The DJ Rollie D Story

It was October of 1999, and the world was getting ready to either turn a new millennium and century, or freaking out thinking that Y2K was going to shut down all of our computers and drop planes from the sky.  I wasn't really thinking about either of those, as I was a carefree two-year old who had no idea of how cruel and unpredictable the world was just yet. But one thing was for sure, and that was that I had a little sister just entering the world.  Though I was originally supposed to stay with the cabin neighbors when Lydia was born, I ended up coming down with my parents, and being at St. Mary's in Duluth when it all happened.  Somewhere around my childhood home (not handy for this post sorry), one of us has a picture of all four of us together with my mother holding Lydia as she came into the world and me just sitting there all happy and smiling, my father standing off to the side with a calculating look as my sister was just getting acclimated to the world....

Back when I was younger, I had aspirations to be a voice actor.  In some ways I still do, but those have been mostly superseded by the thrill that is being on the radio.  I would practice different voices everyday, trying to get into accents and certain dialects.  Some would work and others would not, as is expected when you're trying to gain exposure in this industry or even just simply get a start.  How voice actors and actresses such as Frank Welker, Seth McFarlane, and even Nancy Cartwright can do it so easily floors me to no end. When I was on my high school's Speech Team Senior Year, it was mentioned to be by one of the coaches that not just one, but all of my voices sounded like, or at least had a little bit of my announcer's tone in there.  I had to stop and think for a split second.  Had the announcer's tone that I developed over the preceding four years crept up into my work as a Speech Team member?  I went back and forth with the co...