Kim Collins Voiceover & Imaging

It seems like so long ago…and it was really…almost 30 years…that I had my first…I think I’m gonna throw up cuz I’m so nervous…experience in front of a live mic.  The first time that I actually turned on a mic…I thought I was gonna shit my pants!  WTF…I didn’t learn about this in radio school.  Scared that I wasn’t gonna remember what to say…what the hell are my calls?  What sponsor am I supposed to plug?  What songs am I supposed to backsell…what songs am I supposed to front sell?..all the while sounding confident, upbeat..perhaps a little sexy…but hopefully never forgetting what to say and talking yourself into a corner.  The word “dunce” takes on a whole new meaning when you find yourself sitting in the corner behind the mic…not remembering what you were going to say.  It’s like a colt finding it’s legs…really shaky at first…but then hopefully  you find your way.  It’s so embarrassing…but it  happens to all of us.  It’s funny because I think that some of the biggest egos that I’ve worked with…have been in small markets.  Name recognition comes much quicker…but come on, lose the ‘tude!  So…in the beginning, it was rough.  Just saying the calls and positioning statement was about all I could fathom.  Then…I got really great at that…but also developed the dreaded “crutch”.  I would say the call letters the same way every single time…putting the emphasis on O.  Mankat-0000.  Mankato, MN…the cute little village that lived in while working at a top 40 called Z99.  The station was number 1, the talent was all well known because of the small market size and I really seemed to thrive there.  The program director was an OCD type lunatic…who programmed a hugely successful station.  He was great at programming, but his people skills sucked.  I can remember him calling first thing after doing his morning show…I did nights…for an aircheck.  I’m thinking…what a prick!  I hated airchecking with him…because… if I felt like I had been doing a dece nt job before the aircheck…I didn’t after it was done.  Leaving in tears and thinking that I was just talentless.  Although it really hurt…it toughened me up and helped to shape me as a jock.  Geez…I can’t believe that I would ever give this guy credit for anything.  But, through the tears I did start to find my voice.  I always knew that I never wanted to offend a listener.  I was always taught that the music is the “salad” and that the jock is the “dressing”.  I was  OK with that.  I had no desire to shsare my opinions…for the most part with my listeners…because my forte is music radio.  I always knew that I was there to entertain…not really to share my opinions.   So what was my niche?  Who was I talking to?  I decided…I’m talking to people just like me.  I put a picture of my family on the board in front of me…I felt like I would be most comfortable talking to the people I knew best!

I’ve never been a super political person…and didn’t until last year know that GOP meant Grand Old Party.  I have a really smart writer friend…who breaks everything down for me and explains it to me in a way I understand.  I really hadn’t paid attention to politics and all the bullshit that goes with it until the last presidential election.  I wanted to know the pros and cons of both Obama and McCain.  Then…like a fool, I voted for Obama!  No…in all seriousness…who knows who would succeed in that position…with all that on your plate upon entering the White House.  I was just trying to be educated.  So…last year we had an election in my town…electing city officials.  Seriously…I didn’t pay much attention to it…because I didn’t really understand what they were running for, what their positions in charge meant…I just kind of ignored it and didn’t vote.  I did know that my friend’s brother-in-law was running for one of the positions…but again, didn’t know much about it…so I didn’t vote.  The day after the election my friend said that her brother-in-law had lost by 2 votes!  Geez…I felt like a real loser…realizing that my vote really could have made a difference!  Tomorrow is Election Day and although I don’t know all the candidates…I have done some studying.  I didn’t want to go into the polling place and just blinding check off candidates names and yes/no answers.  I did a little research to find out more about the 3 ballot questions that we will vote on tomorrow in Massachusetts.  Question 1:  Should we remove a 6.25% state sales tax on booze?  Well…hell…I like a good bottle of Pinto Grigio just like the next lady…but it’s not gonna kill meet to pay a few pennies extra in tax.  Especially when I now know…by trying to become more educated…that Massachusetts has some of the highest rates of alcohol and drug abuse in the country and the last thing I’d wanna do is take money away from prevention and treatment services(which is where some of this tax money goes)…all to make alcohol more accessible!  Question 2:  Comprehensive Permits for Low or Moderate Income Housing.  Voting yes will mean that quality affordable housing is built and remains for our parents, children, teachers, and public employees.  Massachusetts needs more affordable housing.   Voting yes will repeal the current Chapter 40B statute, a law that promotes subsidized, high-density housing on any parcel of land without regard to local regulations, the neighborhood, or the environment.   By stripping away local control, it has destroyed communities in rural, suburban, and urban neighborhoods all while lining the pockets of out-of-state speculators!  Real nice!   The current statute does not build affordable housing.  Instead, it maintains a corrupt law that the Massachusetts inspector general has called a “pig fest” and “represents one of the biggest abuses in state history.”  A yes vote will stop this outrageous misuse of taxpayer money and allow cities and towns to build affordable housing for those who need it most.  Question 3:  Cut the state sales and uses tax from 6.25% to 3%.  Last year, the state Legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick raised the sales tax to 6.25%.  Thousands of people lost their jobs.  If we vote yes and roll back the sales tax to 3%…we’ll create nearly 33,000 new jobs in the state…and hell, Ray Charles could see that that’s a good thing!  Plus, bonus…it would give back an average of almost $700  every year to each taxpayer.  Considering that just about everyone knows that the nickname for Massachusetts is “Taxachusetts”…it just makes sense to vote yes on question 3.  This time around when I vote I can actually say…”yep, I know what I’m voting for”!

Went to see “The Town” last weekend.  Keep in mind…I see, on average, 1 movie a year.   Maybe it’s because I live here…maybe it’s because Ben Affleck is kinda hot…something about this movie just sticks in my mind.  I had read an article about how they prepped their accents for the movie…and that had really peaked my interest.   Obviously, Ben Affleck was a no-brainer, but his co-stars trained by listening to prison inmates and recordings of the well-to-do of Marblehead.  Marblehead?  For a movie based on Charlestown?  Nonetheless…it was a fantastic movie…made all the better by showing the inner dwellings of Boston…places that I knew!  Some of you may know that I’m a farmer’s daughter from SD…and we’ve never filmed anything like this in the good old land of Mt. Rushmore.  Kevin Costner did film “Dances With Wolves”…but come on, I want action and excitement not snow and tepees!  If you had to pick 1 movie for the year…it’s gotta be “The Town”.

The absolute best time of my career happened in the late 90′s.  Back when radio was fun and you actually interacted with listeners.  I was on the air at Eagle 93-7 and worked with the “master” Jo Jo Kincaid, Stella Mars, Pete Falconi, the late great Vinnie Peruzzi.  We had such a great crew.  I was making excellent money doing all kinds of club gigs usually promoting a beer.  I had so much fun filling in for Vinnie Peruzzi…he had the “Saturday Night Dance Party” every weekend at the old Rack.  Getting paid to party and walk around with a mic all nite and talk to people…it was the best!  The Eagle was just a really great group of people who all worked for a station that never really succeeded in the ratings.  But we had wonderful “old school” radio times…giving away a car at the Green Dragon…filling Government Center with 35,000 people to listen to Jefferson Starship, America, BTO etc.  It was “fly by the seat of your pants” radio…walking around with mics and headsets and delivering breaks from the crowd.  I’ll never forget sitting on some guy’s Harley…they were all lined up on Columbus Ave…and doing my break.  If you would have asked me 15 years ago if satellite radio was gonna put jocks like me outta business…I would have laughed.  I was so certain that it would always be that way.  But then it happened.  All of a sudden people were listening to all their favorite music without commercial interruption. Well, hell!  That’s the way that radio stations make their money…by airing commercials.  So, pretty soon, XM and Sirius were all over the place.  How could we compete with no commercials?   No commercials…but no real vibe.  DJ’s that are heard around the world…but no chance of getting a request in.   The live jock piece is missing…and that’s what I miss most.  Talking and interacting with listeners one on one.