Let’s get down to brass tacks: getting the right voice for your radio station is no walk in the park. It’s one of those difference-maker decisions that can either propel your brand to the next level or put you in the ditch with the white noise. Trust me, I’ve been doing this for a while now, and it turns out it’s much more critical than most folks might think.
A radio imaging voice over is, in essence, the voice and the identity of your radio station. It’s the music jingles, the promo messages, the sweepers – it’s the stuff that holds your station’s brand together. And if your station is not thinking about who is delivering those messages, it’s missing the trick.
You Need to Know Your Station’s Personality
Last, but not least – you must know your station’s personality. Is your station a high-octane station, full of energy and up-to-date music? Or is it less frantic, more of a station for easy listening or talk? You must know this before you even begin to choose a voice.
We wanted something dirty and edgy and undeniably authentic at a local rock station where I used to work. It had to sound like someone who might’ve plied his trade in the rock trenches – someone who could say: ‘And now it’s time for the best of the ’80s with Tom!’ just as comfortably as he could say: ‘And we’re back in the studio with a blistering 10-minute sweep of guitar-driven noise. This next song is for all you metalheads out there…’ If we’d gone with the smooth, clean voice you’d expect to hear in the pop station, it would have sounded out of place.
You have to marry the voice to the vibe, and if you don’t, it’ll grate on your listeners.
The Tone Is Really, Really Important.
It Matters More Than You Think Tone is everything: you can’t have a deep voice or a sultry voice, it has to be a voice that your station’s listeners can relate to. What kind of tone are your listeners used to hearing?
Let’s take a pop station as an example: you don’t want your voice to be too serious or uptight: that will drain all the fun and upbeat vibe out of it. You want bubbly, a little cheeky, full of energy and jumping out of the speakers. Now, if you’re running a station for a more mature audience – say, an easy-listening or jazz-focused format – you’ll want a more relaxed and refined tone to match that specific audience’s mood.
I recall that the show was on a national talk radio station – grown-up stuff. The audience? Primarily 35-plus, listening for news and analysis and smart people talking. We didn’t need the voice to be pumped-up and hyper – we were looking for a deep, assured tone that was authoritative but friendly, someone you’d want to hear at length on the long drive home. That’s a good place to be – someone who feels right at home in the world you’re creating for your listeners.
Accent And Regional Flavour
And this is a tricky one – accents. Do you want a regional voice to reflect where your station is based, or are you looking for something more neutral? It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times, and there really isn’t one right answer.
If your station is local, especially if you have a very regional feel and accent, they can help. The radio station in Liverpool would do well to have a Scouse accent. It’s a local community, the station is one of us. But if you have a wider market, you’re probably going for something a little more neutral – RP (Received Pronunciation) has that clean, professional, easy-on-the-ear feel wherever you go.
There was one station who’d grown from a small local base into a national market, and the original voice was a real Northern (English) twang. I loved it, but it wasn’t working for the wider audience. We needed something that felt down-to-earth without making it too regionally specific and alienating new listeners.
It’s not just what the imaging voice sounds like, it’s how they sell it. I’ve heard so many great-sounding voices that just didn’t have the right delivery for the gig. It’s all about energy – your station’s energy and the energy of your imaging voice-over. If your station’s high-energy, blasting out today’s hottest hits, your imaging voice needs to have the same energy. Your guy sounding half-asleep is going to kill the vibe.
It’s a skill, not just shouting or slamming out phrases, but enthusiasm that sounds spontaneous. Likewise, if your station is mellower, you need a voice that can let up without seeming dull – another place where a veteran can come in handy, someone who can adjust her energy to the message.
Why Consistency Is Key in Radio Imaging Voice Overs
Now, let me just get this out of the way upfront: consistency is everything when it comes to radio imaging voice overs. It’s not something that you can just add on as an afterthought or as a ‘value-added’ extra. In fact, it’s the very bedrock of who your station is and what it represents. As someone who has been around the industry a while, let me tell you what happens when a station gets it right – and, more importantly, what happens when they get it horribly wrong. The reality of it is that a good radio station lives and dies by its brand, and its brand is built on the foundation of a strong, recognisable voice. So, if you’re constantly changing it around, you’re not just confusing your audience – you’re risking everything that your station is.
Building a Brand That Sticks
For starters, keeping your voice overs consistent helps to create a brand for your station, and brand loyalty is what radio is all about. Think of the stations you grew up listening to or the ones that stick in your memory, and you’ll likely be able to associate them with the sound of a voice. That voice is part of the station’s DNA: the thing that’s familiar and draws listeners in.
What if you switched on your favourite station and every time a promo or jingle came on it was a different voice? You would be thrown, right? Like walking into your local and finding a new landlord behind the bar every week. It’s not the same pub, is it? And it’s not the same radio station. It doesn’t feel like home. It’s unfamiliar. And the reason people listen to radio is that it becomes familiar. This thing that happens day in, day out, indoors and outdoors, in cars and at home, it becomes a source of comfort and reassurance. The voices on the radio come to feel like friends. Radio builds loyalty because listeners trust it.
The Cost of Inconsistency
I’ve had a few stops that, for whatever reason, chose to change their imaging voice far too often. I’ve had stops that had a new voice every year, whether they wanted to keep things fresh or thought a new voice would somehow spice things up. But what’s the reality of the situation? They lost that identity. Listeners didn’t know what to expect, and left the station’s credibility chipped away a little.
I had one station I worked with – let’s just say it was all about the indie – they were swapping imaging voices like it was going out of fashion. Every month or so, there’d be a new voice. All talented people, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t do the station any good. The viewers couldn’t keep up, and what had started out as a strong identifiable brand became verging on schizophrenic. They lost the feel, and their tune-in numbers started to slip. It wasn’t because the content was poor, it was because the bond to the brand was being diluted.
Creating an Emotional Connection
You listen to the radio not because you like the music, not because you love the shows, but because you are connected. And part of that connection is due to the voice over that ties everything together. Your imaging voice over is not just a voice, but the sound of your brand. The energy of a pop station’s jingle or the authority of a talk radio sweeper sets the tone for your station.
The more the listener hears the same voice over and over, the more it becomes part of the fabric of the station. It becomes emotionally connected. That’s why it’s not just about repetition, it’s about consistency – about building a relationship with the audience. And like any relationship, that takes time, trust and familiarity.
Maintaining a Professional Standard
For a moment, let’s talk shop. Consistency of voice in your radio imaging voice overs tells your audience that you know what you’re doing. That your station knows who it is – and isn’t afraid to be that. Changing voices too frequently makes your station sound like it doesn’t have a clue what it’s doing, like it’s still finding itself.
Not that there’s never any cause for change, mind you. Sometimes you’ve just got to put out an ad, like when your format changes, or you’ve rebranded entirely. But if you’ve got a voice that works, if your listeners respond, you’ve got to stay. It’s like a great logo or a commercial jingle. If it’s working, what’s the point?
When Consistency Works
I’ve also seen the other side of this coin – stations that got it right on the imaging voice from the beginning and stuck with it for years. And the results? They speak for themselves. One of the national stations that I worked for had the same British female voiceover for years. It became the voice of that station. You would know you’d found the right frequency straight away because of that voice.
It didn’t matter if it was a promo for the next show or a quick station ID in the middle of a song – that voice was consistent, professional, and unmistakable. And because she was so consistent, the station had an ironclad brand. It was perceived as steady, reliable, and trustworthy. That’s the kind of loyalty every station should strive to achieve.
How to Keep It Fresh Without Losing Consistency
Now, there’s a lot of you guys out there thinking: ‘Yes, but what about variety, won’t the same voice get stale after a while?’ Well, actually, no it won’t. Consistency and staleness are not synonymous. Yes, you can keep the same voice but give it different tones, and use different styles and energy levels. A great voice-over actor can keep that core identity, but play around with it.
If you have a variety of shows at your station, your imaging voice can then bend to fit the vibe while still maintaining the spirit of the brand. That’s what we’re striving for: a great framework but the freedom to add some artistic flair to keep things lively.
Ultimately, consistency is the key to a powerful radio brand. Your voiceover imaging is the tether that holds all of the pieces together – the sonic identifier that connects your audience to your station. Toss out the rope too often, and you’ll leave your audience with no way to find their way back. Get it right, and your voice will be an integral component of your station’s personality in a crowded marketplace. When you find that voice, don’t let go. Consistency, my friends, is the key.
Choosing the right voice for your radio station is not a matter of selecting the person with the best voice but rather of finding a voice that fits. Does your station have a happy and bubbly pop character or is it a serious news/talker with a deep and knowledgeable tone? Either way, the voice you choose has to feel like it belongs. If you get it right, you have a voice that will enhance your station’s personality and stand out from the crowd. If you get it wrong, you’ll be little more than wallpaper.
