We lost a great one this past weekend with the passing of voice talent Bill Thomas.

Bill was a throwback, a character, a curmudgeon, as well as a true professional, and if you ever had the chance to get to know him you probably have a story or two to tell. To honor Bill, I’d like to share some of those stories, along with some of the incredible work that Bill did behind the mic.

Bill will always be remembered for his big voice. As fellow voice talent Joe Van Riper said the other day, ‘God must have needed a better voice’. And that’s saying something, coming from a guy like Joe.

He was such a staple at the ProComm studios that it’s hard to imagine him not being around. Before the days when everyone had a home studio you could usually find Bill in the ProComm talent lounge talking politics (As Bill would say, he was ‘somewhere right of Atilla the Hun’ in his political views), sharing stories and arcane trivia, or just dozing on the couch between sessions, with Mike Burke, the studio cat napping on top of him.

I remember one session years ago working with Bill and Lindsay Ayliffe on a spot for Chili’s. Given a short piece of country music and a few lyrics Bill and Lindsay brought to life this classic scenario of overbearing boss and quirky employee, sitting around the campfire… in the office. It was Bill’s idea to have the boss join in the sing along.

Bill Thomas and Lindsay Ayliffe for Chilis

btw, that’s Bob Morgan, another great talent from the old days as the announcer. I imagine Bob and Bill are up there in heaven right now riffing on Bugs Bunny characters.

Another favorite of mine comes from the ‘Welcome to Procomm’ skits that we sent to clients as promotional material. George Olsen was the writer on this piece. It still makes me laugh today. James K Flynn is our spokesperson, Harry Resonance, and Bill is the memorable Herb Glottle.

Welcome to ProComm – Herb Glottle

Here’s how ProComm producer and voice talent Dan Friedman remembers Bill…

From a whisper to a scream Bill Thomas could do it all. There are few voices that are as big and booming and yet still as versatile as was the voice of Bill Thomas. There are even fewer people left in this industry who have the knowledge, perspective and technical skill that Bill possessed.

While Bill was often cantankerous and opinionated outside of the booth, he was also supportive and caring of those around him. He could drive people crazy and even make a person angry when he expressed his personal views and thoughts about the world. However, he never said a bad word about anyone personally. In fact, whether you agreed with him or not, he would still treat you with genuine respect, care and concern.

He was always at his best when he was in front of the microphone. I will remember him most fondly for being incredibly diverse, remarkably charming and exceptionally talented. His comedic timing, microphone technique and copy interpretation were all pure perfection. He was generous with compliments to the talent around him, including the writers, directors and engineers. He had a great ear and never complained about doing more takes if needed. He generously offered to work “until the point of diminishing returns” as we would frequently say. It was as though he never wanted to leave the mic.

I will miss working with you Bill. I will end with the same words with which you often ended your recording sessions, “It was an honor and a pleasure.”

Dan Friedman

Dan put together some of Bill’s best material in this audio collage. It reminds me just how versatile he was.

Bill Thomas – voice collection

A lot will be said about Bill the voice talent. Here’s a note from fellow voice talent Anne Lalley about Bill the man.

I always told Bill that I loved him in every session. Bill was not only a great talent with an amazing voice, but more importantly, a true blue friend. I loved working with him. He was always so supportive in and out of the studio. Once when my car had broken down and I was worried about the expense, Bill stepped outside on the old ProComm front porch, opened his wallet and said, “Take what you need.” And he meant it, no strings attached. I’ll never forget his kindness.

Anne Lalley

That was Bill Thomas. A great talent, and a great guy.

So what do you remember most about Bill?

***updated***

Fellow producer and voice talent Zak Miller passed along this note:

I was going through my archives and found a Disney Tower of Terror tool kit from ’03 (hence the ‘wxyz’ ref) and thought I would let you guys hear some magic from Bill that you may have never heard.

He had such a range and a gift for this craft.   I always told him that when I grow up I want to be your voice!

Bill Thomas – Tower of Terror

The hospital read. It requires compassion, confidence, caring, and empathy.

For any voice over to be effective there needs to be an emotional connection between the words and the listener, but when representing a hospital or medical institution it’s especially important for the voice talent to bring these emotions to the read without becoming melodramatic.  In this installment of ‘Who’s that Voice?’, hear how some of the professional voice talent from the ProComm Voices talent roster approach this type of delivery for our clients.

One of ProComm’s most in-demand voices for hospital voice overs,  James K Flynn can be heard in markets from coast to coast. Here’s a sample spot for Fox Chase Cancer Center…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnSmtE1buc

Grace Cantrell is another ProComm Voices talent who does a lot of medical voice overs. Hear her on this spot for Baptist Healthcare:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLKe4BD_RZo

Dave White provides the voice for cancer care at Brookwood Medical Center:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WVhhOt-Mbc

Check out Mare Carmody’s read on this TV commercial for Hospital for Special Care:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QtNfhehMnA

Listen to how Meredith Love’s read, combined with a rhythmic music bed, adds an edge to this hospital spot for Sacred Heart Hospital:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8oNrfpJ_Co

Another ProComm Voices talent who frequently gets called for his hospital read is Bob Jump. Here he is on a spot for Memorial Regional Heart Center.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtiWux9RF4s

When the subject is newborn intensive care, a more delicate approach is required. Listen to Anne Lalley on this spot for SMDC Healthsystem:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjbXWDQUP8

Jacqui Fehl provides a compassionate voice for St. Thomas Heart Hospital.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1JovpaQMp8

You can hear more examples of hospital and medical voice overs in the hospital/medical business specific demo on the ProComm Voices site.

Providing voice overs for eLearning presentations is nothing new for us here at ProComm. Recently though, we had the chance to work with a client on a series of eLearning projects that not only presented a number of unique challenges, they also gave us the opportunity to provide a service that has great social value as well.

Shortly after contacting us, Ah-Ha! Media co-founder Mark Schoder stopped by our studios for a personal visit.  Mark explained that his company develops web-based programs for a variety of human resource issues, ranging from sexual harassment, to diversity, ethics, and violence.  The website/eLearning courses his company creates are tools to help school personnel recognize and deal with the interpersonal issues they face on campus each and every day.  They are also an effective, yet private means for students to learn to deal with the situations that happen inside and outside the classroom through a familiar technology.

The first eLearning component dealing with sexual harassment required nearly 60 voice talent and encompassed almost 6 hours of finished material. James K Flynn provided one of the main narrator roles, with various other ProComm voice talent acting as testimonial voices depicting a variety of difficult, yet true-to-life situations that occur in academic environments each and every day.

One challenge with a project of this magnitude is having a talent roster large enough to accommodate the whopping number of testimonial reads required. Several days of casting and scheduling preceded the voice over sessions, with ProComm engineers Garth Smith, Jeff Pittman, and Bob Peck all working on the recording.

Given the serious nature of the subject matter, the voice talent had to rely heavily on their voice acting skills to ensure the reads sounded honest and believable.  The voice talent also had to be diverse, to mirror a typical college and university population. ProComm delivered on all of these fronts while efficiently managing the hundreds of files used across several different versions. Here are a few sample reads from the program:

Emilie Brown

George Washington III

Chris Porter

Catherine Smith

Bill Munoz

Bill Ballenberg

Gregg Easterbrook

While some of the testimonial pieces feature serious issues and may be uncomfortable to record, the process becomes easier when you remember that the audio could end up helping someone struggling in a real situation.

The beauty of this eLearning project is that the subject matter is common to many types of industries.  After the college and university narratives are finished, Ah-Ha! Media will start translating the content for financial institutions, the travel industry and many other workspaces where interpersonal conflicts can interfere with workplace goals.

“Our company has had great success in recent years providing online training programs, but we never imagined the enhanced learning experiences we’d be able to offer thanks to ProComm. We’re looking forward to relying on the professionalism and expertise of ProComm and the talents of their voice actors as we develop our new Diversity and Discrimination program for the academic community.”

-Mark Schoder, Co-Founder, Ah-Ha! Media