Just curious

[Gameshowcrackers]

I'm just curious as to why it is that some announcers wear headphones whilst others don't.

I notice that on the Price Is Right when Johnny and Rod used to be shown on camera they never had headphones on whilst Rich always wears headphones.

Is there a reason for this or is it just down to the individual?

Presumably, it's more difficult to do the job without headphones?

[Matt Ottinger]

Randy will give you the professional answer, but my guess is that most announcers are wearing some sort of listening device (headphones or IFB, a little thing that fits in your ear) pretty much all the time, to get cues from the director.  Johnny and Rod might have taken theirs off just long enough to be on camera.

[tvrandywest]

Thanks Matt, I can always count on you for a quality introduction!

[quote name=\'Gameshowcrackers\' post=\'240936\' date=\'May 16 2010, 08:44 AM\']I'm just curious as to why it is that some announcers wear headphones whilst others don't.

I notice that on the Price Is Right when Johnny and Rod used to be shown on camera they never had headphones on whilst Rich always wears headphones.

Is there a reason for this or is it just down to the individual?

Presumably, it's more difficult to do the job without headphones?[/quote]

You can't do the job without headphones of some sort.

Rod wore a pair of IFBs (you see news anchors wearing one in their upstage ear when they turn their head the wrong direction... Rod wore one in each ear). Johnny's tools and tricks of the trade are fully described in the book "Johnny Olson: A Voice in Time". "... a music stand for his copy, one paper cup for water, and another to hold a throat lozenge he used while off mike. He preferred a single, hand-held Brush Clevite-style earphone that he would hold to his ear for the director’s cues, and then rest on the music stand when he began to read..." At "Price" the copy stand was built into his podium, as were his monitor and a shelf at hip height for his cups.

And what is everybody listening to? Both the program's audio and key people in the control room. Trained as an on-camera host, Johnny preferred to hear the vital parts of the program through the house PA system (sometimes reinforced by a speaker near his podium) and used the earphone only to take his start cues from the control room that, on-camera, would have been thrown to him by a stage manager.

Both Rod and Rich had/have the program's audio and the cues together, mono, in both ears; there are separate volume controls for each. I prefer a split feed with the show's audio (most notably the host and myself) in my right ear and the control room in my left. And what is the control room saying? I was asked to comment on live announcing by Randy Thomas (voice of "Entertainment Tonight" and many awards shows) for her book "Voice for Hire":

"'... The director is in my left ear with his "Standby music, standby lighting, ready camera 1, take camera 1, cue lighting, cue music, tighten 1, standby VT1, standby announce, open the door, ANNOUNCE!, ready camera 2, take 2, roll VT1, ready camera 3, cue applause, take 3, FASTER RANDY!, take VT1...'"

With advanced technology sometimes the announcer has a separate sub-PL line and hears only the cues meant for him as called by the Associate Director - that's the case at Newlywed Game, and I kind of miss all the insanity!

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'240939\' date=\'May 16 2010, 01:22 PM\']Thanks Matt, I can always count on you for a quality introduction![/quote]
Actually, I thought we proved last November that this is, in fact, not true.

Thanks (as always) for your informative (as always) reply.

[chris319]

On Match Game and the ever-popular Mindreaders, which both had less copy to read than TPIR, Johnny used to hang up his earphone between reads and jump around doing funny things to get the audience to laugh.

[Otm Shank]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'240939\' date=\'May 16 2010, 01:22 PM\']I kind of miss all the insanity![/quote]
In my former life as a weathercaster, I remember that open line to the control room in my left ear being quite frenzied. After a while, I hardly noticed it except for the occasional "THE TAPE ISN'T CUED!!"

Someone working at another station told me he couldn't imagine having an open line like that -- his producer had a momentary switch to cut in to his IFB. My producer had the same thing, but forgot to hit the button, leaving me totally oblivious until I could hear commotion coming from the cameraman's headset. From then on, it was always open.