My Story

That’s what I would hear riding the bus to kindergarten. I would get onto the bus, head towards the back, out of earshot of the bus driver, and all the kids would gather around me to ask me to do impersonations of our teachers, famous actors, or cartoon characters. But one voice I had to do everyday was Donald Duck. I would try to teach them how I did it, but no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t do it.

Growing up on the outskirts of Kansas City, with no kids my age to play with, I had to play cops and robbers by myself. I mean come on, you can’t have the same voice for everyone!

In 1991, I became an Air Traffic Controller. My voice would be on air waves most people never hear. My job? Making sure you get home safely without you ever knowing me.

I remember early in my career, I was in Oklahoma City at the FAA Academy, it was final exam day. Pass and I become one of the 30% to make it. Fail, and I am fired, having to find another career. I remember it clearly, it’s just me and my grizzled retired former ATC turned instructor, in the simulation lab. I am sitting at the console, my special air traffic pencil (red on one side, black on the other, NO ERASER!) in my hand, the instructor is sitting in a higher chair behind me watching and writing down everything I do. My headset plugged in, he is plugged in listening. The simulation begins, as the problem increases in complexity and quantity, my words flow quick but smoothly, then sometime during the middle of the problem I hear him exclaim; “With a voice like that you could make an airplane fly into a brick wall!” I was too busy to stop and think about his words, but when I started talking to real pilots, I realized what he meant. On occasion, I would hear controllers having to repeat themselves, re-issuing instructions, making a busy session even busier, and possibly more dangerous. Sometimes, I would hear a pilot respond with; “are you sure?”; That never happened to me.

Haha! I know your question, because I get asked this all the time; “Is it stressful?” The answer is, sometimes, yes. But that’s when it got fun! Who needs caffeine? To me it was like the fastest game of chess you could play, and a mistake meant checkmate! I was not alone, the very best of us, thrived on the complexity. I loved the challenge of my ATC career and I would not trade it for anything.

Taking my ATC experience to my voice-over career, is that I know the importance of the spoken word. Excelling at the challenge and saying it with confidence!

In the early days of my air traffic career, a unique opportunity came to me. A friend of mine said there was a part time job opening for an on-air DJ at a local radio station. She said with your voice I’m sure they would be interested in you. It sounded like fun and I figured what the heck? Sure enough they liked my voice and I was hired. I have to say as much as I love music, it got boring, I mean comparing it to the excitement of being a controller?… As luck would have it, about that time, the program director asked me, “Jay (that was my on-air name), you have a great voice, would you like to do voiceovers-radio commercials?” I said yes! That was in 1994, and I have been hooked ever since!

(THANK YOU KATHY!)

I used my voice for 25 years, getting thousands of people to their destinations, including talking to Air Force One carrying 3 U.S. Presidents multiple times, and maybe even you!

I think I can safely say this; I am acutely aware of the importance and power of the human voice.

Let’s use my experience, my knowledge, and my ability, to take your project to the next level.