An Experience at an Italian radio station!
It all started on a sunny day in May when I was introduced to a friend of Felice's, an American DJ called Spencer with a voice not too dissimilar to the late Barry White's. After explaining that I had done some radio work in the UK, Spencer gave me the number of an ex-colleague at Radio Selene, a popular station in the nearby town of Corato. Give it a try, Spencer encouraged me, they like English voices.
Felice telephoned the relevant person who seemed interested in what I had done and could I go and see him to talk about it further? Of course that would be possible, Felice responded on my behalf!
So at the end of May we drove to Corato. I was apprehensive to say the least, what would happen if I was asked to speak over the airwaves in Italian!?
I relaxed a little when I met Luciano who I guessed was the programme controller. He spoke a little English and seemed extremely interested in my CV. Give me the name of a book, he said. The only thing I could think of at the time was Harry Potter. Ah yes, he said, my two year old son loves those books. Luciano then printed something out and I was led into a small recording studio, given a pair of headphones and the piece of paper about Harry Potter that was thankfully written in English, and was asked to read it out while a chap in the slightly larger studio opposite was ready to record it! I was slightly bemused to say the least but went along with it regardless.
Part one over, I was then handed something to read out in Italian! With literally no time to read it through beforehand, I began stumbling over words without a clue about what I was actually saying! That's when the laughter set in, but it was fun and it seemed to amuse Luciano. Back in his office, he began muttering about how I might be able to do some work for the station. I know! He suddenly said smiling. We have a comedy show on Saturday afternoons, I could get you to record some voiceovers whereby you act as a stern English teacher attempting to teach our DJ some useful English words and phrases!
With that decided, I left feeling quite pleased with myself and now await the phone call asking me to return ...!