10 Questions with ... John Willyard

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

When John Willyard is inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame on Monday night (7/10), it will mark the first time an individual in his profession of voice acting and imaging has been invited into the Hall.

Willyard's career started in 1970 with college radio in San Francisco. He was hired by a radio network at the end of his freshman year, and worked with network programming and the company's flagship station. From there, Willyard says, "I'll fast forward through my Top 40 years, where my dream was to move eventually to the biggest markets as a personality. After all, I was pulling down the biggest ratings with afternoons, beating my morning show and all other station departs … By the time I hit Atlanta and 94Q (where I also helped transition to Star 94), I was honing in on imaging voice work and producing the same. I finally went completely independent in January 1998 after having either moonlighted or having my station contracts absorbed by a production company."

He continues, "When I went solo, I never looked back, going to as high as about 100 Country stations, voicing CNN promos, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and then being hired in '96 to voice [what became] 20 CMA Awards and other specials they produced. But I honestly don't think my imaging voice work/voice acting would've happened had it not been for [Country radio consultant and 2012 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee] Rusty Walker (more below about his influence). Currently, I carry about 90 stations under annual contract, one that's been with me for 31 years."

His Marietta, GA-based John Willyard Productions is repped by Atlas Talent.

1. I recall when we first started working together, you still sent your sessions via FedEx on reel-to-reel. How else have you seen the business change since then?

You mean people don't get their audio tracks back on reel any more? Silly me!

Yeah, gone are those days (but not completely forgotten) of reel, DAT, CD, preparing overnight packages and driving them to a pickup box by a deadline. Wow. It's so flexible now, plus enjoying benefits aside from attaching an audio file to email, such as Source Connect, an easy, real time direct digital connection anywhere in the world with affordability. ISDN got so expensive (as well as costly boxes like Telos Zephyr) and, frankly, the big carriers wanted to phase out ISDN anyway. I love the immediacy because of the internet, and sometimes send work back, especially revisions or pickup lines, within five minutes just to show off!

Obviously, there's a plethora of production tools that make it easy to deliver clean audio. I edit my work even to the degree of removing mouth noise, clicks, most breath marks, etc. I happen to have always liked Pro Tools. I've discovered one other voice guy who does this routinely, a well-known News/Talk imaging voice. OK, enough of that. Can you say OCD?

2. What are your thoughts on AI and how it will impact what you do?

My go-to answer lately has been to echo what the great animation voice actor Pat Fraley has said. He didn't believe that AI was a threat because it cannot replicate real voice acting because of such dynamics as exaggeration, shadings, subtleties, changes of emotions, etc.

I don't see that it will affect me personally, although someone pointed out recently that with the volume of voice work I've done, thousands of words and combinations are in the vault somewhere. It reminded me back in a pre-AI world that estates of famous voices, like that of the late Ernie Anderson (best known for his ABC-TV promo voice), claimed that even after he'd passed, Ernie could still voice your station. That was over 20 years ago.

There are so many unknowns, it's still kinda scary. I recently voiced an audition for which I signed an artificial intelligence/synthetic rider. Those documents, as well as SAG-AFTRA proposals, are quickly being formulated to protect voice artists.

3. You are the first voice actor to be inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame. What was your reaction to hearing the news earlier this year, and what are your thoughts on being a pioneer in this regard?

I'm very humbled and honored, but at the same time, as I scan the decades I've devoted to this, I believe that I was a forerunner, maybe not THE forerunner. I should leave it at that and let my work speak for itself. I'm thrilled that this segment of the radio industry is now officially recognized. After all, what we in imaging do is heard more than any other voice on the station.

I was reminded over 25 years ago by a very respected programming chief for a large company, "John, you are the personality of the station." I've taken that to heart.

4. Many voiceover actors pioneered the idea of working at home many years before it became fashionable during Covid. What is your current studio set-up?

I've worked out of three home studio set-ups over the past 25 years. Currently, I've got a comfortable and roomy 23 x 13 foot built-out studio in the terrace level basement. The key, acoustically, is five 4 x 6 foot, 2-inch thick acoustic panels. That end of the room is where I place the microphones and my recording gear.

5. What is a normal workday like for you?

I like to look at the auditions that come in and get to those first. I try to warm up my voice for several minutes. One prominent TV promo voice I know spends 30 to 45 minutes on vocal warm-ups before he touches any copy. I need to get some of his discipline!

I try to move through turning around recordings fairly quickly, and try to [do them] in [the] order that they came in, but some are high priority, and I'm sensitive to that. Oftentimes it's good to take a voice break. Sometimes I get out and do a hike/run to break it up (gets my steps in too), then after dinner I can always "clear the decks."

6. Many people know you as the premiere voice of Country radio, and the longtime voice of the CMA Awards for two decades. What else have you done that people may not know?

Hmm … how about the time I voiced two comedy sketches (produced to video) that ran in the first hour of the "Academy Awards" the first time Jimmy Kimmel hosted? I'd auditioned for a role where I was to sound like Johnny Olson, the longtime "Price Is Right" announcer.

7. What's the one gig you have never had but would love to?

I'd actually still love to voice a high-end movie trailer, and would love to be cast in animation work too. I've done minor roles like that, but the biggies still elude me.

This one still surprises me: After having voiced two Bugs Bunny lines in a Six Flags Great Adventure TV spot over 20 years ago, someone has actually listed me as one of the authorized Bugs Bunny voices in a notation on a website called BehindTheVoiceActors.com. Sadly, I don't have a copy, but I remember how authentic my Bugs sounded! I still have no idea how they dug up that info.

8. I'm sure you go to great lengths to prevent this from happening (as you used to do prior to every CMA Awards you worked), but what happens if you catch a cold, and your voice sounds different?

Yeah, I live, eat and drink really healthy (no alcohol), insist on a daily probiotic and a few supplements, and illness really hasn't affected me in a long time. All that to say, yeah, I'm a little nervous occasionally about big roles approaching, but why worry? Fortunately, during my 20 years of working on the CMA shows, I was always healthy.

9. Many of us were influenced by Rusty Walker. That certainly was the case with you. Can you share a few words about Rusty?

I didn't know that my very first Country station, KZLA/Los Angeles, was consulted by Rusty Walker Programming Consultants, and soon I was asked several times a week for an audio demo. I'd always ask, "Who recommended me?" [The answer:] "Rusty Walker." He and his fine team really helped build my foundation quickly. I'm so glad that I was there to see his official induction into the Hall, and even have a favorite photo of him holding his plaque while on the Sony boat show [at Country Radio Seminar].

10. What other voice actors do you admire, and who were your early influences?

I remember voicing pieces in the vein of Orson Welles, so definitely Mr. Welles' gravitas and ability to powerfully interpret copy always moved me. As to promo voices, I love Ashton Smith (voiced movie trailers and network TV promos), Ernie Anderson from ABC-TV, late 1970s to mid 1990s. I also remember how impressed I was with the late Brian James' imaging voice sound.

Tell us three fun facts about yourself.

1. I became a serious trumpet player starting in third grade, and thought at one point that I wanted to be a studio musician.
2. I live-announced a Florida Governor's official swearing in ceremony, where Lee Greenwood sang live.
3. I fell out of a four door sedan going about 40 m.p.h., where I stood on the running board momentarily before landing on the pavement on a Labor Day weekend Saturday near Santa Monica.

What keeps you up at night?

Since we've been raising a [now] 15-year-old granddaughter for 11 years, you can imagine …