-
"Dream Doctor" McPhee Sets Last Show
October 2, 2006 at 5:58 AM (PT)
What do you think? Add your comment below. -
Syndicated "THE DREAM DOCTOR SHOW" host CHARLES MCPHEE's fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- LOU GEHRIG's Disease -- gets attention from the NEW YORK TIMES, which reports that MCPHEE will have his final broadcast as host of the show on OCTOBER 21.
The TIMES story chronicles the attempts by MCPHEE and SPRINGHILL SYNDICATION President GEORGE OLIVA to keep the show going with some form of artificial voice synthesis -- a system to allow MCPHEE to type answers to callers that would be heard in a computer simulation of MCPHEE's own voice -- but AT&T's Natural Voices technology was too pricey ($300,000). Also, while the freeware MODELTALKER software developed by DUPONT HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN's Dr. TIM BUNNELL worked, the results sounded too robotic and to make it work better would have required MCPHEE to spend too much time in production.

