"Has anyone ever told you you have a great radio voice?"

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Said to me just now on the phone to an adminstrative assistant calling with a question about Reserves. I have heard this comment or something close to it for about, oh, twenty years now (and indeed did radio work for eleven years partially because of all the comments), usually from people I've just made or randomly talk to as about the third sentence or so they say to me in an opening conversation. I'm terribly amused and flattered to this day whenever it happens -- usually about a couple of times a week -- but surely I'm not alone. Does anyone else get this -- or if not a comment about one's voice, then a comment about something about you which you treat or consider as something very unconscious, that's just 'you,' leaving you to be always a bit surprised whenever someone brings it up out of thin air?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

It always always surprises me, but yes.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

My wife thinks you sound like Harry Shearer.

(Or as she put it, "Principal Skinner")

― Poundstretcher (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.hardrock80.com/groupes/tesla/The%20Great%20Radio%20Controversy.jpg

i get this sometimes too.

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

My wife thinks you sound like Harry Shearer.

(Or as she put it, "Principal Skinner")

Heheheh. I have no problem with that at all, oddly enough!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that sort of like saying "You have a face for radio?"

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to hear that a lot before I got the job at the radio station. Now, I hardly hear that comment at all.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

You do have a great radio voice, Ned!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, come to think of it, Ned does.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I once worked in a book-on-tape studio, and the readers would sometimes tell me I should consider becoming a reader.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I've been told this. I don't know if it's because of my normal speaking voice, but I like putting on the Radio Announcer Voice for laffs, which led to me getting typecast in plays in college as clueless, self-serving authoritarians (suburban dad, motivational speaker).

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been told that many times, though not recently. Maybe I should talk more. Often, the same people tell me I'm very handsome. Often, these people are 60 years of age and older, and female - this demographic includes my mom and the folks that cut my hair.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

haha of course the radio voice thing has happened to me (a lot of times I would get the variation 'I'm annoyed by every other woman's voice on the radio but yours') but the weirdest thing I get reasonably often is 'are you a dancer?' Which I think is crazy because I'm way too tall to be a dancer and really I'm kind of a spaz, not graceful at all. Maybe I am overly thoughtful about my movements because I tend to smack into walls otherwise.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

no one's ever told me, "you have a great radio voice, ned"... :(

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to get it a lot. Probably because I was actually on the radio. People also say that I sound Canadian sometimes; that I don't get.

― mike a, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Usually followed by "but you can't pick a record for shit."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

no one's ever told me, "you have a great radio voice, ned"... :(

Namechange time, dude.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

No one ever tells me anything.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I think i used to have a radio voice, but then I started smoking and it became kind of crap. I think my voice is recovering now, though - HELLO COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO!!

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

My uncle always used to tell me this. I can't imagine anything more frightening than my voice booming across the nation. It can be as deep as 10,000 leagues under the sea!

― gunther heartymeal (keckles), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha ha ... this WAS the FIRST thing that i said to ned when i met him! b/c it's TRUE.

and mr. appelstein, you DO have a great radio voice -- back in yer WRSU/WPRB days. (though you just sounded sorta central/south jersey, not canadian.)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha ha ... this WAS the FIRST thing that i said to ned when i met him! b/c it's TRUE.

Ha, I had forgotten that! See, I just hear it so often. ;-)

Jill and Gunther should be the ultimate radio duo.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i was told days before a story i did was to air that my voice was so bad that people would turn the dial & that i ought to have someone narrate the story for me.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

BUT YOU PERSISTED.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

ned, if you're angling for a DJ job, there are probably more direct approaches.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Jaymc, you actually have a very good jazz radio voice!

― Poundstretcher (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I get this a lot, from random people like my hairstylist and bank tellers. I think it's because it's low and deep. I would really like to work for radio someday! I wish I had a sexy eastern european accent though.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think people just say this to me / us so I / you will continue to patronize their businesses / lives.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I will post my commercial voice-over demo soon. I'll link to it here. Basically I've been getting this comment regularly since I was 13.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I did a voice-over for a radio commercial right before I moved out of New Delhi, India, so I would have been 16 at the time. They wanted an "American" voice, and I'm pretty sure the music I was talking over was "Axel's Theme" from Beverly Hills Cop. I don't remember what the ad was for, some TV show or something. I got paid probably the equivalent of $30.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Jaymc, you actually have a very good jazz radio voice!

I have no idea what this means!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Gunther and I used to have a radio show, kinda!

The funny thing about Gunther's voice is that it gets deeper when she's nervous, which is probably the opposite of what she wants to happen.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"jazz radio voice" = "pass the dutchie"

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

the guy at the radiostation where i did a show for about oh uh a couple of months said i had a rrreally nice voice. people have said this before. now there are few positive things i will say about myself, but i can admit i have a nice voice. :-)

(ned, i still need to reply to your email. :-( i know, i'm a baaaaad person.)

― nathalie doing a soft foot shuffle (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, and also that I am 'a natural', but I never trust compliments. I mean for goodness sake, I was told I can sing on Saturday night!

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but about three times a week I get asked whether or not I'm from Britain and if so where I'm from. I usually say I'm not but that my father was in the RAF, was stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base for a while and met my mother there, and that's how I eventually came into being. It's not true of course, but I can pull it off.

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm on the radio dispite my voice

― lukey (Lukey G), Thursday, 31 March 2005 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Teeny to thread. So professional you could slide around in her voice.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 31 March 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I get it reasonably often. I think it's partially cause my mum taught me to speak proper-like and stuff.

― kate/thank you friendly cloud (papa november), Thursday, 31 March 2005 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i've been told several times. the dirty flipside of this is being told, "your voice would be great for phone sex."

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 31 March 2005 09:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, and I'm still ~~apologising~~ anticipating.

― BARMS, Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, I have been told this a lot, and this did in fact continue until after I left uni and could no longer do student radio. Best one was being told I had "a voice like God's" in the first year.

― BARMS, Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but about three times a week I get asked whether or not I'm from Britain and if so where I'm from.

People say this to me as well. This is said almost EVERY single time a English person talks to me in the shop. *sigh*

― nathalie doing a soft foot shuffle (stevie nixed), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i think Ned would sound good on radio - love that Almanac reading...

Lauren could do the love line, relationships advice etc. - awesome

― Sven Basted (blueski), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I have got told my voice is like Bob Geldof's. That's about the extent of it. Shameful.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a reasonable speaking voice - some of my enunciation is a bit wacky cos there's Scouse down thurr somewhurr - and I always thought voiceover work would be my dream job.

Mandee has one of my favourite female speaking voices. Or maybe a couple.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Steady Mike and Mandee would be WONDERFUL together, omg

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

People say this to me as well. This is said almost EVERY single time a English person talks to me in the shop. *sigh*

Do you just have an adopted inflection like I do (mine stemming from watching too many British shows and cinema and listening to even more Anglophilic grooviness)?

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

probably two out of three Americans I meet I have that 'radio voice' thought about to be honest

― Sven Basted (blueski), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:25 (twenty-one years ago)

We could do deadpan theatre-for-the-ear sonic daubings.

(Mandee's gonna wake up in a few hours, read this and be horrified).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i called into mandee's radio station before. to talk about horses.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Has anyone ever told you you have a great phone sexline voice?"

Does it pay well?

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

it doesn't seem to, from what i've heard. i had a friend who went for an absolutely disastrous audition. there's a thread about the whole subject somewhere on here..

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 31 March 2005 10:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I have always wanted to do radio but have a terrible voice for it. A touch adenoidal is one thing but my speed of talking, general slurring and inaccuracy of diction means I have always been rubbish every time I have been on the wonderous medium.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 31 March 2005 11:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone once told me I sound like Art Bell. I don't think so but thanked them anyways. Maybe they were referring to the paranoia.

Ned does indeed have the radio voice down pat.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 31 March 2005 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

mike let's hook up our computers somehow and BROADCAST!

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Thursday, 31 March 2005 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

My grandmother used to tell me that I'd make more friends if I didn't talk because my voice was all "itchy scratchy."

A few people have told me that I have a very pleasant voice (I answer the phones at work), but I've also gotten a couple who have said I sound like a little kid. Grr.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Thursday, 31 March 2005 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

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