Frank Johnson

Voice Description

My delivery is warm, but not necessarily deep. I'm a good story teller, and am probably well-suited for narrations.
I'm good at reading copy cold, a skill I picked up working in radio news for many years.

Voice Genders and "Ages" I Can Perform

• Middle Age Male

Language(s) of Which I Am a Native Speaker:

• English - North American

I Offer my Services for these Recording Purposes

• Commercials
• Promos
• IVR, voicemail, phone systems, and on-hold messages
• Training, business presentations, sales, and web sites
• Audiobooks
• Documentaries
• Movie and game trailers

Jobs I Am Willing to Take (Union-wise)

• Non-Union Jobs

• Jobs for AFTRA (US) signatories

My Union Affiliations and Memberships

None

My Recording and Delivery Capabilities

• I will go to any designated studio in my area
• I can record and then deliver the audio files via Email
• I can record and then deliver the files by regular mail

Pre-, Post- and Production Services I Offer

• I offer copywriting services

My Home Base

indianapolis, in, Indiana, United States

Accents, Impersonations, Characters and Dialects

I am fluent only in English. I have tried a Russian character voice. The audition was good, but the agency
found someone with a more convincing Russian voice than mine.

My Voice Experience

Thirteen years in radio news helped me to develop a compelling delivery, especially in coverage of disasters and tragedies.

Putting the listener at the scene, being economical with words, were keys to many of my best news stories. One of my best pieces was a non-scripted overview of the crash
of a military jet fighter into a Ramada Inn hotel near Indianapolis International Airport in October of 1987.

Audio available.

My Training

I had a fascination with radio in high school. My speech teacher told me that with my talent, I should consider a career in broadcasting. At age 15, with no training or experience, and only a portable tape recorder, I prepared air checks and sent them to radio stations in the area. They didn't land me a broadcast job, but they did lead me to a pair of agency-produced commercials for Paul Harris clothing and Sap's doughnuts. Eventually I got a board shift, doing a voice legal ID at the top of the hour.

At the end of high school, I enlisted in the US Navy. While stationed at the Naval Amphibious Base at Coronado, California, I managed to eavesdrop on debriefing hearings being held with the crew of the USS Pueblo. For 13 months, the Pueblo crew was imprisoned in Korea after their ship was attacked by the North Koreans on suspicion of espionage.

I observed reporters preparing their stories about the debriefings and found that journalism was far more interesting than doing commercials or being a DJ.

When I came home from the military, I pursued radio news
and eventually landed a job with an urban-contemporary station--a surprising experience for a young caucasian man. Civil rights, Vietnam, the slayings of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and race riots that followed were in the headlines. My job evolved into becoming a race-advocate journalist.

In the years that followed, our news team took on the challenges of better police-community relations, the integration of the county schools, the establishment of
detoxification programs for juveniles, and mandatory immunization of pre-school children, and many other social issues.

For our work, we received more journalism awards than
any other minority radio station in the country and any
radio station in the Metro Indianapolis market.

With the arrival of the Reagan administration, broadcast was deregulated and news, unless it was a core format, was unplugged.

After 13 years, I left WTLC-FM to work at Wishard Hospital, Indianapolis, initially in Public Relations, and later in Media Services to coordinate the hospital internal TV station. I developed promotional hospital video products for broadcast, and for patient and staff education.

In a 1999 cost saving measure, the hospital eliminated much of media services, and all of the library, by farming out work.

Since then, I've done a little broadcast work for the local NPR radio station, and some volunteer VO work producing radio PSAs for the Marion County Health Department's Mother-Baby Healthline. I spend most of my time traveling around the country working as an "OVERSIZE LOAD" freight escort. I'm tired of driving 80 thousand miles a year, and I want to do some talking again.

My Studio Equipment

My home studio is pretty basic. I route audio through a small Mackie 1402 VLZ mixer. I use of variety of microphones in the studio, and in the field. They include:
Shure KSM 27 condensers, Yamaha XL condensers, AKG 1000s condensers, EV20 dynamic, EV RE16 dynamic.

CD-R recorders include: HHB CDR-800, Fostex CR-500
MD recorders include: TASCAM MD 350, SONY MDS JE 480
MD player: SONY MDS B6P
Cassette recorder/player: TASCAM 302
Open reel: TASCAM 32-2B 2-track

Processors: FMR Audio RNC 1773, Alesis Akira
CD-R Duplicator: Microboards 1-3
Amplifier: Alesis RA 150
Monitors: Paradigm Titans



Turntable: Rek-O-Kut B 12 H

Tonearm: Shure SME II

Cartridge Shure M97 xE

Preamp: Dynaco Pat 5

Headphones: AKG 240S

Additional Skills

I routinely serve as a lector in my parish church.

For me, the scriptual text is well-written and allows for good tonal dynamics. People tell me my reading is inspirational and helps them have a better grasp of the meaning of the Word.

Payment Methods Accepted

• Personal checks, cashier's checks, or money orders in my local currency

Contact Information

To contact Frank Johnson by email or phone, please click here.