’s the third highest profession?
Harlan: That was the third highest profession. I took that down to the bank and tried to get a larger mortgage but they didn’t buy it.
Dan: Ironically there were probably 25 other voiceover people waiting to make the same pitch to the banker.
Harlan: Exactly.
Dan: Maybe one of them got the loan.
Harlan: Exactly. So, I hate to see that because that really isn’t true. Yes, I’m blessed myself to be able to make a nice living doing this for a long time, and you have ups and you have downs. But it’s a big mistake for people to go into it thinking, “Oh, all I do is talk into that metal tube, maybe for 20 minutes, and I get a lot of money.”
And I think that’s what they were basing it on, the time performing. But unlike, say radio, where you actually are being paid for the time on the air, in this business, as you pointed out, that’s the treat, that performance.
That’s like the actor who auditions for a play. The auditioning is no fun and after the 12th audition they land a role in a play. Well, the play — hence the name “play” — is fun. So I love nothing better than recording a session but the real work, most of the time, is getting the work.
Excerpted from Voiceover Career Secrets
In response to my blog post about “prize pigs,” a Loyal Reader responded:
“The main purpose of an ‘in-store remote’ is to build awareness of a client or business and the service they provide. There is a core of listeners who apparently think they need every service under the sun but, after getting any free prizes offered and eating any free food, suddenly determine that none of these services are for them.
“You said, ‘Radio is the only industry I know that routinely denigrates its best customers.’ I don’t consider what I just described as a very good customer. Neither do clients. And that makes a follow-up sell even harder.”
When you invite listeners to attend, you do not say, “Please come help us build awareness of our client’s products or services.”
Instead you say:
“Come register to win a trip for two to the Bahamas!”
“Come meet the Morning Crew!”
“Lots of free food, fun and prizes!”
Meeting your client’s objectives is not your listeners’ responsibility.
If your remotes routinely are overrun by the “wrong kind” of listener, then that suggests either:
A) You’re not designing the remotes in a way that appeals to the “right” sort of listener. “Hot dogs, t-shirts and movie tickets” definitely appeals to “Prize Pigs,” and those incentives are wrong for most businesses. Instead, the incentives (i.e., freebies or prizes) should be targeted squarely at that merchant’s customer base.
If you’re at a car dealer specifically to promote mini-van sales, you should be offering something for parents to give to their children. A drugstore should offer free flu shots, blood pressure testing, electronic thermometers. A hardware store should give away an inexpensive yet valuable booklet — “200 EASY THINGS YOU CAN FIX IN YOUR HOME.”
The problem with following that tactic, of course, is that fewer people will come to your remotes — and most stations make the foolish mistake of selling the client on the quantity of the promotion’s respondents rather than their quality. Seventy-five regular, enthusiastic consumers of books should be far more valuable to a bookstore than 400 illiterate listeners who come for the free movie passes.
B) Your station is selling remotes to anyone who will pay, regardless of whether a remote is likely to be an effective marketing vehicle for that client.
C) Your station simply “throws in” a remote to clinch an advertising sale, without any thought given to whether it makes any sense for the client or for the radio station.
In truth, most clients would be far better served by a well-designed advertising campaign with a built-in mechanism for stimulating qualified in-store traffic than from a typical remote broadcast.
Here’s a good place to start when evaluating station promotional opportunities.
I never thought I’d say this, but for the first time when advertisers are too cheap or too impatient to use radio properly, you still can create wildly successful campaigns for them.
For the first time, when stubborn advertisers insist on “testing” radio for just a week, you can accept their business in good conscience, knowing that you can produce fast, impressive results for them.
It’s with a system I’ll be teaching — with a very special guest — in a live teleseminar next week.
When: Tuesday, January 12; 11- 12:30PM (Pacific) 2PM – 3:30PM (Eastern)
Radio station? Ad agency? Advertiser? Production house? Especially in today’s economy, this is something you’ll be very happy to have in your radio advertising toolbox.
