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VOICE ACTING Who's Hiring TV Promo News/Imaging Voice Overs Now? Think Corporate - And Group Discounts September 8, 2020  By Dave CourvoisierVoice Actor Voice over colleagues often ask me the same
question: "How do you approach local TV affiliate stations about
Promo/News Imaging jobs?" Why me? Well, I've been toiling away in
CBS, NBC and ABC affiliated stations since 1979, and I've noticed a
thing or two along the way. In fact, now that I'm a voice actor myself,
I realize how cool it is to be the "voice" of a TV station … to do those
news opens, and to be on call every day to cut the latest news promos
and more. Of course, I
personally can't do those jobs, because it would be a breach of my news
anchor contract. However, I've become familiar with decision-making
processes at network affiliates, and below is my answer
to voice actors who ask me how the system works these days. Note: this answer is different that the one I would've written five years
ago. Things are
changing fast in local broadcast TV. The new reality stands aside from
ownership, network affiliation, programming or personnel. The main
disrupter of legacy broadcast paradigms is the internet and social
media, and by extension, the ad dollars that are going THERE instead of
into broadcast. I hope you get something out of my explanation below. THE WAY WE WERE Let's start with the way things
used to be. Each station's promotions director independently chose the
voice they wanted. This person might have the title of Production
Director, Promotions Manager, Creative Director or Commercial Director…
and even the News Director at some stations may have that
responsibility. Lord knows how they made - or still make - their
voice choice. They may rely on past relationships, word of mouth from other
News Directors/Promotions Directors, agents, casting services,
consultants, or their own research. MOVE TO GROUP MANAGER My guess is the above paradigm
is losing traction in the environment of stations being bought-out and
belonging to media groups of stations. Which leads me to my next
point: The decision for local TV voices is increasingly being made at a
higher corporate level by some station "group" manager - either nationally
or according to regions/districts. I'm not sure what title that
person would have. I would imagine it varies widely according to the
company. Chances are, though, that if you get through to that
person, and they like you, you could ostensibly end up as the voice for
many stations in their group. That would be nice, but the compensation
would be less than the above scenario of finding each station one at a
time. In other words, the corporate
person choosing a voice for his group would expect a "volume discount"
for choosing you for many of their affiliates. ALLEGIANCE TO AFFILIATES A final scenario involves
allegiances along network lines CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc. The network
itself may make suggestions or apply pressure in some way to have their
affiliates accept a certain "sound" or voice personality to be
consistent with their news product. This would certainly be more true of
so-called "O & O's" - stations that are owned AND operated by the
networks themselves, usually IN the biggest national markets: LA, NYC, SF,
Dallas, etc. How well the big agencies (e.g.
ATLAS, VOX, TGMD, etc.) or even news consultants are plugged into this
system is a matter of conjecture. I'm sure it has to do with legacy
relationships, agreements/contracts already in place, and enterprising
people such as you, inserting themselves into the process. Having worked in affiliate TV news for 35+ years, I can tell you this is the truth as far as I know
it. More and more is it becoming a corporate decision by someone who
arranges a deal for a "volume discount" to all their member stations. A TOUGH MARKET For a time, as a retired news
anchor, I hit this market hard. I thought I was the perfect choice:
established voice actor with a background in news. Barely got a
nibble! SMH. Oh, and BTW, once you GET the
job, you are on the hook every day, sometimes many times a day. And by
"on the hook", I mean you're at their beck 'n' call on a rigorous and
demanding schedule. Good luck getting a vacation! -------------------- ABOUT DAVE Dave Courvoisier is a voice actor and audiobook narrator based in Las Vegas who was recently recruited back to TV news following retirement from a long stint as Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, producer and the main weeknight news anchor on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the CBS affiliate. He is now the morning TV news anchor on Good Morning Las Vegas at ABC affiliate KTNV, Channel 13 (also seen as live stream on KTNV.com). A former president and a founding member of the World-Voices Organization (WoVO), he also writes Voice-Acting in Vegas, a daily blog of voice over adventures, observations and technology, and is author and publisher of the book, More Than Just A Voice: The Real Secret To VoiceOver Success, now in its second edition. Email: CourVO@CourVO.com Web: http://www.courvo.com Blog: https://courvo.com/blog More Than Just A Voice - 2nd Edition |
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Comments (1)
James Heggs
1/15/2021 at 1:01 PM
I was interested in the promo Voice-over work. How to prepare for it? I’ve got demos but no promo work on it. I also don’t have any other equipment besides the usb interface a standard mic not a shotgun. I use audacity and adobe audition. I took a course to learn the business, craft and marketing. But I never got around to the promo work. I feel I’d be a great fit not only tv but definitely radio. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks.
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