New Blog on Love 105

I'm blogging on the the Love-105 website now!

I'm sharing some fun links and short notes from my show and day at the station, as well as some pics from my life (and an occasional link back to this blog). Click the L-O-V-E to see it! (You can also catch other daily updates from me as @SarahJL on Twitter.)

—♫♪♥

Why voiceover is the ultimate home-based business: It pays well, takes very little time, is inexpensive to start and helps you promote all your projects!

I've put together some great tips to get you started! And don't miss the fantastic spoof video at the end. You're guaranteed to recognize the voices of these guys ...

Click the subheadings to go to a synopsis of the articles, and links to the articles themselves. (Many of the articles are from my friend and fantastic voiceover coach Susan Berkley.)


Five Hidden Voiceover Success Secrets
    #1 Bare Minimum Equipment Needed to Audition From Home.
     #2 Top 3 Ways to Go National.
     #3 Audio Books: Great For Doing Voice-Over In Your Spare Time.
     #4 The Fortune in Hidden Voiceovers: Industrials.
     #5 How Do I Expand My Clientele?

 
Top Tips For Creating a Great Demo
    #6 The best and most cost effective way to do a voice-over demo.
    #7 Five Questions to Consider Before Sending Your Demo.
    #8 Essentials For Creating An Eye-Catching Demo Package.
    #9 “Stealing” National Radio Or TV Commercial Scripts For Your Demo? 


Getting The Best Out of Your Voice
    #10 Problems Speaking Clearly?
    #11 Dry Mouth or Drool?
    #12 Can The State Of Your Spirit Affect The Sound Of Your Voice?
    #13 What To Do With Those Strange Little Voices.


Becoming A Pro
    #14 Are There Possible Legal Ramifications From Doing Impersonations Of Famous People?"
    #15 The Ethics of Turning Down Work.
    #16 Tips for Smoother Q&As.


Voice Exercises: A Baker's Dozen to Build Your Skill

1. Red leather yellow leather
   
2. Aluminum linoleum
3. ta-tucka
4. Knapsack straps
5. Toy boat
6. Greek grapes
7. Three free throws
8. Flash message
9. Sixish tatucka
10. Mrs. Smith's Fish Sauce Shop
11. Moose noshing much mush
12. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
13. The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick

Just For Fun
You can practice the following voice exercise if you want, but I don't recommend saying it where anyone can hear you! Repeat rapidly, and watch out for spoonerisms:

I am a mother pheasant plucker:
I pluck mother pheasants.
I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker,
to ever pluck a mother pheasant.

Play The "Can You Guess the Accent?" Game

Okay, and yes, here are the Kings of the voiceover industry in a fun spoof video, followed by the life of Don LaFontaine. (Want to know who the faces behind famous animated characters are? Check this out.) A number of these are the voices commonly known as "The Voice Of God," and this type of voice represents only a tiny fragment of the industry. You don't need a voice like that, trust me! 99% of the work is not for this kind of voice. Think of animation, audio books and gentle voiceovers, to mention just a few that use other styles of voice primarily.

Update: Don LaFontaine recently passed on September 1, 2008.

New job: Another voice of love

My husband Dave keeps calling me the "voice of love," so I guess I better update everyone on my new radio gig at Love-105!



Afternoon drive at Love 105



I'm now on-air (as Sarah) between 3 and 8 p.m. CST at Love-105 radio! You can listen to me online during those hours.



It's nice to be full-time doing radio work again. I'll miss my great friends at Clear Channel, but I already love the people here, some of the nicest I've ever worked with (and some of whom I've also worked with before in other positions).



I'm doing a greater variety of work in this position than I've done in a long time, and learning some new things as well. I'm responsible for two of the stations here, to varying degrees. I'm really enjoying it! The other two stations here are KQRS and KXXR. (Update: Yay! I'm on the Love staff website now--and they link to my blog!)



Chatting with Tom Barnard



I actually had an interesting chat yesterday with KQ morning show and voiceover legend Tom Barnard. He shared a story about his childhood religion, and we both agreed about the importance of spiritual freedom. He was familiar with Eckankar, and we also talked about one of my other favorite topics, women in the Mideast.



Dave sometimes teases me about how blasé I am about famous folks I meet like Barry Manilow and Donny Osmond--but they're just people, you know? I try to treat everyone with respect and interest and find most people reciprocate. (Though being in radio and voiceover myself, I wouldn't mind having the kind of success Tom has had!)



Corporate who's who ...



The parent company of Love 105 is Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, who also KQRS-FM and KXXR, among some 200 stations total, and also owns and operates ABC Radio Networks.



There is also some control by Walt Disney Co. or its shareholders, but I'm not yet clear on that. Folks tell me they used to get some passes from Disney and don't any longer. What I do know is the relevant FCC File Number of the transfer of control application from Walt Disney Co. to its shareholders for the stations in the Employment Unit is BTCH-20060228ABM, and if you can figure that out, let me know!

Wedding Planning While The World Watches ... And Helps!

Men sometimes say women over-plan their weddings. That's even a popular theme in movies (scripts chosen to bring men to romance genre movies, I'm sure). But what happens when the owner/executive chef of a Minneapolis catering company proposes? He and his fiancé plan it publicly in a major magazine and accept tips from readers, of course!

Amazing Proposal!

A former voice over student of mine, Kathryn Janicek, (soon-to-be Kathryn Lane) is blogging about her planning journey leading to her wedding. You can even email her your wedding tips. (You can follow the blog in Minnesota Bride or METRO magazine.)

Nate Lane, her fiancé, proposed through an ad in METRO magazine (right). He handed it to her an hour into a live show. Quite the show stopper! (As if that ring wasn't enough!) Nate's company, Thyme to Entertain, is a full-service catering company serving the Twin Cities.

Thousands of Listeners ask, "When's The Wedding?"

And if all that wasn't enough, Garrison Keillor even mentioned the proposal on the air--Nate proposed during the live A Prairie Home Companion show! (Nate proposed just before the intermission, Keillor mentioned it at the start of the second hour.) So far they have decided on a small family wedding on November 8, 2008 to be held in a beautiful old church in downtown St. Paul, and a reception on a yacht on the Mississippi.

Did You Look Closely At The Ring?

When Dave and I married, I custom-designed a semi-traditional gold and sapphire wedding ring around a beautiful diamond that had been in Dave's family for generations. Kathryn, by her own description, wanted something different: a non-traditional “ring of substance” that didn’t scream “engagement ring.”

Notice the ruby on the INSIDE of the Roberto Coin ring (above). Of course, there's a story that goes along with that:

Do You Believe in Legends?

According to an ancient Egyptian legend (so the story goes), wearing a ruby near the skin promoted a long, healthy and happy life. Women in ancient times were said to use it to promote fertility, and Burmese warriors supposedly inserted genuine rubies beneath their skin to protect them.

Here's a pic of Kathryn, and here's what I believe: Finding a man who proposes so thoughtfully, regardless of the ring, is good luck! I wish Kathryn and Nate every happiness, a great wedding, and a wonderful life together. Go Kathryn and Nate!!

Update: Broken Links
If you have any trouble with the links in this post, click here, and then try again. The database for METRO magazine likes to have already been opened in your browser before showing you specific posts, according to my resident nerd (my husband!)

Changes, changes, changes!

What a year! Last year at the high school reunion I had no idea how different my life would be in just a few months!

After living in NYC, Denver, and Minneapolis for many years working freelance as a performer/teacher, last February I was surprised to find myself living in Philadelphia-- after 26 years away.

I had a job offer I couldn't refuse--hosting afternoons at the Philadelphia Smooth Jazz radio station, WJJZ. It was "can you get here three weeks ago" so I tore up my life to get here fast...about 10 days from the offer to my first day on the air. My husband took care of everything else: packing up the house in MN and moving everything and our two cats to PA. He got here in June.

In August, the parent company, Clear Channel, pulled the plug and let everybody go, including the manager who brought us here in the first place. (Ratings were UP, btw!)

So I'm collecting unemployment for now and trying to build up my freelance work. (I perform and teach voiceover acting and Middle Eastern Dance.) Obviously, I don't have the contacts here like I did after living in Minneapolis for over 17 years, so it's slow-going. And we might move again! All options are open.

My husband, Dave, is putting his tremendous creativity into just one of his many areas of interest: building web sites. He also does standup comedy, is a fantastic writer, a brilliant photographer, and plays the piano wonderfully. We have no children, just the two cats! We've been married a little over 2 years.

Coincidentally, my folks moved back to the area after many years in Florida, so we will have Christmas together. My little sister, Caroline (who just turned 40!!!) and her family will be here from San Francisco and we will have the first Christmas all together since about 1980!

Oh--I have to say I have had the great pleasure of seeing Stuart Yankell's art in person. He really is a modern day Renaissance Man. It's also fun to look at his gorgeous art and then remember the projects Mr. Norcross used to have us do in Middle School. Remember having to draw someone's shoe? Some gnarly tennis shoe or a saddle shoe in the middle of the table? You just had to draw it from whatever angle you were sitting? Then we'd see Stuart's AMAZING work on the hallway bulletin board along with the rest of our work. Uh, just a slight difference in talent, ability, and skill! :) hehehe.

Shopping? What's that? :) One unpleasant Christmas Eve at the Mall of America convinced me of the joys and pleasures of on-line shopping...even for an extrovert like me!

In the New Year Dave and I want to continue to expand our awareness to accept what the the universe has in store for us. We've put a lot of effort in some areas, but have realized that our main effort is expand our consciousness far enough to accept something better than we ever expected. I perceive that we're getting close! The stories of "close but no cigar" on the job front are pretty interesting, but the main story I believe is the process of the expansion of our consciousness.