Recently, Dan shared a quick behind the scenes video (in his Instagram) of how a radio imaging promo went from dry voice read to produced, full powered radio station concert promo.

 

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EDITOR’S NOTE: DAN HURST, of MVO: The Voice-Over Guys, not only has great skills as a voice talent but was also a very successful 20 years Kansas City morning radio host. Additionally, he served as the Public Address Announcer for the Kanas City Royals. Today, as a high sought after voice talent, his voice work is heard world wide.

He recently posted on Facebook about some of the famous people he interview while working in radio and, like all great radio stories, it’s a lot of fun to read.

Part 1 features the question Dan posed to his Facebook friends about which famous person was the worst interview. Part II tells the stories about interviewing all of them.

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PART I

I spent 20 years on a morning show in Kansas City. It was a great run with great ratings. Through that time I had the privilege of interviewing some of the big names in music (in the format we were playing on KUDL and KLSI). Here’s a list of some of the bigger names:

• Paul McCartney
• Andy Williams
• Smokey Robinson
• Michael Buble
• Bonnie Raitt
• Johnny Mathis
• Tony Bennett
• Linda Ronstadt
• Joe Cocker
• Kenny Loggins
• Harry Connick Jr.
• Dolly Parton
• Michael Bolton

Let me know which name you think was the worst interview. After some of your answers, I’ll give you my answer…and why.

PART II

It was such a privilege to interview so many well-known and unknown people through my years on radio. My interview strategies were simple: ask them unexpected questions that they will want to answer. That of course required some research, but it was well worth it.

Within the music industry, the stars get really bored with the same old questions over and over. But the labels and publicists made the stars available in order to sell music, and so they wanted the stars to speak to whatever they were pushing at the time. Fair enough. It’s part of the game. Ask the questions, and then move on to the fun stuff. And that’s what we always tried to do.

I don’t know that I had a favorite interview, but I sure had a lot of great ones. Paul McCartney certainly comes to mind. My partner, Glo Goodwin and I were given the one interview that he granted when he came to perform at Arrowhead stadium in 1993. Why he chose us, I don’t know. On the day of the concert we were escorted to a makeshift living room backstage, and told that we would have 10 minutes with him (they always say you get 10 minutes). When he walked into the room he was as kind and affable as you could want. Very pleasant, and he laughed easily. After we got the general and expected questions out of the way, I asked, “So what do you think of your son’s music?” He looked rather surprised and mumbled something about him being a good musician and working hard. I said, “No, I mean what about the music he listens to?” He just laughed and took off on a rant about sometimes having to go to the bottom of the stairs and yell up at his son to “turn that trash down!” It was magical. The musician who gave us the music that caused our parents to yell pretty much the same thing at us! We sat there with him for 45 minutes talking about family and trading stories, until someone stuck their head in the door and said, “Mr. McCartney, we need to get started.”

Kenny Loggins’ interview took a very strange turn. He was in the studio promoting his new album. After the pleasantries and necessary questions, I said, “Kenny, I have to ask you this. A few months ago you left your wife and children for another woman. What were you thinking?” He stopped and stammered a bit, and then opened up about his personal life in a way we never expected. The promised 10 minutes turned into an hour and a half of raw soul searching. There were tears, there was laughter, there was pain, there was…honesty.

Smokey Robinson was one of my favorites also. I’m not sure we ever got to the reasons we were given our 10 minutes with him. My first question was “How many songs have you published?” He had no idea! We spoke a bit about the early years, and Motown, and even racism. Then after a while I asked, “What’s your favorite golf course?” He got a quirky little smile and asked, “How did you know?” Smokey is an avid golfer, and tries to play everywhere he performs if time allows for it. The rumor was that sometimes he would choose where to perform by the golf course he wanted to play. Turns out the rumor was true! And we spent the next 30 minutes lying about our golf game.

We actually had Andy Williams on the air several times. He was living in Branson at the time, performing at his Moon River Theatre, and we would invite him on as Mr. Christmas when we would switch to Christmas music. But the conversations always turned to people whose path he had crossed, from the greats like Bing Crosby and Perry Como, to giving Donnie and Marie Osmond their start. But my favorite interview with him was one time when we had him on the phone. He was at his home and the dogs started barking during the interview. It obviously distracted him and he said, “Just a minute,” and put the phone down and started cussing out the dogs telling them to shut up! I laughed so hard that I hurt myself!

Michael Bublé was also one of my favorites. We interviewed him several times. One of the funniest things that happened was when he was talking about his new song, “Home” he told about forgetting the words while performing and having to make up words on the fly. Somehow “I’m fine baby, how about you?” came out as “I had a baby, how about you?”

Johnny Mathis was a fun interview because I found out that he liked to cook for guests. After the niceties, I asked, “The word is you like to cook and have little parties at your house, so let’s get the Johnny Mathis rules of party etiquette. What do you do with guests that show up too early?” He laughed and said, “Give ‘em a drink and get ‘em liquored up. They make better guests that way.” We spent most of the interview talking about party etiquette.

I loved talking to Tony Bennett. He was an easy interview because all I had to do was to get him talking about politics and he was off on a roll!

Joe Cocker was one of the funniest interviews I ever did because to this day, I have no idea what he said! But he said it eloquently.

Dolly Parton was one of the sweetest, most charming guests ever. Getting her to talk about the secrets to a good marriage was funny and insightful at the same time. She explained that marriage is like a pair of shoes – all bright and shiny at first, but a little uncomfortable. Then as you break them in, they become the best, but you still have to polish and repair them sometimes.

Harry Connick Jr. was so much fun to interview. We had him on 3 times. He’s all New Orleans!!! Both his parents were lawyers and involved in politics, and he has several relatives involved in New Orleans politics. So naturally he went into jazz. The second interview we had with him he brought me a signed picture of his wife, Jill Goodacre. He said, “Here, I know how much in love you are with my wife so I brought you a picture.”

Michael Bolton turned out to be a jerk. His first interview was quite pleasant. He was just breaking through and had his first hit. His second interview was boring. He didn’t really want to be there, I guess, and couldn’t wait to leave. We put on a celebrity softball game with local celebrities versus his team made up of his band and road crew, and a couple of ringers. After the game, when I went up to him with microphone in hand to thank him and have a few last words before he left town, his body guard just shoved me around and Bolton wouldn’t even talk to me.

But the worst interview I ever had would have to be a tie between Bonnie Raitt and Linda Rondstadt. The interviews were recorded and I don’t think I even aired them. I did take some clips from the interviews and dropped them in the shows once in awhile. Bonnie was as condescending as one could be. At one point she said, “I don’t want to answer that question. Don’t you have any better ones?” I said, “Not if you don’t have any better answers.” Linda Rondstadt was just mean. Her answers were curt and short. It was clear she didn’t want to be interviewed. She’s from Arizona but has family roots in Mexico, so I tried to get her talk a bit about her heritage, especially since she had recently released a Spanish album. But she said, “I don’t have time to talk about that. Do you want to talk about what we’re supposed to talk about or not?” I said, “Not. Thanks.” And that was the end of that.

But all in all, 99% of the interviews I had were really good. It was a blast talking not only to musical guests, but also TV, stage and screen actors, comedians, news makers, politicians, sports celebrities, etc. But my absolute favorite interviews – and I mean this sincerely – were the ones with our listeners! Discovering their lives and hearing their stories was purely and simply magic!

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Unless your name is DAN HURST.

Dan was a fixture in morning radio in KC for decades, not to mention his time as the stadium announcer for the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals.

But what stands out here are his ear grabbing COUNTRY and NEWS radio imaging demos. Just like when he was on the radio, he sounds great. In English or Spanish!

As a radio imaging voice talent, though, he doesn’t need to get up so early.

ABOUT DAN HURST
Dan -daniel eduardo- Hurst was raised in Honduras, the son of missionary parents. He grew up speaking Spanish AND English equally. That’s one of the things that makes his talent so unique. He’s fluent and natural in both languages. A rare combination!

Dan has extensive experience in bilingual voiceovers, including such national and international clients as Volkswagon, T-Mobile, Telemundo, Pizza Hut, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Océ. Dan’s production studio is just outside of Kansas City. He offers fast turnaround on any format by FTP, or ISDN, and now ipDTL – ISDN quality online (completely free to Dan’s clients).

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Companies like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and IBM have long trusted Dan’s voice for their billion dollar brands.

But Dan’s talents extend to other voice-over genres too.

Take a moment to listen to Dan’s two radio imaging demos (one for ALTERNATIVE ROCK formatted stations and demo for HOT AC formatted stations) and we think you’ll agree Dan would sound awesome on your favorite radio stations too.

ABOUT DAN FRIEDMAN
Dan lives in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, NC and is a husband and father of 2 boys. He attended five universities and had three majors before being introduced to audio engineering in 1994. Realizing his career dream, he ended his educational journey at The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio finishing among the top 5 in his class.

With over a decade in the voiceover industry, he has produced, directed or provided his voice to thousands of audio productions.

In 2010 he published SOUND ADVICE- Voiceover From An Audio Engineer’s Perspective. A first of its kind in the industry, the book covers audio engineering and studio session etiquette as it relates directly to voiceover talent. He continues to write a popular blog at his website: SOUND4VO.com. His ability to simplify often complex recording and audio concepts is unmatched in the voiceover industry.

Dan was chosen to be among the top 10 “Most Influential Voice-Over Writers in 2011” in a Voice123 online survey. He is a home studio coach with Voicebank and Edge Studios and is also a voiceover teacher and coach for the Screen Artists Co-op in Asheville, NC.

Dan’s Sound4VO studio is fully-equipped to provide audio recording, editing, mixing and full-production for radio, television, web, e-learning and corporate presentations. Other services include voiceover, copy-editing, talent direction, talent training and coaching. With a broad selection of microphones, multiple pairs of studio monitors, custom acoustic treatment, phone patch and based around the world famous Universal Audio Apollo Interface, Sound4VO studios offers the very best in professional audio production and sound.

Dan Friedman is an accomplished engineer, producer, director and author. He is also a successful voiceover talent and has been heard on hundreds of local and regional television and radio campaigns as well as many corporate narrations. He has been the national voice for Moe’s Southwest Grill, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Hulu Plus. Other recent clients include: WalMart, Hardees, IBM, McDonald’s and many more.

From blue-collar to red carpet. Hip, edgy and energetic. Laid-back, cool and conversational. Dan Friedman has a sound and style that delivers.

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ DAN FRIEDMAN.

I’ve been a part of many things in radio that qualify as crazy, fun and nefarious.

I’ve had the pleasure of achieving the childhood dream of meeting Van Halen (and many others) to stage managing the, nearly relationship ending, pregnant bikini contest … and so many other wonderful events in between.

However one of my favorite little anecdotes happened on one of my first gigs in Atlanta. A bartender at a VERY local bar (in a suburb of Atlanta) was attempting to flirt with me and said in her broken toothed grin and a southern accent thicker than sweet tea, “I can tell … you’ve been trained.”

Hear that as I described it and I’m sure it will be funnier than it is in this context.

Have a good one! Happy DJ day to those who celebrate.

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ CHUCK DAVIS.

I spent most of an almost 32 year radio career in the production room. The exceptions being a fun period in the 80’s as a CHR jock and my first radio job as an overnight newscaster.

During an 18 year run at Boston Rocker WAAF, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of my rockstar heros. John Paul Jones from Led Zepplin, all the Aerosmith guys (many times), The STP guys, Slash from Guns and Roses…the list goes on. My favorite, the most humble, friendly guy, was Noel Redding who was the bassist for Jimi Hendrix. What a gentleman! Oh, and David Coverdale bumming cigarettes from me in the lunch room.

In many cases, I not only spent time with these folks, but also mixed their live/acoustic performances during broadcasts. We released 4 albums-worth of that material!

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ PETER K. O’CONNELL.

I worked at two radio stations in my life. One for 4 years and one for 1 week (where I summarily quit and was fired in the same phone call — a whole other story for next year’s National Disc Jockey Day).

The longer tenured jock position was at WVUD-FM in Dayton – which goes by a different name and frequency today. This change of calls and frequency may or may not be because of the stain left behind from my on-air performance.

Over at HitRadio 100, we liked to give things away because I promise you Daytonians loved free stuff (but the station’s 50,000 watt signal covered three states so our friends in Kentucky and Indiana got free stuff too if they were the 9th caller). And, boy, if you EVER wanted to be sure you had listeners, just give something away and watch the phone lines ignite!

So one evening, your humble host was on the air during a free turkey giveaway for Thanksgiving (no, we didn’t drop them from the air ala “WKRP in Cinncinnati” – still one of the great TV broadcast comedy scenes in history, btw). The way listeners knew to call in and win was they heard a very distinctive turkey gobble.

The gobble SFX was loaded on a multi-tiered cart machine where we also played music, commercials and jingles. Except during my shift, I was not scheduled to give away a turkey. No problem.

As I was coming out of a commercial stop set, I punched the board button for the station jingle to lead back to music. I was supposed to hear “Double-You Vee You DEEEEE!”

I heard “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”.

Crap!!!

There is a special internal sphincter in every broadcaster that tightens and twists when you press the wrong button on the board or say the very wrong thing on air. There is no undo button in live radio.

So I hit the button (the correct one this time) for the jingle and the next song. Dreading what was coming next, I looked over at the phone bank whose lights now blinked furiously. Ravenous Daytonians were demanding the chance to win that damn turkey that I wasn’t actually supposed to be giving away.

In my panicked brain , I was trying to figure out how I was going to explain to my parents how I got fired for improperly giving away a turkey. Or what the Program Director would say BEFORE he fired me. Would the FCC come to my home and arrest me?!

Those phone lights wouldn’t stop blinking. God! Please stop blinking! Ack!!!

The following moments were a blur but I think pulled the one/two combo of “sorry, you’re not caller 9, try again” and “we have our winner, try again later” as I sped through answering the lines. It was an eternity. Sleep that night? Not much.

Fired? No, the PD was completely cool as I came clean and explained my honest mistake the next day.

But to this day, when I hear a turkey gobble, I sense that special broadcaster sphincter muscle, just for a second.

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ ROWELL GORMON.

With my voice, I was an actual DJ very little of the time and a Production Director/Copy Writer most of the time. But…

I do remember that first radio job, at the home town station.

There was the time I got my first compliment (I think) from a listener who had come by to pick up a prize. He said, “You don’t LOOK like Rowell Gormon!”

Then there was the time I was alone at the station and one of the two turntables kept sticking near the end of each record I tried to play on it. This was not a prime time shift, so I didn’t have commercial breaks to use for switching records on the remaining turntable, so I wound up playing one PSA after each and ever record while I frantically tried to phone the engineer. Having no luck with that, I gave up and called the General Manager (knowing he also had a First Class License). He drove over to the station, came in, looked at my set up, and carefully moved a stack of 45 records one inch away from the back end of the turntable’s tone arm. Problem solved. I thought I was going to be fired, but he told me not to feel too bad…it had happened to him once before.

Also had a run-in with the general public one Forth of July. Phone caller: “What time do the fireworks start?” Me: “I would guess sometime after it gets dark.” The lady became irate and said she was going to call the Mayor and have my job.

Then there was another caller who phoned in during a BJ Thomas song to complain about that “hippie music you’re playing”. I was in college at the time and told her if she ever heard what the actual “hippies” were listening to she’d probably have a heart attack. She was not pleased.

And one last not-so-fond memory: I completely botched the local weather forecast, being unable to say the simple phrase “a few snow flurries”. It kept coming out “a snoo flow snurries”. My General Manager, who was also the Program Director, called to chew me out during the next record, suggesting I “learn how to read”. Unfortunately, the announcer on the shift ahead of me had done the IGA Instant Money Quiz the previous hour and had left the phone patched into the mixing board….so the call went out over the air under the music. I don’t know if anyone could really make out what was happening, but I do know my General Manager never called me during an air shift again.

Now you know why I went into Production!

[Editor’s Note Part Deux:The folks who own WRAL, Capitol Broadcasting, nicely highlighted Rowell work there in THIS feature.]

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ SCOTT W. BURNS.

I began my on-air career in Moscow Idaho…a 1000 watt daytimer which covered the “Palouse Empire.” The beauty of KRPL (The Kind of Radio People LIKE!) was that you got to do everything, which included turning on the transmitter (after struggling to pass the Third Phone with Broadcast Endorsement), reading the news, pulling your own 45’s, producing spots after your air shift and even taking the rain gauge measurements. Yes, that was actually an entry point on the logs!

Even more fun than learning on the job was having a fully equipped broadcast facility with which to amuse ourselves by pulling pranks on the other jocks. An extremely boring but highly listened to feature during the week was the noon-hour “Trading Post.” Yes, after Paul Harvey news at the top of the hour, followed by another 20 minutes of local news, agriculture reports and a gazillion commercials, the midday jock would spend the rest of the hour reading items for sale that listeners would send in. Sort of an audiobook version of Craigslist.

So for thrills my friend Bill Lewis and I would sneak fake items into the Trading Post copy for the jock to read, then drive down to A&W drive in to eat lunch and listen in to see if the jock could keep his composure. We’d be subtle at first:

“For sale, one all-purpose manure spreader along with industrial pedestal fan.”

Then we’d progressively slip in more stupid items to the list.

“For rent, a stainless steel cheese straightener. Good condition.”

“Lost goat near Pullman, answers to the name “Nipples.”

Stuff like that. It was well worth spewing Root Beer through our nostrils.

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So after tirelessly editing, here’s this radio story from MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ DAN HURST.

So, in 1993 when Paul McCartney was on tour and came to perform in Kansas City, he granted ONE (1) interview to the media, including Radio, TV, and newspaper. I don’t know how, but our radio morning show was granted that interview.

My partner, Glo Goodwin and I were instructed to meet Paul McCartney in a particular room at Arrowhead Stadium one hour before the concert start. We were told that we would have ten minutes to interview him.

We arrived a few minutes early just to make sure we were in the right place and ready for the interview. The backstage crew was awesome – including Linda McCartney who offered us veggie burgers!

A few minutes after the scheduled time to start the interview, Paul walked into the room and greeted us. He. Was. Awesome! He was as friendly and open and kind and as charming as we could have possibly hoped for.

The interview went great! One of my interview strategies throughout my almost 30 years in radio was to always ask the unexpected. There were times with some of the biggest names in music that we never even touched on the song (or album) the artist was promoting because we just went off on subjects that the artist didn’t expect. This interview was no exception.

During the interview I asked how his son, James, was. By that time James was quite a good musician in his own right, and eventually would play on a couple of recording tracks with Paul.

That launched into a conversation about kids that was mesmerizing! The ten minutes we were allotted turned into over 30! To hear Paul McCartney talk about fatherhood and kids and family was breathtaking.

He spoke of James commitment to music, and playing guitar for hours up in his room. I asked him what he thought about James’ taste in music.

I never would have expected his answer!

He said, “Oh, there are times I have to walk over to the bottom of the stairs and yell up ‘Turn that S*%@& off!!!'”

I said, “I think I heard my Dad say something like that when I was listening to The Beatles!”

“I know,” he said. “It’s a never ending cycle, isn’t it?”

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