The business of radio imaging is unique in that I, as a voice-actor and producer, often get a chance to work directly with my competition.  This gives me some perspective on how other v/o's operate.  What other industry do you get firsthand knowledge of your competitor's product because market conditions force you to use a competitor instead of your own product?  I like to think of it as "co-opetition".  It's a word coined by NASCAR on FOX analyst Darrell Waltrip to describe how drivers in competition with each other, tend to work together at times during a race to make it to the finish.  Through this coopetition, I've learned a few things about how to service one's clients.  It astonishes me how a number of voice talents appear to "sit on" work. 

I've had some experience with this happening in the freelance world where the v/o takes, at times, two or three days, to turn around a script.  I'm being bombarded with emails from the client asking why I don't have the production done within a few days and I haven't even gotten the v/o.  Suddenly, I'm in a rush to do the complex portion of the project because voice talent (who has their own home studio, mind you) couldn't take the 10-15 minutes to read the copy in a timely manner.  Another horror story about poor voice turnaround comes from a fellow producer whose station voice returned the copy for the weekend promo at 11:35pm on Friday night!  HELLO?!?  The promo was scheduled to start 5 hours earlier!

I've always said that radio is not instant, but it is immediate.  There's a certain expectation of radio producers that they will receive their copy voiced within a reasonable amount of time.  I've had the pleasure of working with  some great talents who not only get me what I need within a few hours, but also go above and beyond, interpreting the copy in more than one direction to give me, the producer, options I never thought of.  Thus, I make it my mission to return my clients' scripts as quickly as I can, usually overnight, but most of the time within hours.  And also, to give more than just what's written on the page.