Announcers

[DoorNumberFour]

I think any diehard could conjure up a Johnny O impression (I know I can), but I love imitating Kenny Williams. It's a fun challenge to read as fast as he does during fee plugs.

[chad1m]

Rod Roddy, most definitely.

[Craig Karlberg]

Put me in the Gene Wood category.  I grew up watching the Canadian version of Beat The Clock.  That's probably the voice I could easily imitate.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' post=\'198438\' date=\'Sep 29 2008, 04:22 AM\']
Put me in the Gene Wood category.  I grew up watching the Canadian version of Beat The Clock.  That's probably the voice I could easily imitate.
[/quote]
I actually used to imitate game show announcers on the radio. Back in the day we'd have a Friday office party drawing, and I remember doing Don Pardo (who we called Don Pardonmeo), Gene Wood (who I called Gene Wooden), and Charlie O'Donnell (I don't think I ever came up with a name for his character). We did this for about a year and a half. I am also said to do a spot-on Johnny Gilbert.

I was also the station's traffic manager, and doing that was stress relief like no other. It was a great way to break from the tension of staging commercial logs for the weekend and Monday and dealing with last minute time sales and copy changes.

[geno57]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'198440\' date=\'Sep 29 2008, 06:47 AM\']
I was also the station's traffic manager, and doing that was stress relief like no other. It was a great way to break from the tension of staging commercial logs for the weekend and Monday and dealing with last minute time sales and copy changes.
[/quote]

For those who aren't familiar with the term "traffic manager" ... It has nothing to do with on-air traffic reports.  At a radio or TV station, the "traffic department" is responsible for scheduling the commercials, promos, etc.,  that appear on the station.  So Dave is the guy who had to deal with the salesholes when they (and their clients) would insist on changing everything that had already been printed and finalized at 4:57 p.m. every Friday.

As for my fave announcer impression ... I can't listen to "A Swingin' Safari" without jumping into my best Johnny-O:  "From New York City, it's time to play ..."

[LA the DJ]

I used to do this sort of generic stereotypical game show announcer voice, for those who aren't die hards, until it occurred to me that the voice I was doing that fit most people's idea of a cheesy announcer voice sounded a lot like Burton Richardson on PiR94.

Despite the fact that I can do almost 100 different voices, the only two game show announcers I've ever been able to emulate are Rod and Don Pardo, with Don being the more fun of the two.

[DjohnsonCB]

Burton Richardson: "And now, here's the host of Concentration (with my Random/Double Cash and Money Match features)....Rooooooooosss Shafer!

[Joe Mello]

[quote name=\'geno57\' post=\'198441\' date=\'Sep 29 2008, 07:59 AM\']For those who aren't familiar with the term "traffic manager" ... It has nothing to do with on-air traffic reports.  At a radio or TV station, the "traffic department" is responsible for scheduling the commercials, promos, etc.,  that appear on the station.  So Dave is the guy who had to deal with the salesholes when they (and their clients) would insist on changing everything that had already been printed and finalized at 4:57 p.m. every Friday.[/quote]
As the Ad Sales Underwriting Director for the campus radio station, I'm lucky to have clients who don't call up last minute and be a butthole like that.  

Instead, they don't return my calls.

/Sounds like my love life.
//Slightly off-track, but I tried doing Casey Kasem once
///Failed miserably
////Also sounds like my love life.

[tjhornikel]

For some strange reason, I've been referred to as the "White Burton Richardson".

One of the great pleasures of watching TPiR for me is to imitate Johnny O saying, "C'mon Down!" My 6 year old also participates in the same style.

I also like to imitate Jay Stewart, but it's not always easy to carry a tv table with prizes on it around while doing the imitation.

Perhaps, this is why my wife, Kim, gets irritated at my "Game Show Voice".

[StevenRosenow]

Years ago I was told I could pass for Johnny Gilbert voice when I was doing a Jeopardy! runthrough years ago. (was doing an intro from a 1986 show along with the Classic TV Game Show Themes CD's Jeopardy! theme track).

I also can do a pretty damn good Charlie O'Donnell when it comes to the opening spiel of Bullseye.

[Jimmy Owen]

I can sound like Rich Jeffries without even trying.

[Don Howard]

Charlie O. is the easiest for me to do.
If I ever find Aladdin's Lamp, one of my wishes would be to do able to sound like Don Morrow.
As for non-game show announcers, every now and again I have fun attempting an impersonation of Another World announcer Bill Wolff.

[GameShowGuru]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'198514\' date=\'Sep 30 2008, 09:04 AM\']
I can sound like Rich Jeffries without even trying.
[/quote]

Rich Jeffries' voice = Kermit the Frog with a head cold.

[GameShowGuru]

I do a good Don Pardo voice impression.

[MikeK]

At one of the old school GSCs back in the day, someone said I sounded like a mix of Rich Jeffries and Randy West.  I agree with the first comparison a lot more than the second.