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A 90s article about Chicago Voiceovers.


CircleSeven

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Here's a February 1997 Chicago Tribune article about the Voiceover artists that were used in Chicago.

 

It mentions the voiceovers at the stations at the time: Charlie Van Dyke (WMAQ), Nick Michaels (WBBM), Scott Chapin (WFLD), Doug Paul (WGN), Richard Malmos (WCIU), and local VO artists Marty Robinson & Don Ferris (WTTW) & Hector Lozano (WGBO).

 

I'm shocked that Ron Rolland & Roger Thompson (the voices of WLS) wasn't included in this piece.

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Not even Ed Hopkins (the current voice of WMAQ-TV).

 

Ed Hopkins wasn't used at the station at the time. And I think there was another announcer who replaced Charlie Van Dyke, before Eddie showed up. He was already the voice at KNBC before he became the voice of WMAQ in September 2000.

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Ed Hopkins wasn't used at the station at the time. And I think there was another announcer who replaced Charlie Van Dyke, before Eddie showed up. He was already the voice at KNBC before he became the voice of WMAQ in September 2000.

 

Ed O'Brien, who replaced Van Dyke as part of a much larger rebranding and refocusing of the station under short-lived ND Joel Cheatwood. The switch away from O'Brien in 2000 meant scrubbing the last reference to the 1997 rebrand under Cheatwood.

 

I like some of the quotes in that article.

In at least one case, Van Dyke couldn't be as scary as his client wanted. "WBBM was extremely tabloid when I was there (in the early '90s)," he says. "They kept wanting more and more of that and it was getting too far out of my range, so we ended up going our separate ways."

 

 

Michaels, WBBM's current voice, says the station has toned itself down. "I try to be intelligent and a little bit more insightful," he says.

 

Yep, that 1991 era where they brought in Bill Applegate as GM and he made the newscasts flashier than they previously had been. They then brought in Scott Chapin as VO (now I know why) who of course voiced that open with last names only.

 

They later kept the look and theme but toned the graphics and style down. At that point they replaced Chapin with Michaels and went back to full names in the intro.

 

Malmos is less philosophical about his craft, perhaps because of his background. While Paul, Van Dyke, Michaels and Chapin all got into the business as teen deejays at tiny radio stations, Malmos started out as an actor.

 

"As any actor or actress knows, acting doesn't pay. Voice work is a much easier way to put bread on the table," he says. "I've got two kids--one in college and one graduating from high school. So all I'm trying to get across to people (when recording a promo) is, `It's a job.' I just read it however they tell me to. It's a great way to make a living."

Malmos doesn't seem like a very nice guy. It shows. He doesn't put much effort into his work. He's OK but he doesn't seem very versatile, like he only has one straight voice he uses and nothing else unlike other voiceovers. Also he's no longer based in Kansas City, he's been out of California (LA area) for a while now.

 

I wonder if WCIU still uses him. I bet they dropped him by now...

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I wonder if WCIU still uses him. I bet they dropped him by now...

Then get ready to pull out your wallet.

Where's that link to that vid that I showed earlier, oh wait,

. That was from 94/95, and here's something from a
. Notice how his voice haven't changed these last 18 years. Does it look like Weigel is going to get rid of him anytime soon? Around this time next year, he would be lasting longer than Ron Rolland at WLS. He's fetching that two-decades mark within the next 16/17 months.

 

Charlie Van Dyke was also VO'd WBBM during the late 1980s, just when they lost that longtime news leader status to WLS. The late

was basically one of a few in-house VOs at Channel 7, primarily for news opens throughout the 80s until the early 1990s. They probably didn't use Rolland (at least full-time) until those WPVI "Happy People" style opens came about and the infancy of the current news theme in Fall 1992.

 

I still think WLS made a gigantous mistake in letting Ron Rolland go, as one of the last local VOs, in favor of a younger sounding voice, who even tried out to replace the late-Rod Roddy on The Price Is Right. I never liked Roger Rose then, I don't like him now. He even showed up on Windy City Live in February 2012. In recent months, they've using Roger Thompson very little. They've replace his "special report", "special weather report" VOs in favor of new VOs with Roger Rose. It's like they want to phase Roger Thompson out, the same way they dumped Ron Rolland.

 

I think WGN made a big mistake when they dropped Doug Paul in favor of Bob Tracey & Jim Cutler. On the in-house side, you had

&
doing promos, and involving voices for local ads.

____________________________

 

I'm not impressed in these new set of voiceover's today. We no longer have a big booming baritone, dulcitone or just a familiar voice anymore. The ones that have that, are the one's that's been there for a good minute, like Ed O'Brien, Jim Birdsall & Charlie Van Dyke. Joe Cipriano has that young-appealing voice, but he's been around for over 3 decades. That's a difference than Dave Kampel or Brian Lee. Those are Johnny-come-lately, voice-over folk that get pulled from the street and being told to "read this", are by far the worst ones ever. I don't buy that "getting a younger-type voice to gear towards the younger crowd" BS either. Get a familiar voice or bust!

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