Wow! Can you say "Time flies when living with Twins!?"

Holy cow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've added anything here!
Since we last checked in with our intreped hero (um...me), he, errr, I have been busy growing the VO biz and more importantly being "Mr. Mom" for fast-growing Abby and Gabe

Oh, did I mention there's also been a move from IRB to Sarasota?
We converted our "near the beach" home into a vacation rental (vacationrentals.com, ID # 77731)

Anyway, more updates and comments on select craziness are forthcoming now that some life-change hurdles have been cleared!

The Price Is The Price

One of the most frustrating things about growing my voice over business has been all the potential clients who try to lowball the price. Do they do that in other aspects of their life? This video imagines what it would be like if they did!

Love his chicken, hate his voice over!

Soooo...you OWN the company, you're an EXPERT in your field, heck you're even a CELEBRITY! Well guess what, you still need to hire a Professional Voice Talent!

Take a listen, courtesy of the YouTube "wayback machine":

Another Legend Lost

After Don LaFontaine, there were perhaps no more recognizable voices than those of the men who narrated NFL Films. Harry Kalas, who followed the legendary John Facenda, has passed.

Here is article from his hometown newspaper:

Kalas' wide range recalled at NFL Films
By Bob Brookover
(Philidelphia) Inquirer Staff Writer

The sadness wasn't confined to the offices of Citizens Bank Park or the world of baseball yesterday.
News of Harry Kalas' (left) death also hit home and hit hard across the river at the NFL Films home office in Mount Laurel.

Steve Sabol, the president of the company founded by his father, Ed, in 1962, left work in the early afternoon only to return when he learned that Kalas had collapsed and died a few hours before the start of the Phillies' game against the Washington Nationals.

"I remember when we first hired him, everybody was concerned that he was a baseball guy," Sabol said. "But he was only a baseball voice to everyone in Philadelphia. For us, he was going to be the voice to everyone in the world. I think in years to come he might be associated as much with football as he is with baseball."

Kalas would often be recognized more by his voice than his face when he was on a road trip with the Phillies, and his dulcet tones became an integral part of football highlight films and television commercials during the last 32 years.

If you want to know how revered Kalas was at NFL Films, all you have to do is look at the photo tributes on the wall outside the audio room. You'll find Kalas alongside John Facenda and Jeff Kaye, two other legendary voices that narrated NFL Films highlights. Facenda and Kalas both had Philadelphia ties.

"You don't know how privileged I've been to work with two of the greatest narrators and voices in history," Sabol said. "As I was driving in my car coming back to the office, I was thinking about the two of them. Facenda was the voice of God. Harry Kalas was the voice of the people. Harry wasn't a class act because there was no act with Harry. He could sell anything with that voice, and he did. But the one thing he never sold was himself."

Facenda and Kalas worked at NFL Films together for about six years before Facenda died in 1983.

"Harry was the voice of the games that happened that week, and John was the voice of what happened during the year," Sabol said. "Harry could do whatever you wanted. He could be dramatic, poignant or funny. Whatever we asked him to do, he could do it on the spot."

Kalas had a long list of commercial credits, too. He used to joke about the Campbell's Soup commercials with the baseball beat writers. "Ca-ching, ca-ching," he'd say with a wry smile, comically explaining how each commercial meant more money in the Kalas bank account.

He also did commercials for Coors Light, General Motors, and countless other products over his career. He had done recent work for the Animal Planet Network on something called the Puppy Bowl. He also did narrative voice-overs at the Philadelphia mint and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

In addition to doing NFL games for Westwood One, he was the voice of Notre Dame football and Big Five basketball for a while in the 1970s and '80s.

Former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski said he looked forward to Wednesdays during the NFL season because that meant Kalas would be coming in to do his voice-overs for the weekly highlights.

"I'd see him once a week," Jaworski said. "He'd come in on Wednesday, and we'd see him in the hallways, and we'd immediately start talking about Phillies baseball. There's no question he was the voice of NFL Films. He was just an incredible person. Everybody loved Harry."

Sabol said that in the 1980s, the unofficial NFL Films holiday party was hosted and paid for by Kalas.

"It was the highlight of our social calendar," Sabol said. "Harry was the one that created it, and he'd throw that party at the end of every football season. It was an open bar, and Harry picked up the tab."

Wednesdays at NFL Films won't be quite the same when football season begins again in September.

"I can't even imagine that," Sabol said. "He was so reliable. Every Wednesday he was in there to do the HBO show. He'd start at 10 a.m. with his cup of coffee and his Parliament cigarettes. The one thing that is great about Harry's profession is that he's gone now but in a sense he still lives on. You have this incredible voice, and you put it in the bank at NFL Films and you can withdraw that any time you want to hear it."

They come in 3's

Another well known voice talent passes.
Radio&Records and other web sites report that TJ Roberts died last night of unknown causes.
TJ's death is the 3rd voice over talent death in 2 weeks.
Here is his website if you want to take a listen:
http://www.tjroberts.com/

I wrote about the heart attack death of Radio Imaging giant Brian James in a prior blog entry.
Female voice talent Connie Zimet also died in the last 2 weeks, succumbing to ALS.
Here is very nice write up on her:
http://www.voiceovertimes.com/2009/03/13/connie-zimet-voiceover-artist-loses-battle-with-als/

E-learning E-xcitement!

Just returned from the E-Learning Guild "Annual Gathering" in Orlando and let me tell you... I have seen the future and it is E-Learning. Especially for the "video-game & tech generation" of students about to come out of the high schools and colleges.

Done right, with more than just glorified Power Point slides and boring narration, E-Learning is a powerful tool. Making it better, it does away with all the heavy textbooks and boring professors. Being a digital format, it can and will also be able to travel with students or professionals.

Imagine an oil-rig worker out in the Gulf or the Atlantic who is confronted with a drilling scenario that was covered in training months ago, but he has forgotten because he hasn't faced it yet. He has just minutes perhaps to push the proper proper buttons in the proper sequence...and doesn't have time to flip through no stinking manual as the winds howl and rains pound! He can pull out his Ipod, or Iphone, or go to laptop controlling the machines, call up the lesson, listen to good ol' me drill it down for him...and save the day!

Anyway, met lots of nice, interesting people who of course thought I was also nice and interesting. Time will tell (sorry for the trite cliche) if the trip pays off with work!

Another VO silenced

Radio industry website AllAccess (http://www.allaccess.com/) and Voiceover Universe (http://www.voiceoveruniverse.com/) are reporting the death of one of Radio Imagings' biggest talents....Brian James.

AA says James was only 48-years old and apparently died of a heart attack. Yikes!

He is survived by his wife and 2 children.

James is credited with the "Power Pig" and other high-profile branding campaigns used in markets across the country and I read that he was first heard on the air here in Tampa Bay (my stomping grounds)

I haven't figured out how to upload audio to the blog, so here is a link to his Imaging Demo on the Atlas Talent Agency website:

http://www.videovoicebank.net/app/audio.jsp?url=http://video.voicebank.net/vb2pub/1601/cabinet/publicaudio/Radio%20Imaging/jamer%2C%20brian.mp3&title=Brian%20James-%20Radio%20Imaging

Great stuff.

He will be missed.

Sad & Happy

What a roller-coaster couple of weeks!
First, join me in mourning the loss of what I feel is the greatest dog that ever lived...Reed Ulysses Bishop.

This little fella, a white miniature poodle with the quirkiest personality, brought so much happiness to my life after his rescue via Florida Poodle Rescue. As FPR volunteers, Shelly (my wife) and I fostered little Reedy for nearly 6 months and tried to adopt him out several times but in the end, he was meant to be ours (mine). Seeing his happy little face and watching him bound over to me when I got home from work during the Bay News 9 days was always something that helped melt away any troubles. He taught me to relax, to take joy in the little things (like snacks and naps) and our nightly, pre-going-to-bed walks helped me as much if not more than him. Little Reed lost a short and fierce fight with IMHA (an auto-immune disease) brought about by prostate cancer on Tuesday, February 24th. I've been in a funk ever since and will be for awhile. 'Nuff about that for the time being, still makes me very sad.

But on the brighter side, I now have my very first AGENTS!
Getting representation in any form is tough at best (unless you're lightning in a bottle) and when you add in the economy, many agents are worried about finding work for their current talents let alone adding new ones so I see this as a very positive development in my professional growth.
Troy Horne at Eden Talent & Productions of Denver liked my sound and we struck the deal this week! Thanks to Eden Talent for seeing (hearing) the genius that is me (lots of droll sarcasm there folks) and thanks also to Jessica Hamel at Tampa-based Sound Asylum which also added me to the talent roster! Let's hope it's the first of several growth spurts for Bishop Voice!

Losing my Blog-ginity

"Hellllooo Everrrryyboddy"
(he says in his best Will Farrell as Harry Carey voice)

At this point, I'm still learning how to use all the features of this here Blogspot, so bear with me....(or better yet, quit yer criticizin' and offer ups some help!)

Anyway, as a highly opinionated ol' cuss (45 going on 95 most days) but with sporadic episodes of Beavis & Butthead or Spicoli-inspired arrested development, this blog is going to run the gamut from insightful, thoughtful reasoning to stream-of-consciousness Dennis-esque (Miller & Leary) rants on topics ranging from voice over (or voiceover), entertainment, pop-culture, politics and society in general.

It is not my plan to pander but to call it like it is...unless of course it could cost me a client!

Thanks to all who visit, read and respond.

'til next time netizens,....