Talking to Millions

I had the chance to talk to 3.75 million people last night. Really. My long time client and friend Joe Cipriano is the announcer on Wheel of Fortune this week as part of a working audition to get the permanent position. He was a guest on the Jim Bohannon Show on the Westwood One Radio Network, and that show has an estimated audience of 3.75 million. I assure you that’s not what I was thinking when I called in and was put on the air.

I was nervous. The funny thing is that my background is broadcasting – I have been an announcer, newscaster, talk show host and producer among other jobs – and spent most of my youth on the air. I have talked many, many times to Joe over the years, so it was not a case of being star struck. Back in the late 80’s when I was doing radio production in Central Florida (WQPD – WLKF, Lakeland, FL) I had the occasion to talk to Jim Bohannon while he was doing some custom promos for the station. And even though Jim has been a radio talk icon for over 30 years (he replaced Larry King on the radio) I felt comfortable speaking with him. So it was a little odd that I was nervous – I guess I did not want to sound like that caller from Alabama last night. (Nothing against Alabama – he just asked a silly question)

I had listened to the first several callers focus on themselves instead of Joe and I wanted to bring the attention back on him so I told a true story about how Joe goes out of his way to mentor aspiring voice over artists. Hopefully it went all right. Here is the clip.

The interview with Joe was scheduled to last an hour but Bohannon held him over for a full second hour! In between hours Jim interviewed Joe for a segment of his other show – America in the morning.

You can get there from here: click to go to America in the Morning website

or I downloaded the clip – without permission, sorry Westwood One.

Please watch Wheel of Fortune this week and let them know if you like Joe here: http://www.wheeloffortune.com/feedback/

Originally Published on blog.tomanthony.com and recovered via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine