Commercial voiceover/Radio Imaging and Writing demos

Besides working with some of the country’s best and most heard Voice Actors, I also do commercial and Imaging voiceover work, and copy writing. As a voice actor, I’ve been fortunate enough to win dozens of local and regional ad awards over the years, and two national Addys. The vocal approaches are varied, but the goal of every single piece I voice is to simply give myself to the copy. YOUR words, your Strategy, that’s the point; not trying to impress someone with my voice. (It’s never about your voice.)

Booking is simple. Just email coachtommykramer@gmail.com or call 214-632-3090. Since I work out of my home studio, I’m pretty much always available. You need a change, you just let me know. I’ll get up in the middle of the night if I need to and cut it.

Commercial Demo:

A couple of notes…on the 2-voice spots, the Jerry Lewis-ish voice on the Tally Alley spot is me, and I’m “Ralph” on the Johnny’s Pizza spot. Oh, and the Kenny Wayne Shepherd spot is just copy for demo purposes; I have no idea what his concert schedule is. He’s just a good friend, and I wanted to include the concert spot approach.

 

Imaging Copy Writing:

One of the biggest needs today is writing really good, purposeful copy for Imaging. There’s more to it than sappy “sloganeering”, and for things like Rock stations, we tend to just hear snarling, smart-ass stuff or non-sequitur sound bites or clips that may not really do anything to bring listeners closer.

Here’s some stuff I wrote for a couple of syndicated shows I’ve worked with. The first part is for The Better Home Show, originating in Houston, and hosted by a master home builder, Mike Feigin, and a home inspector named Dale Phillips. Being a caller-driven show about home renovation and purchase, I thought we needed some levity that would image the hosts at the top of the hour and coming out of each commercial break. It’s worked like a charm, creating somewhat mythical character profiles for each of the hosts. We actually get requests for some of the Imaging pieces! (And we rotate hundreds of them.) My friend Jeff Laurence, whom I’ve worked with on many occasions over the years, was the perfect voice for this stuff. Oh, and whenever I play samples, people always ask how much of it was scripted, and how much was improvised. About 99% of it is scripted.

The second part of this demo is Imaging for The Car Pro Show, hosted by Jerry Reynolds with Texas Radio Hall of Famer Kevin McCarthy as his sidekick. Jerry owned and ran his own auto dealerships for more than three decades, and has now done this show for over 14 years. When we started working together, he was in two markets. Now he’s in over 30, including Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Phoenix, and many others. It’s not as crazy as the Better Home Show stuff, but I still wanted to do something that wasn’t “dry” and plain vanilla. The voice talent is my dear friend Eric Chase, who’s based out of Houston. I write the copy and send him an audio demo, then Eric cuts it and produces each piece.

 

Station Imaging Demos:

Here’s a brief sample of my own voice work (and writing) on some station Imaging. First is some stuff for Contemporary Christian formats. The challenge for CCM is not sounding preachy, announcer-y, or starchy. I wrote and voiced these to reflect the core values of the format, and to be “guy next door” welcoming:

 

And here’s a short demo of stuff I wrote and voiced for a few other formats–Country, A/C, and Rock. (In the last piece, you should know that “The Cub” is a bar in Shreveport that has a drive-through window!) Again, I’m not trying to be an “announcer” at all; just using the “real guy” approach.