of likely interest to NYers only -- the voice revealed

[Clark Whelton]

In consultation with Michael Newman, I finally tracked down one of the
people whose recorded voice is heard on the new IRT subway cars in NYC
("Stand clear of the closing doors, please").  His name is Charlie Pellett
of Bloomberg News.  Before Mike Bloomberg was elected mayor, he apparently
volunteered the professionals at Bloomberg radio for the recording of
automated subway announcements at no cost to the city.  Charlie Pellett has
a distinctive way of  pronouncing "doors" (doe-ers).  And he wasn't born in
America.  He wrote:

"We had an opportunity to volunteer here at Bloomberg.   I jumped at the
chance (being an avid mass transit user and advocate) and started recording
the list of subway change announcements, including the "Stand Clear of the
Closing Doors" announcement.

Other voices from our radio station used in the subway system are Melissa
Kleiner (#5 train); Dianne Thompson (#2 train) and Jessica Ettinger (#6)
train.

Now where was I born?  Great Britain!  Came over as a teenager and imitated
people on radio to get RID of the accent! Thought you'd be amused!!!!"

# # #

- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Newman" <mnewman at qc.edu>
To: "Clark Whelton" <cwhelton at mindspring.com>
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: of likely interest to NYers only


> >Preliminary call from the MTA contact suggests Mr. Doe-ers might be a
> >computer-generated voice.  I suppose this is possible, but it sounds like
> >professional voiceover work to me.  The MTA is checking further.
>
>
> I agree. But what about the woman? They couldn't have done her vowels
> by computer generation.
> --
> Michael Newman
> Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
> Dept. of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
> Queens College/CUNY
> Flushing, NY 11367
>