Marching To The Beat Of A Different Drummer
Babble-On-Radio ProductionWell, the weather is threatening to turn Spring-like here in our little corner of the world - Minneapolis, Minnesota. And with things greening up outside, we thought we'd put a fresh bloom or two on the Babble-Blog for you. Sure we'll continue to share with you projects about radio and TV ads, voice-over recording, podcasts and corporate videos we're working on as well as stories about voice talent, etc. But we'll also be adding a regular feature on technology called "Techno Babble", that we hope will shed some light on all things technical. Or, some, anyway.

This'll complement some of our other features that you've mentioned you like such as,"Babblings" - our catch all place for oddities and fun stuff. And "Dropping In" - where you can hear what new music is coming into the recording studio. As a general rule, these will be kept at the bottom of the page so that we may fill the rest of our page with recording sessions, radio spots or TV mixes we think may be interesting to you.

March 21st update - Opening Day for Major League Baseball isn't that far away. We had the privilege of working on some fun new radio ads for the Washington Nationals with Olson. See "Crowding The Plate", below.

March 18th update - With the NAB coming up next month we thought we'd offer up some insights and articles on the state of broadcast advertising. See "Nietzsche Audience", below. And before the weekend is out we're hoping to have more "Babblings" to share.

March 11th update - This month's "Dropping In" is up and running and can be found near the bottom of this page. Plus, "Babblings" has a few choice clips that were sent to us.

As usual, please feel free to check in with us via e-mail or by clicking the comments buttons. And if you gotta browser that supports RSS or a News Reader - keep in the loop every time we update our blog by just clicking the RSS feed over there in the left column.
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Crowding The Plate - Washington Nationals Radio Gets Into The Stands
Babble-OnNats1I'm a diehard Red Sox fan. Yeah, I know, is there any other kind? Anyway, as someone who grew up going to baseball games at Fenway Park in Boston, I remember what it was like to squeeze through those aging turnstiles and get caught up in the über-buzz of a game besotted with passionate fans, played in an open air ballpark on a sun streaked Saturday afternoon in June - even though, at that time, we had no pitching, no defense, and no chance of catching the Yankees or Blue Jays.

(Or, for that matter, anybody
else for whom Roger Clemens might have been pitching.) Thank God the Sox won the Series in '04 or I'd still be haunted by those insidious chants of "1918" that used to fill my ears every autumn since I was a kid.

2005 was a big deal for hardball fans in a different Northeastern city, Washington D.C., as it marked the ecstatic return of baseball to that town after a 34 year absence. (Democrats can only claim that it
feels that long for them.) This is a city with a star-crossed and checkered past when it comes to baseball. How else to describe this age old comment from sportswriter Charles Dryden -

"Washington... first in war, first in peace and last in the American League."

Or this gem from the Baseball Almanac -

It's easy to see why Washington baseball fans are a confused lot.Their original team, called the Washington Senators, played in the National League until 1899. Then they became an American League team in 1901, called by the new ownership the Nationals so as not to have them confused with the old Senators. But fans kept calling them the Senators, while the team kept calling itself the Nationals, and everybody else nicknamed the team the "NATS" although nobody was sure whether that was short for NATionals or SeNATors and it wasn't until 50 years later that the team began officially calling itself what the fans had been calling it all along. Then to top it off, the team moved to Minnesota to become the Twins, but a new franchise stayed in Washington called the Senators, until that franchise moved to Texas to become the Rangers and was replaced by another new Washington team called the Nationals. Got all that?.

The current iteration of the team is doing whatever it can to avoid the pitfalls of its predecessors. Last year, in their first season, they actually competed for a while before finishing at .500, a ballpark design is in the works (one drawing
here,flash vid here), and fan interest is higher than the new national debt ceiling.

OLSON, The Minneapolis advertising agency that's working with The Nats came in the other week to create a new radio ad campaign for the team. Derek Bitter, the writer, was hoping to create the effect you might get if you were at the park and, over the course of a game, you were permitted to move through the crowd and around the stadium with a microphone to capture the reactions, calls, cheers, boos, etc. In a nutshell - allowing the experience of being at the game, to speak for the game itself.

Cool concept.

In trying to bring this all about, we realized that, although we have plenty of baseball sound effects on hand, there were very specific reactions, cheers and backgrounds that would need to be created to really fill out the scene and tell the story. Now we could've just jammed everybody on hand into the voice-over booth and created an aural wad of stuff that may or may not have been useful to the mix. Problem is, you cram a lot of people in a small voice-over booth and, not matter how good that booth is, it sounds like a small cluster of tightly grouped people due to the size of the room. Unavoidable. So we took a different approach - we jammed them all into a larger space with live walls, spread 'em out, recorded them using a classic mid-side (M/S) technique, and then put them in synchronous layers like so many carpets in an Oriental rug shop. This effect really opened things up in the mix and allowed it to breathe. Sounded real too.

Nationals-2Small'Course, now we had the to put the final voice-over into the mix. The VO had to match the mood, feel and essence of what Major League Baseball represents and mesh with all the sound-design we had done. The voice needed a texture that conveyed the heritage of the game with a warmth that could feel like a day at the diamond. Vin Scully would've been great but, y'know, he already works for the Dodgers and, I'm guessing his price probably would've freaked out the accountant. Which, by a deliberate turn of phrase, brings us to the great story of Hobe Harden, the "accidental voice-over tourist" in this whole radio spot. Listen to his first take.

Talk about having some power sitting on the bench for the late innings!? - And is "Hobe" not like the most perfect baseball name? Couldn't write a better scenario - other than the Sox taking the Yanks in seven during the '04 ALCS -
That, was perfect.

Here's "Ballpark Noises"for the Washington Nationals.

Hobe Harden can be booked through his Minneapolis vloice-over agent,
N.U.T.S.
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Broadcasting Is Dead - Or Is It Just A Nietzsche Audience?
For those of us whose lives depend on the creation of radio and TV spots, there's been a fair amount of nervous foot tapping over the past few years as we all wonder where traditional broadcast advertising is going. Bluntly put, will free over the air radio and TV remain viable? And, if they do, who'll be listening and watching?

To wit, the iPod and Satellite radio have done what they can to push terrestrial radio over the cliff, while Cable and Direct TV have bloodied up free over the air television. If that weren't enough, there are commercial killing devices like
TiVo and, for radio, a brand new software application called Snaptune which, according to its inventor, is "the greatest innovation for radio listeners since the invention of the cassette recorder."

Oy vey.

Now, after reading all that you might assume that I've got a weird and unhealthy attachment to TV and radio ads. Funny, but no. However, I do have a great affinity for free over the air programming - even if what's on isn't really my thing. And I understand the necessary role that ads must play in this peculiar barter arrangement. Additionally, in defense of advertising, I think it's fair to say that creative, well executed ads have the potential to engage us, ask questions of us, and even play a role in shaping our culture and opinions. Of course, (and I'm completely with you on this one), there's an abundance of insipidly stupid and crappy ads out there that should never get aired. "Ad Noiseum" is my term for them.

There's a broader question that needs to be asked here though - especially as it pertains to radio. If we're all left having to pay for it aren't we tacitly fostering a system where John Q Public is beholding to XM or Sirius for things like local severe weather alerts? Sound alarmist? Hey, there's actually
legislation being proposed to address aspects of this issue. (you can read the bill, here) Think about it; who's gonna carry your local Emergency Broadcast System if terrestrial radio tanks? I mean, I don't like that annoying tone when it comes blaring outta the box either but I'm relieved not to be paying a fee to find out when "The tornado that'll squash Minneapolis" is coming. Just look at what free local radio was able to do in the wake of Katrina. I'll grudgingly suffer a Denny Hecker ad to get my peace of mind.

The silver lining for those of us who create ads and/or programming content is that the threatened loss of ad revenue is forcing free over the air broadcasters, particularly radio, to improve and repackage their offerings. To quote Mark Kaline, Global Media Manger at Ford Motor Company,
“Radio is at a critical moment in its history, on the verge of tremendous growth and poised for transformation.”

What's fostering this optimism? Well, the potential to put local radio on cell phones and across the web for starters and, in markets like
Detroit and Tampa, (two great articles, by the way) it's HD Radio; digital radio stations with near CD quality sound that can broadcast more than one channel at at a time along with text. Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, Clear Channel's heavily flawed "Less Is More" campaign, which emphasizes thirty second ads over sixty seconds ads, appears to be drawing listeners back to the fold. And, there's podcasting - no, not the shabbily produced amateur shite that's all the rage right now, but innovative shows created in concert with broadcasters for their specific audiences, produced with commercials and available from their websites - Time shifted local content that's relevant and free. What a country!

Granted, (and this needs to be stated), terrestrial broadcasters have had a long, strong steady hand in creating a large part of this mess they're in right now. They strayed away from local talent, issues and music in favor of generic cut and paste formats with plastic over the counter hosts. Over-saturating their audiences with poorly executed ads hasn't helped them either. However, at least for now, it would appear they're getting the message - to stay viable, they know they need to be innovative, have a local focus and cultivate a creative approach to the ads that they're airing. If they don't, they'll truly be echoing Nietzsche - "To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."
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Story And A Half - More To Edina Realty Radio Than Meets The Ear
Sold Comic Final2We gave the well worn real estate phrase, "location, location, location" a completely new spin a couple of weeks ago while recording some new radio with Minneapolis Ad Agency, BBDO and their client, Edina Realty.

A significant amount of the time we spend crafting your average radio ad, TV spot or podcast is devoted to the sound-design; creating those essential environments and locations with special effects, foley, sound effects, and production music.

But, y'know, there are times, as this recording session proved, when simply bypassing the high tech audio production gear and running with your instinct gives you true "sweat equity".
Gary Groomes in Studio B at Babble-On with Mark Benninghofen "producing"

The idea behind the radio ad, "Sold" was to create an ad within an ad using the typical dialogue that occurs between a voice-over talent and a producer/director. Ross Phernetton, the writer came upon the scheme this way -

"The goal was to launch a new campaign with a sense of urgency. So we went with a dozen 10-second spots and a one-word tagline. Then, in a Red Bull bender the weekend before presenting, two thoughts occurred to me. Yes only two. One: Clients will approve any radio spot if the tagline is mentioned every five seconds. Two: I thought it would be funny to do a spot about the making-of-the-spot that would be 6 times longer than the actual spot. Of course, it didn't turn out to be funny for that reason... It's works because I had [great voice over] talent

For our part, when we typically record dialogue, we stick both actors in the booth so that they can work off of each other. (Hey, there's an insight!) Anyway, John Lukas, who was engineering this session, had a better idea - since this was supposed to be a real dialogue between an announcer and a producer, he put Gary Groomes (our voice-over guy) in the booth where he would normally be, but "re-located" Mark Benninghofen (our producer/director character) to the producer's chair next to him at the console. Radio Verité. By recording with this setup we were assured of the natural energy that occurs with these interactions, and of getting that authentically crappy talkback mic sound (complete with clicks, room tone, off-mic head turns, etc) recorded into the final track. There was one big hitch though - if you try to record with the talkback mic open and the speakers live you'll get hellacious, railroad-spike-in-the-ear feedback.

This gave rise to a fairly amusing recording scenario...

"so we turned the speakers off and everyone had headphones but me and my client. So there I sat on couch looking at one talent in the “captain’s chair” ...(where I would normally sit)...with his back to me and the other talent miming his way through the script behind glass. Like listening to half of a phone conversation, I didn’t know if it was working or what Gary was doing until the play back of each take. ...Gary really enjoyed having a writer not be able to hear him read...

...Of course, at first, they read it as imagined, with each “Sold” said in a different way. But the first time Gary did it as you hear it, we knew we had something, and that’s the take we used...Thanks to Susan Cowsert and the folks at Edina Realty for allowing the creative process to extend all the way through production....

With no real sound-design necessary at this point, all John had to do to finish the mix was to tighten up a few edits and adjust the levels. That sure doesn't happen everyday. Here's the spot, "Sold" for Edina Realty.

Mark Benninghofen can be booked through his agent,
The Wehmann Agency. Gary Groomes can be scheduled through is representative, Moore Creative Talent, Inc. Thanks go to Angela Narloch as well for being the actual producer for this whole series of radio ads.
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Babblings - March '06
Babblings 250 wideVoice of Reason - You listen to the radio and hear the ads. You watch TV. You're pretty sure you could be a voice-over talent, right? I mean,...it's just "talking"!!??

Man, you do
that in your sleep. Why not get paid for it?

Well, here's the disclaimer - literally. As with so many things in life, it can be a lot more difficult than it seems. Earlier this week we were recording very polished voice-over man Steve Blum from
Patches recording studio out in L.A. Poor guy had to be on mic at 8 AM for a Colle+Mcvoy session promoting New Holland Tractors.


Writer Dave Keepper, producer Ramon Nuñez, and I could only wince, laugh and shrug our shoulders as the first few takes chugged away like this. Steve laughed it off and a few minutes later, (with the help of a few choice edits), got us a clean one. Easy, right?

A quick shout out to Steve for letting us post his tough morning. He can be booked through his agent,
Elizabeth Thornton.

March 11th Update

Not Very PC -
For those of you who've ever been to our Minneapolis recording studio, you know that we're a little Mac-Centric here and that we're great appreciators of elegant design as well. So, when we stumbled across this great flash presentation we knew we had to share it - "What if Microsoft designed the iPod package?". This is another case of art imitating life for sure.

Trailer Hitching - What would it be like to catch a ride in a limo with five of the most prominent voice-over talents in the world? Funny, for one. Don Lafontaine, the guy you've heard on a million movie trailers, and a company called Aspect Ratio, put together this great short film clip featuring him, John Leader, Nick Tate, Mark Elliott, and Al Chalk on the way to an awards ceremony. You can find a few more clips with Don at his website
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Dropping In - March '06
Dropping-In-4SmallThis month marks the second installment of what we're not too creatively calling "Dropping In". It's a gucci-sized handbag of some of the production music we've received here at the recording studio over the past few weeks or so.

This time out we're putting in just a couple of older things that we think are cool but seem to be completely underused, as well as a gratuitous and wholly unnecessary sound effect.

Some of the styles we've got covered this month are....

(envelope please)

70's Detective, Modern Fashion, Traditional Japanese, Middle-Eastern, Latino, California Pop Rock, Groovy Jazz, Late Night Jazz, and Sampled Beats from a cross section of well produced production music libraries that we like and want to support.

It was suggested to us that one way you, (the writers and producers who come here), might be able to use this segment was the following: Simply cue up one of your voice-over auditions in Quicktime or iTunes and play'em over this track and see what sticks. We're keeping a running log of what we're sharing so, if you like something, write it down and we'll have it available at your next recording session.

Special thanks to Ian Simpson, Beth Kinney and Tom Witkowski for their specific suggestions on this segment, as well as a thank you to Jeff Shotts for his poetic insights on our blog in general.

So, here's this month's "Dropping In"and, as requested, the gratuitous "Sound Effect Of The Month"

Enjoy In Moderation. And, if you gotta better name - let us know.
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