Ken Smith

German (accurate or Katzenjammer Kids), Italian, French, Irish, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, New Yorker, southern hick, Mayberry sheriff, Virginia gentleman, Texas cowpoke (including old geezer), Boris Karloffian, country preacher.

I was for seven years a radio personality/news anchor/DJ in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, announcing for WPTF, Raleigh; WDNC, Durham; WCHL, Chapel Hill; and the North Carolina News Network. At each station, I was actively involved in writing, producing and voicing commercials and PSAs. One commercial I voiced at WDNC for the motion picture "The Cheyenne Social Club" was picked up and distributed nationally by the film's publicity agency. During this period I was much in demand as narrator for numerous films and audio-visual presentations produced by various NC State Government agencies, esp. the Departments of Education and Agriculture. I was also engaged as announcer and/or actor for several films produced by the then newly-formed NC Film Commission to promote tourism in the state. And the University of NC at Chapel Hill contracted me to write, produce and voice a recorded tour of their historic campus which was used for years. Finally, various radio stations across the state hired me to voice station IDs and promos. I was also Public Relations Director for the NC Farm Bureau Federation and conducted a PR and informational campaign across the state on behalf of the farming community. In this capacity, I wrote, produced and voiced PSAs, promos and a syndicated radio show. I also appeared on their behalf on TV magazine shows across the state as a guest "personality", slipping in information (and propoganda) about everything from hog breeding to tobacco farming. More recently, after a stint in Europe as a singer and actor, I have worked as an air personality and DJ for a public radio station in Wilmington, NC (WHQR-FM) and currently serve as the official "voice" of the Opera Company of NC, emcee-ing concerts and social functions and voicing promos and commercials. I have been invited often to perform as a narrator, having done Copland's "Lincoln Portrait", "Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra" and "Peter and the Wolf" (in German as well as English) with orchestras in NC and in Europe. I am also in demand in the Triangle area as a reader. I recently performed several poetry readings for the EPA in the Triangle and for Duke University. I have taught performance skills (including voice and diction) at two colleges and two universities and was used as narrator for various promotional materials at each of these institutions. I am presently involved in church work and deliver most of my church's litergy, including, occasionally, even the sermons. I have a masters degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in Radio/TV/Film, having worked my way through school as a radio announcer. However, I have been performing as an announcer and narrator since I was in high school, where I was invited to be the "voice" of the marching band. Active in theater since I was 10, I studied voice and diction with Rom Linney at NC State University, with Foster Fitzsimmons and Earl Wynn at UNC-Chapel Hill and privately with Dorothy Folger, Agnes Moorehead and Donald Schwartz in LA. I have trained as a singer (and thereby improved my speaking voice) with Todd Duncan, Gabor Carelli, Claude Heater and Margaret Harshaw. I attended the Stuttgart Conservatory for a year and studied voice, acting and diction in German, Italian and French. But I learned the most about using my speaking voice from my experience as a little boy visiting with my uncle who was employed as a musician at WPTF radio station in Raleigh. I was absorbing from age five the sounds of the superb announcing staff on-hand at that facility in those days. By the time my voice changed, I could already imitate them with amazing accuracy. Years of acting and singing in the time since have given me the versatility and flexibility in using my voice to meet pretty much any demand made on it. As an experienced and skilled writer of commercial copy; an equally experienced producer of commercials, documentaries, video productions and stage presentations; a stage director; and a conductor, I am well aware of the totality of the production process and the importance of preparation and flexibility on the job in order to deliver the best possible product without wasting production time. Drawing on this broad experience, I can size up the material I am presented to read in short order and pretty well predict what is expected of me as a performer. As an educator, I have considered carefully and dealt with all sorts of problems of preparation and performance that my students might encounter, thereby improving my own performance skills mightily.