BWW Interviews: AJ McKay, Voice Over Artist and Sound Designer

His name might sound familiar. You probably wouldn't recognize his face. But if you live in Louisville, then chances are you've been listening to AJ McKay's voice for over 20 years.

If you live outside of Louisville, you're hearing him more and more.

The Louisville native has gone from making homemade radio programs in his bedroom to working both on-air and behind the boards of numerous local radio stations to being an internationally-acclaimed voice artist, creative director and sound designer. And he does it all from his home in Shively on the southwest side of Louisville.

"Who knows what you want to do for a living when you're 14?" McKay said. "I had no idea." But his artistic journey started with a technical bent. McKay had a knack for electronics such as boomboxes and sound mixers. He built a home studio in his bedroom and made homemade 90-minute programs using commercials and sound elements he recorded off the radio.

McKay sent his shows in to Peter B and Joe Caruso, morning personalities for local station WDJX in the late 1980s, who would play them on the air. "I was in the middle of puberty," McKay recalls. "They thought (my shows) were hilarious." He called in one morning the claim the credit for his work and began making himself known to DJX staff by showing up at live events and "hanging out."

McKay found other inroads to the airwaves. He took the helm of his own evening show at the age of 15 in the 6-to-9 pm timeslot on WTMT, operating out of what he describes as a "small shack" in the parking lot of the downtown Holiday Inn. "My mom and dad would drop me off and then pick me up when my show was done," McKay says. "I would do my homework in between spots."

After graduation, McKay took stints at numerous other stations in the area. During this time he became "obsessed" with engineering and manipulating audio, doing voice work, producing radio spots and engineering other artists' work.

McKay took his obsession entrepreneurial in 1996 with the creation of AJ McKay Creative, doing freelance production as well as the voiceovers at which he was becoming more and more adept. The new venture called for a new name - or rather, or change from Chris Jackson, his radio pseudonym at the time, and that of another radio personality.

"So I became 'Action Jackson,'" McKay says. "Then I became McKay because it rhymed and I can't remember anything from even 20 minutes ago."

McKay continued his radio duties in Louisville and for an eight-year stint in Mobile, AL from 1996 to 2011. By then, on-air and production duties were becoming stale.

"I got to a point of not wanting the on-air or production director jobs," he says. "I hit a ceiling, had nowhere else to go."

It was attending a voiceover workshop with legendary Porky Pig voice actor Bob Bergen at the 2011 Louisville International Festival of Film that pushed McKay firmly onto the path of making a career with his voice. "(Bergen) lit that fire," he says. "He said 'What are you waiting for? If you have a dream, why are you not pursuing it?' I said, 'Yeah, I'm done'" with full-time radio.

McKay dove full-force into AJ McKay Creative, investing in new technology, crafting his demos and refining his production work. His pursuits quickly paid off in the form of a phone call from Randy Thomas. The longtime announcer for Entertainment Tonight and live voice of The Oscars, Emmys and Tony Awards sought his services for audio editing. McKay handles engineering for Thomas to this day, producing demos and sending them to agents and auditions for her.

Thomas's call caught McKay by surprise so soon into his career shift. "When your idol calls you out of the blue, it's unbelievable," he says. "I thought it was a friend playing a prank on me. I said, 'Yeah right.' She said, 'No, really.'"

McKay has attracted the attention of some of the world's top voice talent. He is currently audio engineering "Living On Air," the autobiography of Joe Cipriano, original "image voice" of the Fox Network's comedy division (Don LaFontaine did the drama side). McKay's own prolific voice work can be heard on Louisville radio stations nearly constantly on spots for Broadway Across America, WWE, Meijer, Expo Five, network programming and much more.

On the voice side, the seed for McKay's passion is rooted in a simple place. "I'm a great mimic," he says. A great storyteller. I can take a story and embellish it, make it quicker and funnier than it actually was. I'm a studier of people. I listen to the radio, but I could care less about the songs. I listen to the people."

Though technology has made the voiceover game considerably less arduous, it is still very much an actor's lifestyle according to McKay. "Unless you're a Joe (Cipriano) or a Don (LaFontaine), you're not making thousands of dollars a month. And I may not be in TV or the movies, but it's something I'm passionate about."

Investment in his craft takes the form of newer and better technology, but also training and constant promotion of oneself. "It's hard work to learn the craft," McKay says. "People think they can 'American Idol' it with a $40 mic. That's not how it works. It's a lot of work and investment of time and money. You don't need a $3,000 mic, but you do need the skills. Get a good coach. Find someone who will work with you and show you the ropes. Learn, learn, learn. Get a really good demo, then go."

McKay's goals for the future include delving deeper into television promo and live broadcast gigs, something technology and a commitment to his work make highly attainable. "With where we're at now as a voiceover community, you don't have to live in New York or LA," he says. "You can connect to studios from wherever and get that big work. With cable, all the networks need a signature voice. I want to be doing that level of announcing. It's all about time and preparation. Any job you do, I think the people that succeed are prepared long in advance. If you phone it in or get complacent, if you say 'I don't need to learn anything else,' you're setting yourself up for miserable failure.

"To work with people like Randy (Thomas) and Joe (Cipriani) on a daily basis while living and working in Louisville is incredible. The industry is very supportive, but not easy. Joe's story is incredible: he started at 14, working his way up from a home studio. If I can achieve one-tenth of what he has, that will be amazing."

He adds, "It's a crazy world, but it beats digging ditches. I couldn't do manual labor to save my life.

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