Can’t sleep. It’s four o’clock in the morning and I’m as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.
That’s because in less than an hour, I’m going to begin another chapter in my long association with Keloland Television. The recorded voice you’ll be hearing from now on introducing all the news and weathercasts, as well as all of the station ID’s and various promotions, will be mine.
A few weeks ago, I got a call from Paul Farmer..Keloland’s director of marketing and creative services. It seems Deb Donahoe, who has been the long time “Voice of Keloland,” was moving out of town. He’d been auditioning people from all over the country to replace her and then thought of me…figuring viewers might like to hear a familiar voice. “Would you be interested in stopping down to record a few things?” Paul said.
Well, I couldn’t get there fast enough and a couple days later he called back to say that the job was mine if I wanted it.
So, now I join the ranks of a privileged few who can lay claim to the title of station announcer for Keloland TV.
The first off-camera voice I heard on KELO was Dave Dedrick. I forget exactly what he said but it was something like; “First with the best in the upper Midwest, this is KELO Television, Sioux Falls.” Little did I realize then how often I would hear that voice in the years to come not only as a colleague but a dear friend. Oh, how I miss hearing it today.
Besides Dave, a guy named Murray Stewart shared the announcing duties in those early years…as did Bill Wigginton and Leo Hartig. In fact, a lot of the personalities on KELO Radio did double duty voicing commercials and announcements for TV. Back in the seventies, some of us in the newsroom, including Dedrick, Joe Cooper, Brian Bjerke and I took turns recording “The Book” ..which was the daily log of commercial tags and other announcements. I remember a couple that used to give me fits; “Super City Shopping Center” rarely came out right the first time and, for some reason, I also got tongue-tied trying to say “Sony dealer in Onida.”
Eventually, Mark Johnson handled most of the audio recording responsibilities until Deb came aboard in 1998.
So, not only am I lucky enough to have this blog on Keloland.com but I now get to stop down to the station a couple times a week..say hi to all my old friends and then pull up to the microphone again…without having to wear a tie.
I now realize what Dave Dedrick meant when he was always saying, “Life is good, my cup runneth over.”
Here’s a short video clip from the recording booth:
[flv]http://video.keloland.com/kelo/082410dougvoice.flv[/flv]
