BBC Coventry & Warwickshire responded with spirit to the idea of celebrating World Voice Day. Yes, they would like an interview with the VCN. This was confirmed, checked and broadcast on April 16 with Liz Kershaw on the Breakfast Show, accompanied by regular references to the VCN and World Voice Day among many other topics.
Teresa O’Connor came too. We were led, provocatively, by Liz to give our views on training to change peoples’ voices, the affect of accents and tone of voice and we finished by featuring Voice Catcher.
But there was more. Earlier Liz, the travel man and the news reader explored a range of accents, how they themselves had responded to voice training, tested their taste in voices with recordings of Margaret Thatcher, Dave Beckham, Barbara 4 Windsor, Janet Street Porter and more. They ran a careful interview with the University Hospital speech & language therapist on voice replacement after laryngectomy. Then, around 9.45 am (when we had arrived home) Liz run a planned interview with Dr Robert Sataloff, leading Otolaryngologist in USA. He had graciously agreed to be available around 4.00 a.m. in Philadelphia, and gave an excellent live interview. The three hour Breakfast show closed as he sang from opera and was given a singing response from Liz.
-Roz Comins