10 Questions with ... Pete Gustin

Please give us a brief career synopsis...

I started as an intern at WRKO in Boston while in my freshman year at Boston University. My internship expanded to WEEI, where I began to learn production and took an interest in voiceovers. I did traffic reporting for WBZ and DJ'd a show on Cape Cod while also working for a syndicated comedy company doing movie trailer spoofs. After graduating B.U., I became the Imaging director for WEEI and WRKO. 2 years later, I moved to New York to take a job in production at Sirius Satellite radio (before the merger with XM). After 9/11 I came back home to Boston and rejoined WEEI and WRKO where I remained until 2013 before striking out on my own as a full time voice over artist and production guy.

1) When did you first realize that you wanted to specialize in production?

I actually always wanted to be a voiceover guy, but at the age of 18 with zero training and a pretty hefty Boston accent, there wasn't anyone that would be willing to work with me or produce my stuff, so I took it upon myself to learn the skill and quickly learned that I had a knack for it. I really enjoyed the process of creating pieces and even as the VO career took off, I never wanted to give up the joy and satisfaction of creating great audio.

2) Where is your work currently heard?

I was just recently named the new voice of Fox News so I'm all over that. My voice and production are heard all over radio stations in the U.S. and around the world ranging from the French Riviera to Ghana and beyond. I work with pro and collegiate sports franchises and am the Premium Voice of TuneIn where I also have the opportunity to produce imaging for 5 music channels. In total, I have over 200 existing clients, so if you're listening to the radio, TV or to something on your phone, you'll probably hear me somewhere pretty soon.

3) What unique challenges are presented by your disability, and how do you work around them?

Well the BIG disadvantage is the fact that I can't actually "read" any copy. It was actually the main reason I almost never even got into VO's. I was told a long time ago that such a disability would make it so that no one would ever want to work with me due to the problems my eyesight issue posed. Over time, I developed an "ear prompter" system that allows a computerized voice to read copy into an earpiece that I wear and I basically just repeat after what I hear. It was insanely annoying at first, but it was my only workable option, so, after years of training, I've finally mastered the skill and can now work just as quickly as anyone else who "reads" in the more traditional way. I do have "some" eyesight so when I do production, I just use a rather HUGE monitor and....well...looking at big fat wave forms is a lot easier than seeing words on a page so the nose to the monitor usually does the trick for me with Pro Tools.

4) What's the most challenging project that you've been involved with?

Doing the first round of imaging ever to be heard on Satellite radio was insanely challenging. In the year 2000, Sirius was staffed with a great group of people...none of whom had much if any radio experience. I came into the building as one of the only guys that knew "radio" and had the unique opportunity to explain our business of "imaging" from the ground up to a lot of people. Our staff quickly expanded and more radio pros were brought onto the team in very short order, but the early days were some of the most unique and exciting I've ever had. Creating a brand identity from scratch was a really cool opportunity.

5) Tech Set-Up... what kind of mics/processing/software/plug-ins, etc. are you using?

I use a Sennheiser shotgun mic. it took me years to finally land on the MKH. I had spent most of my life using different condenser microphones but finally got a chance to try the shotgun and never looked back. I run it through a Prism Lyra 2 for D2A and pre-amp. For radio work, I'll compress and EQ and pro tools. For TV...it's just the EQ.

6) What's the most unusual request you've ever received?

A program director of mine once came into my studio, handed me a CD and asked me to delete track 3 off of it. It was not a rewritable CD. I extracted the disc to my computer, deleted track 3 and burned him a brand new CD. He was very confused as to why it had different writing on it and couldn't' really figure out what I'd done with the original disc and why I'd done it.

7) Who are your mentors?

For production, I had always looked up to the first two men who ever taught me anything about production. Bill Smith at WRKO and Willy B! at the former Mix 98.5 in Boston. As an 18 and 19 year old kid CONSTANTLY asking them a million questions about EVERYTHING, I am surprised that neither of them locked the studio doors and banned me for life. Instead, both of them took amazing amounts of time to teach me anything and everything I wanted to know. I owe a lot to the two of them. For VO's, I've always looked up to Bill Ratner, Scott Rummell, Andy Geller, Ben Patrick Johnson and Brian Lee. I admire them all not just for their sound and skills on the mic, but also for their work ethic and incredible professionalism.

8) What is the most challenging part of the job?

Staying fresh. I started doing this when I was 18 and I'm going to turn 40 this year. I've probably written, voiced and produced literally hundreds of thousands of pieces and the daily challenge is trying to stay fresh. It's easy to fall back on some of the old ideas you had a decade ago. I think that's quite common....but the fun and challenging thing to do is to keep trying to find new and interesting ways to make clever and engaging audio.

9) These days, imagers have full plates with multiple stations and responsibilities. What's the best way to get everything done on time?

The MOST important thing is organization. When you get a new library, spend a lot of time just getting to know it. Learn where all the best elements are and really familiarized yourself with it. the fastest way to make great production is to not spend a lot of time poking around and looking for the right sounds. Its' better if you already know where they are and you can just grab 'em really quickly.

10) Where do you find new production and voiceover talent?

That's a good question. I spent YEARS looking for great production elements. I tried almost every library out there. Eventually, I just sat down and made my own. I call it Tirade and it is the perfect library for what I do. For VO, I'm a little partial to the sounds that come out of my own mouth, but when I need to use someone else I always reach out to agents at the top VO agencies for great recommendations.

Do you have a favorite hobby outside of voicework?

I just recently moved to San Diego and took up surfing. It's been amazing for me. Having been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease at the age of 8, my eyes have had a very long time to progressively get worse and worse. I can no longer play any ball sports (baseball, tennis, football) and even riding my bike around town has become dangerous (to say the least). Out on the water though, all I need to do is swim out a little bit....and wait for a wave. You hardly even need to look for it. When one is coming in, you feel it. It's been really liberating for me and it's something I really enjoy doing almost every time I can get out of the studio.