SFV #003: Transitioning from Radio to Commercials

Six Figure Voice, The Voice Actors Podcast

Alyson Steel and Tyrone Jackson get to sit down with Dave Sebastian Williams of Dave & Dave Recording Studio and 93 KHJ to talk about how the voice-over business has changed over the years.

Back when Dave had his radio show on 93 KHJ, it was the number one radio station in the city and it retained 40% of the Los Angeles audience. He felt like he had made it to the top. But Dave always felt that he needed to be prepared to expand—you don’t just do one thing in this industry. So he used some of the money he was making to take acting classes. The acting classes helped him train his voice for the transition from radio to voice-over acting, which are two very different crafts.

In the 1980’s Dave owned his own studio in Hollywood. All the recording technology was tape. He came kicking and screaming into the digital age. One of the differences he has noticed since digital became mainstream, is that recording sessions have become longer. Now the directors and the writers have more opportunity to change things on the spot. They record more so that they have a myriad of options.

He has also seen technology change the agent scene. Since the scope of voice over is now so big, covering commercials, promos, trailers, live shows, cartoons, and video games, he has seen actors have specific agents for each type of work. For example, you might have one agent for promos and a different agent for video games. Also, it can help to have different agents in different cities, because an agent in Dallas might have better relationships with the casting directors in that area.

Dave has been a drummer since he was in the fourth grade, and he has found that this has helped with his timing as a voice-over artist. To improve your timing, he advises to sleep with a metronome by your bed. Change up the beats, and after doing it for a month, see how you walk and talk differently

Dave also recommends going to every class that you can and recording yourself for 3 minutes every day. List to yesterday’s performance to see how you can make it better.

For more great tips like this, visit SixFigureVoice.com.