The Promotion Department handles all the station’s on-air promotion — from the short “coming up next” VOCs (voice-over credits), to full :30 second promos. The Production Department often needs voice-over talent for locally produced commercials and in-house projects. Some TV stations have a separate unit solely for the production of commercials while other stations work with an advertising agency or outside production company.

Two other departments that use voice-over talent are the News Department and the Sales Department. Voice-over in news is part of a reporter’s job in reporting a story. The Sales Department usually uses staff announcers for their projects or works with talent booked through the Production Department. In-house presentations for current and prospective clients and station marketing as well as commercials for local clients are just a few of the types of projects produced by a TV station’s Sales Department.

Most TV stations have an established pool of voice-over talent on staff or readily available. Staff announcers may come to the station and record their tracks on a daily basis, or the copy may be faxed to the talent a few days before it is needed, and the announcer records it and ships the tape to the station for production. Alternatively, some projects may be recorded at a local recording studio. Some TV stations are equipped with the latest digital ISDN telephone technology that allows for a live, high-quality recording of a voice-over performer in another city, or across the country.

CORPORATE/INDUSTRIAL

There are literally thousands of locally produced audio and video presentations recorded each year for the business community. Here are just a few examples of corporate and/or industrial voice-over work:

Message-on-hold — Those informative sales pitches you hear while waiting on hold.

In-store offers — Usually these are part of the background music program played over a store’s speaker system while you shop.

Sales and marketing presentations — Video presentations that are designed to attract clients and promote vendors or products. Talent could be either on-camera or voice-over. You will often find these videos as ongoing product demos in stores like K-Mart and Home Depot or in shopping mall kiosks.

Convention and/or trade show presentations — These are similar to sales and marketing presentations, but usually target potential buyers at a convention or trade show. Again, usually these are a video presentation.