Garland was probably about 65-70 years of age in 1969 and like most kids growing up the the Decade of Love, we didn’t care too much for it, we just wanted to be like the big kids, smoke cigarettes, weed and look at girls. Garland would let us in the school to sit around and smoke Winston’s and drink those 10oz Coke’s from the teachers lounge (.15cents,, seriously it was 1969). Garland smoked Pall Malls non-filtered and would laugh as we tried them and coughed and hacked from their harshness. He would tell us stories of growing up and rolling his own from the scraps he swept off the floor from the tobacco factories in North Carolina.

He moved to Virginia Beach when he was 20 to take a job as horn player in a small combo that played the beach house parties every summer, always going home to Carolina in the fall and winter for harvest and then back to Virginia during the summer to play and eek out a living. He was a very kind soul, he showed us how to run the floor wax machine without banging the walls, how to mop a floor without leaving a streak, and how to eat an orange without getting the juice all over your hands (try it sometime). In the next couple of summers, we started seeing less and less of Garland, we were growing up and our attention was drawn to the War in Vietnam, the music of Mott The Hoople, Deep Purple, Led Zepplin and the looks of girls in halter tops and hot pants. By 1974, I’d all but forgot Garland when I happened to be walking near the school on a warm summer afternoon and he stopped, smiled and waved, some how recognizing me from a few years back, now a little taller, a lot skinnier and mostly awkward teenager. We chatted, smoked and had a cold coke. That was the last summer I saw him, I moved north to Maryland with my family that fall and to this day will always remember the massive but gentle man that helped me become part of the person I am today. In a turbulent late 60′s and early 70′s the racial tensions were always high but you would have never known this to be around this gentle man. He told us hooligans once, “it doesn’t pay to hate”.. words to live by even today.

Are they gone?,,,, ok good listen, if you want to know the truth, I’m writing this to practice my typing skills in case you know a punk college kid needs help typing their thesis on swine stench and it’s effect on other barn animals, or social media in the city and why texting and walking is bad on a busy street. The blog is such a cool tool, mainly because I can type stuff here and maybe you’ll read it and send it to someone else who’ll get a chuckle from it, or say “wow this dudes a head case” .. in any case IF you made it this far, you’ll know this a blog entry about blogging and why you should blog.. TWEETS: @SethMcFarland is the coolest voice actor on the planet… giggity

Listen, here’s what YOU as a provider of service, product, or commodity should know BEFORE you spend your money on advertising. Find the right voice to sell the product or idea. Don’t record your own voiced commercial, that’s why professionals like myself have been doing it for decades we’re pros, we know HOW to sell your idea, product or widget. I know, I know you’ve be told “you’ve got a great voice for radio, you should record your commercial” WRONG, I guarantee that the sales rep that told you that, only said that so they would get the buy, anything to get you to sign the contract.

Secondly, let the professionals create the concept idea to successfully promote your product, idea etc. That’s what they are for, they CREATE GREAT advertising campaigns. I know this is probably something you’ve heard before, but I’m just trying to help guide you down the right path.
We (voice over actors, producers, writers, engineers) have been doing this a long time, we KNOW what we’re talking about. Take our advice, listen to our spec spots with an open mind and then make an informed decision. It’s your money, spend it with confidence.

I would love the opportunity to do talk radio but I don’t think I’m articulate enough to convey my thoughts, opinions and insights to listeners without stumbling over my thoughts, I’m just not quick witted enough to do so. But I can convey the words and thoughts to paper and if I need to edit I can , that’s the beauty of a blog.

I have been following lots of folks on Twitter (@slarson) and I generally follow people who make me laugh, there are some extremely graphic and very funny people in the world, their humor is dry, x-rated mostly and very non PC but it makes me laugh at myself and allows my brain to try an think like theirs. I also follow several political and news feeds to keep me in the loop. In the coming weeks I’ll be blogging about what interests me “this” week and commenting on the world, the people I meet and how I CAN make a difference in 2012. Join me won’t you?

Yeah, I know what I said earlier in my tweets, fb posts and other posts about not joining the social #netdroidian society but I didn’t want to let a potential idea to create an atmosphere to interact, engage, enlighten, entertain and benefit from the bazillions already there by now and perhaps network new ideas and opportunities that may or may not come my way. That being said, I humbly ask forgiveness from the Interwebs patrol squad and invite you to my +

Larson

I pride myself in honesty about what jobs entail, and I layed it out for him, Production directors don’t make the big bucks like your big time morning show hosts do, unless of course you’re working at WABC-NewYork or KISS in LA, you’re just not going to pull down the big money.

Music producers on the other hand, make a pretty good living, but I digress, here’s the beauty of the email, this kid found me through Radio, the power of the greatest medium  (c’mon you know it is) is that it will always engage, entertain,inform and enlighten the masses. It’s our best friend, our companion, our news source, our weather vane and our guilty passion of singing badly in the shower, car, office bathroom and countless other places.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the VERY best in the business, learned lots from guys like Jack Taddeo, Thom McGinty, Dan Hurst, Roger Carson, Bob Zuroweste, Michael Payne, Steve Clem, Mark Andrews and countless others on the other side of programming (yes there is another side called Sales) and I’ve hoped, prayed and dreamed I’d one get my shot in a programming seat. Perhaps it will never happen, but you can’t say I gave it my best effort and that’s the best advice I could ever give a kid out of college.

Learn about every facet of the business, do what others won’t, volunteer when asked, do not EVER be late for anything, love what  you do.

Radio is a Passion, and I’m very passionate about Radio.

Now, to quote a dear friend “Can you sound taller?”.. yes yes I can

The Production director either didn’t care and they simply just slam stuff on the air because of they have to, or something is really wrong with their outboard processing. The music sounded crisp, clean, full and rich. But, when they went to break it was like listening to AM Radio through a tin can. Surely the production folks can hear that in their studios when dubbing or producing can’t they?

If you are not creating, producing the best possible product for your clients then your clients will soon be on you competition and a For Sale sign goes in the stations window. If you’re trying to get that “sound” that you heard in LA or NY you probably don’t have near the gear these pros do and you’re trying to do something that you probably shouldn’t.

If your engineer is as awesome as most , he’s tweaked the processing on the Optimod to sound as best as it possibly can without losing the integrity of the signal (THE most important part of your radio station). Your job in production is to make the imaging, promos and commercials sound just like the music, seamless and the absolute best quality audio you can produce.  If the dub you get from the agency is bad, SEND IT BACK and ask for a better quality version of it.  Make your station as listenable as you can and your listeners will keep you tuned in 24/7!