Whatever happened to radio DJs with cool voices? Have you noticed? I’m seriously getting tired of whiny DJs with weenie voices who grew up listening to Ryan Seacrest’s morning show thinking, “Hey, I wanna be like Ryan…” It’s a joke.
Personally, I’m a bit older and grew up during the heyday of radio in the 70s and 80s in Los Angeles. We had velvety-voiced DJs… Uncle Joe Benson, Bob Coburn, Jim Ladd, Steve Downes. Masculine voices who could intro a song, tell us a story about crazy sex parties in the Hollywood Hills, or laugh about the cocktail and joint lunches which were the norm back then.
Everything was delivered in a guttural tone, with eloquence, yet filled with relatability and a shitload of coolness. Their voices made us “see” the disk jockeys as mythical messengers of music lore, spinning a dulcet web of hip, cool, and folklore. Sure, they were ugly as fuck, but we never actually saw them…
I didn’t care what Jim Ladd was selling me in the spots he read. I wanted to buy it! And when he delivered a sermon on a band, a song, or an ideal, he made you listen… and you heard every word.
I guess a lot of it was due to everyone being a smoker back then and how it affected their vocal cords. It’s really too bad you needed to develop lung cancer to sound like a cool motherfucker. Unfortunately, I don’t think vaping or e-Cigs produces the same result.
So now, we’ve inherited a bunch of castratos who couldn’t find their lower register if you gave them sulfur hexafluoride. I don’t want to name names but here in LA there are a couple of DJs – they’re brothers – who work on competing stations. One’s voice sounds like Flint Lockwood while the other can only be described as weak.
For Christ’s sake, I just want to be able to turn on the radio and hear a manly voice introduce a song, read the news, or sell me a vape. I just want to hear a voice that doesn’t force me to reset my bass settings.
