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In the UFC, there are many distinct voices. There's the ring announcer, Bruce Buffer whose voice generates excitement when introducing the fighters. There's also the voices of the color commentators, Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan whose excitement is contagious when reacting to a submission or knockout. And of course there's the voice of the outspoken UFC President, Dana White.
But there's one voice that always stood out for me. It was the mysterious voice of the announcer who does the PPV commercials on television. He has an amazing voice that reverberates a sense of urgency and anticipation. When I hear his voice-overs for upcoming PPV events, I feel I have no choice but to order the event right then and there.
Here is a sample of his voice-over work promoting UFC 94
I was lucky to land an interview with that wondrous voice. So with pleasure, I introduce Mr. Ken Osborne.
Hi Ken, thanks for taking time for this interview. Let me begin by asking, how did you get involved doing voice-over work for the UFC?
Ken: Well, about five or six years ago, I was working for a studio in Las Vegas, Nevada called Oakdale Post Audio and they did both audio and video as a matter of fact and Mike Sak, who is the producer for the promos for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, just happened to come to Oakdale Post looking for a voice for the promos and because I was doing other work for Oakdale, they were familiar with me and they were kind enough to recommend me and I auditioned for the gig and the rest, as they say, is history and I’ve been with the Ultimate Fighting Championship ever since.
Do you do any special preparation before recording a UFC PPV promo?
Ken: Well, as a matter of fact I do. I have been blind since birth and so part of the special preparation that I do involves transcribing each of the UFC promos into brail. What happens is Mike Sak sends me an email and my assistant reads it to me then I transcribe it into brail. If my assistant is out of pocket and we get a UFC promo to do at night or on the weekends, my wife, who is the main computer operator at Kayo Productions, which is the name of my company, operates the computer and we take dictation from the screen reader. My wife is also blind and she uses a screen reader called J.A.W.S., which is an acronym for Job Access With Speech. And so she uses the screen reader to tell me what the copy says and I’m able to transcribe the UFC promos that way. Also, before I call Mike to do the sessions, I read over the promos several times so that I am familiar with the copy because I’m not very good with what they call “cold copy.” There are some announcers who can pick up a piece of copy and read it as if they’ve read it a hundred times. That’s called “cold copy.” I’m not a good cold copy reader.
How did you get involved doing voice-over work?
Ken: In late 1979, I was asked to do a slide show for the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind which was located in Talladega, Alabama where my wife and I were living at the time. I was a DJ in Talladega and being a graduate of the Alabama School for the Blind, I was very honored to do the slideshow, but I was especially thrilled when I found out that the slideshow was going to be recorded at Boutwell Recording Studios in Birmingham. Boutwell Recording Studios was back then, and still is, the best place to take a demo tape or nowadays, a demo CD if you want to get started in freelance announcing, which is what I do. I’m known as a freelance announcer. Some people would call me a voice-over performer, depends on what social circle you happen to be hanging out in, but for the most part we’re known as freelance announcers. I’d always wanted to go to Boutwell but I didn’t have a connection at Boutwell and so when I got the opportunity to do the slideshow I was very excited because it would give me the opportunity to go to Boutwell and then do a demonstration tape while I was there. So I did. In January of 1980 I recorded the slideshow for the school and then I made a demonstration tape while I was there. And then in March of 1980, I was hired to do my very first freelance spot as a Birmingham announcer. It was for Birmingham Buick Dealers. I was hired by a lady named Ellen Bonnie who was with Sanky Two Advertising. From 1980 until 1984 I worked in radio all day in Talladega and then went over to Birmingham and freelanced at night. And then in 1984 I got the opportunity to get out of radio and become a totally independent freelance announcer and so on July 1st of 1984, my company Kayo Productions was born. We are now Kayo Productions Incorporated.
What do you find most challenging in doing voice-over work?
Ken: Probably the most challenging part of voice-over work these days is keeping the technology updated enough so that I can compete. There are an awful lot of freelance announcers, voice-over performers, whatever you want to call us, in the business so it’s very competitive, it’s not what you call cut throat, but it’s very competitive. There are a lot of us out there and so I suppose the most challenging part is letting enough people know where you are and what you do and just getting the right exposure you need in order to compete.
What is the most rewarding part of voice-over work?
Ken: The most rewarding part of voice-over work would be getting to hear a commercial that I’ve done a particularly good job on. I’ve done commercials before that were bad, sometimes because I was having a bad day and it was reflected in the commercial. And then sometimes the commercials are so bad because the producers don’t know what they’re doing and you do a bad job because you’ve gotten a bad producer. But when you meet that perfect producer who appreciates your work and the magic is there and you get on each others wavelength really quickly, that is probably the most rewarding part of the job. And I like it too because it’s one of those things you can either starve to death trying to do it or you can make a really fabulous living like the late Don LaFontaine had or maybe Ernie Anderson or somebody like that or you can kind of be sort of in the middle, like me, and pretty much hold your own in the business.
Are there any foods you avoid so as to not affect your voice?
Ken: Yes, as a matter of fact I do not eat ice cream during the day. Every once in a while I’ll fall off the wagon and eat ice cream but then I drink lots of water to wash the film away because if you eat ice cream, any dairy product, you take a chance on leaving a film in your mouth that makes it difficult to perform without constantly having to clear your throat. I just had a hamburger with onions are another…something else that will leave a film in your throat. As a matter of fact, I learned this the hard way one day. I ate a hamburger with lots of onions on it and the onions left the film in my mouth and it caused me to get my tongue tangled up and really do a bad job in an upcoming session. Not to mention the fact that if you eat onions and work in somebody else’s booth, you take a chance on stinking up their booth, so yeah there are certain foods, dairy products, onions, I have to be careful what I eat.
Have you ever used your voice to pull a gag, such as a phone prank?
Ken: The very first phone prank, the most memorable one anyway, was in 1967 when I called my sister’s father-in-law. She didn’t like him at all and so she asked me to call him and tell him that I was the devil and that I was going to come get him. Even at the age of 17 I had a deeper than average voice, and so I called him and pulled the phone prank and his response to my phone prank was so funny that I had to hang up during the prank because it was hilarious. I had called him and I said [in a deep voice] “Is this the residence of John T. Morgan, Sr.” and he said [in a nerdy voice] “Yes it is.” I said “Are you John T. Morgan, Sr.” and he said “Yes I am.” I said “Well do you know who I am?” “No I don’t.” “I am the devil.” “You what?” “I am the devil.” “You what?” “I am the devil.” ““Well let me tell you something. "I don’t give a damn who you are!” I said, “I’m going to come and take you to my house, and you know where that is.” And he said “Well you better bring a bunch of devils with you cause it’s going to take more than just you to get me there.” Well at that point, I lost it and had to hang up the phone.
Another phone prank I pulled was in the summer of 1972. I had learned to imitate the president of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind who, at that time was a gentleman by the name of Dr. W.W. Elliott, I don’t know what the W.W. stood for, I heard it stood for Woodrow Wilson, I don’t know. But the late Dr. Elliott who was the president of the institute at that time…somebody put me up to calling one of the secretaries at one of the departments in the institute and inviting her to lunch as Dr. Elliott. And we accidentally scared the poor lady to death because she thought she was being invited to lunch to be fired. I used to mimic teachers at school, I pulled pranks that way. Unfortunately, call ID has greatly cut down on my ability to do phone pranks. Now my phone pranks are limited to leaving weird messages on people’s answering machines. But I can’t do any more personal phone pranks anymore because of modern technology. But I have had my share of fun with that yes.
What is your advice for anyone looking to get into voice-over work?
Ken: Find a good voice-over class. See whether or not you have talents to get into voice-over work and if you find that in fact you do have enough talent to get into voice-over work, make a demo tape. Don’t go to just any voice-over class because not all of them are reputable, some of them will take your money and run. And then once you’ve made your demo tape, you have to be infinitely patient. You have to be like a cross between a fisherman and a dynamite salesman, you have to be infinitely patient, but you have to be ready to move very quickly with very little warning because voice-over work, a lot of it is done via email, the ISDN lines, and customers don’t like to wait. Instead of making our lives easier, modern technology has simply sped life up and a lot of my clients are instant gratification people. If I don’t serve them quickly when they call, if I don’t answer the bell enough times, they’ll find somebody else who does a better job taking care of their needs. It’s a very competitive business, it’s tough to get into, tougher than it’s ever been.
So I guess if you had to put my advice in a nutshell, it would be, be diligent and be patient and be ready. It almost sounds contradictory, but that’s what you have to do.
