What are the chances that an election would be going on in Canada and the US at the same time. Pretty good if you consider that, in the US, a child could be born when the election process starts, and be walking and talking by the time it finishes. In the US the candidates have high priced image consultants that make sure that they look good and show personality. In Canada, not the same thing at all, a couple of the leaders are pretty stiff. It’s so bad, that big drug companies are trying to hand out a few nicknames, Harper is toying with the nickname, Viagra, and Dion seems to be heading for, Cialias. Lets face it, in Canada it’s really a race between the Conservatives and the Liberals and the one thing that either leader wants is, E. D., which stands for “Election Deficit”. Who’s going to win, well it’s “hard” to say. Who ever wins, with nicknames like that, you just know what they’re going to do to Canadians over the next 4 years. Now, everyone wants to know who’s going to win the US election. I’m going to make a prediction here, which based on the amount of displayed lawn signs. McCain or Obama who has more signs? As I see it right now the winner will be some guy by the name of.... “Foreclosure”. Which ever country you live in, on election day, just get out and VOTE! Thanks for the read. Bryan Cox
Well Halloween is almost upon us and the search for the scariest costume starts. This year if you really want to scare folks I would suggest dress up as the past CEO of Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac or Lehman Brothers. People will recognize you right away because of the limo your riding in and the golden parachute strapped to your back. You must also barge up to every door while kicking the little people out of the way. It’s very important to remember that when you arrive at the door and the person scolds you for your abuse of the little ones, you must say “Sorry it wasn’t my fault and by the way I need at least half your candy before I leave...you owe it to me”. If you really want to have some fun at this time of the year here’s a plan. I always get weird looks when I do this. Here’s what you need...a spray bottle filled with water, a long dirty trench coat and a very crazed shaky appearance. During the busiest time of the day, go to the store. Before you go in spray your face with the water. Now go a get a bag of apples and a package of razor blades. Head up to the check up line, with water slowly dripping down your face, start rolling your eyes, throw in a few shaky jerky movements, then turn to a few folks in line and say something like...” I love Halloween, hope there’s tons of kids this year”.
Have a safe and happy halloween kids and thanks for the read. Bryan Cox
Did some digging and came up with a few pics from back in the day. These are from my days working in Radio. Ahhh memories of hair, only one chin, bad shirts and silly glasses. Back in those times it was a real coup if you could snag an interview with a star. One day I heard that Wolfman Jack was coming to town and I got more than just an interview. After a set up interview, he asked, if he could sit in while I did my 6 hour on air shift. We had a great show... together. Then after he invited to his gig in town ...I even got to give him an intro and bring him up on stage. His show ended and we drank into the wee hours of the morning and talked about how radio had gone down hill. This was one of the highlights of my career for sure. In the late 70’s I found myself working for a country station. I made about 50 calls and ended up interviewing Dolly Parton and Faron Young all in the same night. Hope you enjoy the pics. Thanks for the read and comments are always welcome.
Who knew Canada had a porn industry. Well it looks like it’s about to boom. There’s going to be a new channel for Canadians. Here’s a bit of an article from The Broadcaster Magazine.... “The applicant stated that the proposed service would be Canada's first adult video channel offering significant Canadian adult content. The applicant indicated that it would also air the adult versions of Real Productions' cable television series and produce its own adult movies, events and series. The CRTC noted that it did not receive any interventions in connection with this application.” I came ...I don’t mean that literally... up with some names for new Canadian Porn movies and Series for Real Productions. Feel free to ad your own Canadian flavoured names.
Names for New Canadian Porn....
Tim Horton in Double Double
Hockey Night in Candy
Anne of Green Gobbles
Mount-TEEn
The Beach Cummers
Bon Cock Bad Cock
Corner Ass
Little Harem on the Prairies
Winn-a-Peg...oops sorry that’s the new Canadian Pirate game show
This is from Perry Simon....and make a ton of sense. Radio doesn't need to be sexy. It has other advantages, like, well, the fact that unlike most other technologies, it has a nearly 100% market penetration. There's a radio in every car, in practically every home, at almost every bedside. It's not about convincing people to buy a radio; they already have one, or several. It's more intuitive than anything Steve Jobs can design, primarily because it's been around so long, people are practically born knowing how to use it.
And that leads to the problem: It's everywhere, sure, and people know how to use it. The trick is getting people to USE radio. The competition has invaded the same space that radio had to itself for the last 70 or so years, namely, the car. When I get into my car today, I can turn on the radio. I can also turn on Sirius or XM or my iPod or my EVDO cell phone or the music player in my GPS. That may be extreme, but a lot of people have at least the iPod connected, and Internet streaming audio is around the corner. No amount of marketing will convince me to get rid of any of that.
So how do you market radio to maintain or increase its share of listening? ("So, genius, what would YOU do?") I'd say the one surefire way to get people to increase radio listening, or pay more attention to radio, or think more highly of radio, is to develop and market programming that you can't get anywhere else. Instead of trying to sell radio as the Next Big Thing that it can't become, sell the programming. If that's hard to do when the programming's "another 10 in a row commercial free," that's another argument in favor of talk and personality radio. If the industry wants to spend a lot of money developing a campaign to market radio, perhaps the money would be better spent on talent development and luring creative people to work in the business and....
Okay, let's also recognize that the campaign is also aimed at media buyers and agencies and decision makers. Certainly, the fact that the radio group heads are doing the dog-and-pony show tour for the advertising industry indicates that there's a need to sell those folks on the relevance of radio in an iPod universe. But you're marketing to the marketers. They know what you're up to. They do that for a living. They can come up with counterarguments to everything you throw at them -- your huge audience is also an inability to narrowly target buys to specific demos, your it's-everywhere is also my-kid-never-listens. But if you can say that you have popular content unavailable through other media, that's something. Radio needs stars and hit shows the same way that TV needs "American Idol" and the music industry (and your iPod) needs hit records and satellite needs Howard Stern. (Stern... hmm... seem to recall a fella by that name around these parts...) Radio still has a few national and local stars, but it needs to develop and hold onto more of them. That takes time, money, and coaching, and that's a good topic for another Letter down the road.
Spending the money to develop star content instead of doing generic industry marketing, that's my fantasy. But there's probably no danger that anyone will listen. Maybe you have a better idea, or you violently disagree, or you think all hope is lost and it's time to man the life rafts. Let me know what you think at psimon -- at -- allaccess --dot -- com and maybe I'll do a follow-up with your suggestions. Think of it like I'm taking your calls. Or maybe it's like the Fairness Doctrine. (shudder)
Sorry I used that word “choice” because in China that word isn’t used much. Picking China as host to the olympics was a bad choice. Now the best athletes in the world have to travel to an over polluted, over populated, information wasteland for olympic gold. The air pollution is so bad that people have to wear masks as peddle their bikes. It’s no wonder that Chinese athletes do so well when they come to a western country to compete...they can finally breathe. The chinese government has software that funnels all internet traffic and communication back to them for screening. Now the government has TOLD all hotels that they have to install this special software in their internet systems before the games. Get this, the hotels have to buy the software from the government and pay to have government installers come out and put the stuff in. All TV, Radio, and Newspaper media is also monitored extremely close as well. If the Chinese government hears or sees ANYTHING they don’t condone, that media outlet will be booted out of the country. So you can bet that NBC and all the others will be playing it pretty close to the vest, so to speak. This is what we have to put up with from having the Olympics in China. Canada is hosting the Olympics in 2010 and you wouldn’t believe what going on in Vancouver. Trade Unions that are building the site are raping the government for more money!! Real Estate developers are doing the same thing when it comes to housing. Prices on just about everything have skyrocketed in the Vancouver area all because of the upcoming Olympics. To end off, I just feel sorry for the athletes because they are the ones that are being used as pawns in this whole thing. The Olympics have turned into a money grabbing, political extravaganza!! What’s next a Taliban hosted Olympics? Thanks for the read Bryan Cox
No one except the actors and crew were allowed on set. This is what they called a “closed set”. Just one of the terms I learned very quickly after being on the set of “Corner Gas”,which is Canada’s #1 sitcom. The night before I showed up for a costume fitting. At that time, was told to be on set at 10:30 am. When I rolled in the next morning, I was given a dressing room and my costume was waiting, all clean and pressed. Also waiting for me was my script and bottles of water. The A.D., the person incharge of the actors, told me that my scene was to be done at 11:30 but things were running behind a bit and expect to be working by 12:30. So I started to wander around this massive soundstage, all ready in my costume of the Passport Office Official that I was to play. One really great thing, was that all the other actors that were waiting were very friendly and extemely interesting to talk to. Now at 1:45pm I get the nod to get ready to enter the set. I take a short walk over to another building to where they have a small room made up to look like a Passport Customs office. A small podem-counter is set up against one wall. They tell me to take my place, which is behind the “counter”. There is a girl with a very low cut top standing in front of me. All the time I’m telling myself to keep my eyes UP. That was her job, a “stand in” for the other actor that I was to playing off of. The lights have now been set now was time for a practise. But just before the practise...a make up girl rushes in and powders my bald head...just to much glare...ha ha ha. The practise went off with out a hitch. I remembered all my lines. This amazed me. Now I introduce myself to the other actor. His name was Eric Peterson and his demenor was very calming for me. The camera and focus guys were busy getting all angels right as the lighting guys were tweeking the lights. All in all, there were about 30 people in this very small room. After another practise, it was time to shoot. Director belts out the word “Action”....All lines were said as per the script but my name tag was all wrong...so they rushed in another name tag. Then changed a few words in the script and off we all go again, this was a great take. But he wanted another one...just in case It was a great day. Kind of wierd for a guy who makes a living “behind” the mic doing voice overs, to be thrust infront of the mic with a massive camera thrown in for good measure. Thanks to everyone involved in that episode of “Corner Gas”. You all were very kind and supportive. If you want to see the episode it’s call “American Resolution” and will be shown in the final season. In the US it will seen on WGN and a few other stations sometime Nov 08. Thanks for the Read Bryan Cox
The one thing I wanted as a kid was to work in radio. My dream came true. When I was starting out I asked a seasoned pro what I had to do to become really good at this new profession. He told me “Read, read everything you can get your hands on. Even if you don’t like the subject Read son just read and learn”. I ran across this story at www.invisibleheroes.com now it’s your turn to READ
Jimmy was an abandoned baby. Mabel, a widow deep in poverty with two hungry children of her own. Washing other people’s laundry ten hours a day, Mabel earns barely enough money to keep them fed. To keep a roof over their heads, she works for a real estate man who moves her and the children from shack to shack to “clean them up and make them salable.” But poor though she is, Mabel can’t watch a baby go unloved, so she makes room in her home and her heart for Jimmy.
Throughout his childhood, Jimmy will wear old, second-hand clothes because that’s the best that Mabel can do. His shoelaces will be broken and knotted. He’ll never own a pair of skates, a bicycle, a baseball glove or a toy of any kind. But when his little town opens a public library, he and a girl named Margaret Mead will be the first in line to receive library cards. One day, as the pair are searching for books they’ve not yet read, the librarian says, “Goodness, Margaret and Jimmy, I believe you've read all the children's books we have! If you wish, you can start on the other shelves.”
Margaret Mead will grow up to author 20 books and serve as president of a number of important scientific associations, including the American Anthropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She will receive 28 honorary doctorate degrees from America’s leading universities and in 1978, be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As an adolescent, Jimmy hitchhikes his way from Pennsylvania to Florida and back again with only 35 cents in his pocket. By the time he graduates from high school, he will have visited all but 3 of the 48 contiguous states. In the Navy, Jim rises to the rank of lieutenant commander, serving on some 49 different islands in the South Pacific during World War II. Each night, he writes his thoughts and impressions in a journal.
“Sitting there in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering lamplight, I visualized the aviation scenes in which I had participated, the landing beaches I'd seen, the remote outposts, the exquisite islands with bending palms, and especially the valiant people I'd known: the French planters, the Australian coast watchers, the Navy nurses, the Tonkinese laborers, the ordinary sailors and soldiers who were doing the work, and the primitive natives to whose jungle fastnesses I had traveled.”
The book that will emerge from Jim’s journal will be published as Tales of the South Pacific and win the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. And by the time he’s done, James Michener will have written more than 40 books that will collectively sell more than 100 million copies. He will be granted more than 30 honorary doctorates in five fields and receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. His cash donations to public libraries and universities will exceed 117 million dollars.
It seems a child can learn a lot by just reading.
Thanks for the read, comments are welcome Bryan Cox bigbry@sasktel.net
Well not quite but did get a mention. This is going to be short but sweet. I have to thank Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone Magazine. He heard my new syndicated radio show “Old School” and did up a bit of a review. Here’s that review for you to peek at,
"Old School is a fresh nationally syndicated rock and roll radio show spanning out music from the 60s to the 90's. Old School's host Bryan Cox uses a unique strategy of grabbing the attention of his listeners. Cox is like your close friend who tell important truths. Good buddies who get you smiling again. “If as many rock shows played with the honesty and passion of Bryan Cox, this would be a different world indeed.”
- ROLLING STONE, ROB SHEFFIELD
Also the show has now been picked up by over 100 stations and is played across the US and Canada. Let me tell you I couldn’t be happier. Thanks for the read Bryan Cox
As a Voice Over guy there are a few places that a business person can go to get their commercials read by professionals, one of these is voices.com. For the voice over person this is a pretty good site to get your voice out there. They have different levels for the voice over person to join. All of these levels have a price tag. Now voices have unveiled a new level... “Platinum”. If you're a VO person you can check it out, click the link. Is it worth 2000 dollars ? You be the judge. I’d love to hear from someone who’s bought in on this. This exclusive membership will only have 100 members. Of course it won’t be the most talented 100 but the 100 with the most money. Voices Platinum Membership
As a voice over guy and stand-up I find myself being thrust into an unlikely new role. The Borderline Radio Network has asked me to host a weekly radio show, that’s now been picked up by them for syndication. This is a great honour and believe me a ton of fun. I’ll be running a show each week called “Old School”. This show features music and entertainment tid-bits from the 60’s through to the 80’s. Currently with a few complete shows done and in the can, things are looking up. I’m doing interviews within the 1 hour show. So far I’ve had great chats with, Tommy James of the Shondells, Ken Marco, guitarist from the group Motherlode, Rick Coonce drummer from the Grass Roots, Tom Wilson from Back to the Future, Don LaFontaine the Movie Trailer Guy, Ernie Hudson “Ghostbuster etc.” and have quite a few more big names coming up, but I’m always looking. This is where you can help, if you want. If you know anyone from the music, entertainment, political industries that were popular anywhere from the 60’s through to the 80’s, I’d love to talk with them. Even if you know an agent that handles these folks, I’d love to talk to them. If you want to pass on my email, please do. This is a labour of love for me and free promotion for them. So if you know anyone that might want a friendly fun interview, let me know…and by the way I don’t bite. bigbry@sasktel.net
PS, Also looking for National Advertisers too !! Here’s part of a press release,
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BORDERLINE RADIO NETWORK SYNDICATES “OLD SCHOOL WITH BRYAN COX”
PORTLAND, OREGON - Borderline Radio Network is proud to announce the addition of Old School with Bryan Cox to its blue-ribbon line-up of nationally syndicated programs. Broadcast to approximately 1 million listeners. Bryan dominates evening radio in more than 70 markets nationwide and internationally - among men and women 25-54.“I’ve been working with Bryan for a few years and have seen his on-air presence and can’t wait for station reaction,” said Mitchell Keller, President/COO, in announcing the acquisition. “Our talent leads the pack in music programming through the evening for both Country and rock music format.”“His infectious smile and sense of humor makes him a friend to literally thousands of listeners, proving that women and men will choose radio as their medium of choice in the evening,” Keller added.Bryan Cox has that smooth-toned voice when it comes to imaging, “The Back Porch Show.” Cox has 25 years of media under his belt, from imaging radio spots to hosting his first radio show, where he called upon Charlie Daniels to be his first interview. Bryan, a successful comedian who has opened for the likes of Tom Jones and is heard online each week on the feature “Road Stories of the Real Highway Comics” by an audience of 3 million people, prefers working with clients from his home recording studio, one on one. Thanks for the Read and if you’re one of the million listeners a week...I love ya!!!
A perfect commercial for Apple. I was on a flight recently and we were sitting on the tarmac waiting, for what I guessed, was our turn in line to take off. The pilot came on over the intercom and said..”Sorry folks but we’ll be a few minutes. We have a computer problem and I have to shut everything down and reboot the computer. It should take about 10 minutes...sorry about the delay”. The guy in front of me pipes up in a loud voice so that the whole plane could hear...”Great he’s using Vista”. That gave me an idea, being the smart ass that I am, in a matter of seconds...I stood up in the aisle and said in a loud voice...”Hello, I’m a Mac”. Hey, I got a free drink out of it. Cheers Bryan Cox
Bryan has worked
through
the ranks
of Voice
Over
Artists in
Canada
and the US. With over 25 years
in the business of Voice, it’s no
wonder that when people hear
what he is saying, they believe it.
His voice and sell, can be rock
hard, to as soft as a summer
breeze.
His clientele is as varied as
the styles he can portray.
From the Bay/Spielberg
Transformers movie,
Pink Floyd, Universal
Studios Florida, Sony,
The Humane Society,
Whirlpool,
Countrywide and more.
Bryan’s command of voice also
enters into impersonations
when needed. Bryan’s voice has
also carried him to be the
opening act for greats, such as
Tom Jones and Engelbert
Humperdinck.
The Comedian.
From Conventions, Clubs and
Fundraisers across North
America, Laughter is KING.
Bryan never disappoints, with
his own unique style of
Prairie humor. After suffering
a broken neck, heart attack
and Cancer all with in 3
years, Bryan knows how
important laughter is and can
be. Laughter is the Best
Medicine.
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