"You've got a good face for radio". Not sure exactly how to take that, Phil Curran decided to give radio a shot after winning a "D.J. for a day" contest at the #1 radio station in Toronto. So after giving away all his suits, Phil embarked on a successful radio career, highlighted with flashes of brilliance. The "good face for radio" thing turned out to not be entirely true, as Phil has hosted 4 TV shows on a variety of networks including Speed and HGTV. His face has also appeared in print ads for Canadian Tire, Star Choice Satellite systems, and Vogue...O.K. just kidding about the Vogue thing. He's not nearly that pretty! As a voice talent, Phil has been heard on campaigns for Coke, McDonald's, Harley Davidson, Burger King, and Mazda to name a very few. Between radio and television voice over jobs, Phil also lends his talent to on hold messages and systems from Toronto to Vancouver and keeps his friends buying him beer by doing the voice mail greetings on their cell phones.
After graduating from the "Radio and Television on-air talker person course" at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, Phil started paying his dues in small, medium, and then large radio markets in Canada finally settling in the largest radio market in Canada, Toronto. After spending many years doing radio commercials for "The Man" and learning from the producers and other announcers at the stations he made stops at, Phil finally discovered that getting one of them fancy computer thingys ("I think this interweb thing might really catch on!") could allow him to work for himself...from a home studio... in HIS home!!! How cool is that?! Fortunately, after all the time working as an announcer at different radio stations, there's nothing like first hand experience and lots, and lots, and lots of practice.
Microphone: Rode NT1000
Mic Processor/Preamp: DBX 286A
Mixer: Alesis Multimix 8 track console
Phone Patch: JK Audio Inline Patch
Editing Software: Adobe Audition
Editing Software: Pro Tools
Studio Monitors: M-Audio BX5a
Live event hosting is also part of my bag of tricks although I prefer the comfort of my home studio overlooking the Rio Grande...just kidding...I'm nowhere near the Grande...I'm in Toronto, Canada but I do have a window and on a clear day I can see the CN Tower.
Probably one of the most important skills I employ to hone my talent is spending spare time with other voice over artists. Several of my friends are voice actors and voice talents and as such, we discuss our business and ways to make it an enjoyable and professional an experience as we can.