My voice used to play a much larger role in my life and my livelihood. In my first college tenure, I trained to become a radio announcer. After graduating, I got a job as a part-time radio announcer for a country radio station, handling the overnight shift and weekend weather reports. When that fell through, I took matters into my own hands, and started a podcast with my former radio broadcasting classmate, which was successful in its own right. Off the strength of word-of-mouth, we peaked at over 1,000 subscribers. Whether I was being paid to do it, or doing it for fun, I loved being a public personality.
Then one day, it all disappeared, and I haven’t said anything on a public medium in years. What happened?
As far as being a professional radio announcer goes, my career was prematurely cut short due to downsizing. With only a few months of real-world experience under my belt and a sub-par demo of my voice work to shop around, I wasn’t able to land another radio announcing gig. To this day, I think that if I was able to hold that job longer, I would have been able to go a lot farther as a radio announcer. I’m not bitter about it anymore, as I feel like I’m in a better place now.
The podcast was a very different story. It was a ton of fun to record that every week for over a year with one of my best friends in the world. It was extra satisfying to know that we made that show successful all on our own. However, the podcast was being created during a time when I was back at school, aiming to become a professional in the online advertising industry. While our show was far from the most offensive thing on the internet, I didn’t want to be in a position where a potential employer would view me as a liability because of the show. Trying to do everything I could to ensure that I’d ultimately land a job in the online advertising industry, I abruptly cancelled the show and deleted all remnants of the show from the internet.
I miss being on-air. Doesn’t matter if that’s radio air or internet air. I miss being a voice in someone’s headphones or speakers and having that listener feel like we’re connecting on a personal level. While my radio days are very much over, there’s nothing technically stopping me from doing a podcast. If I wanted to make the time to do it, I probably could, too.
The challenge now is a creative one. I’d love to do my old show again, but I couldn’t do that show without potentially putting myself at risk in the professional world. Could we do a clean version? Theoretically, yes, but it would hurt the integrity of the show. The next obvious show idea would be to do one related to video games and tie it in with this site. If I were to try and follow the ‘traditional’ gaming podcast show format, a la the Giant Bombcast or Weekend Confirmed, my show would be dead before it started. There are too many shows out there like that backed by major gaming sites, and I’m not as entrenched with the industry to support that format.
Could I come up with a unique angle on video game podcasts, like Robert Ashley did with the dead-too-soon A Life Well Wasted? If I had the creativity, maybe. Would I even want to do a podcast about video games? I don’t think I’d want to limit myself in terms of subject matter.
As badly as I want to come back, I’d want to do it right rather than doing it as soon as possible. If I can ever muster up a great idea with the right people behind it and the right production schedule, I’ll make it work. For now though, you’ll have to ‘settle’ with me in text form.
In Third Person 