Hi, I'm Wes

I’m a voiceover artist with more than seven years of experience in the industry. 

My goal is to share tips and tricks with you so you can accelerate your career. I learned everything through trial and error, and you can learn these tips just by visiting this website.

I started working at an FM radio station when I was 18, and since then I’ve worked on national television broadcasts, sports broadcasts, and livestreams. I regularly create radio commercials and voiceovers for clients, all while working from home on my own schedule.

 

My career timeline
Equipment I use
what you can do with vo tips
Wes Keeley, VoiceOver Tips creator

My Story

I’ve started VoiceOver Tips to help you accelerate your voiceover career by compressing everything I’ve learned since 2012 into one website. I hope you can use this site as a tool to better yourself and become a great voiceover artist (or learn a couple new tricks!)

 


Here’s my voiceover journey…

2012
Began Radio Career

In December 2012, I was hired as an hourly employee at a Canadian major-market top-40 station. My job was to work the board on December 26 and New Year's Eve, the days nobody else wanted to. After that, I worked the board on Friday and Saturday nights every week for nine months.

2013
Promoted to Radio Host

In summer 2013, I was promoted to on-air host. On top of this new role, I continued moonlighting as an hourly board operator on the top-40 station and its sister station.

2014
Learned How To Produce Radio Imaging

Listening to the radio all day, I developed an interest for radio imaging. Imaging is the bits between songs when a huge voice speaks the name of the station, usually with some massive in-your-face sound effects. The radio station I worked at already had a full-time imaging producer so the only way I could produce it was to start experimenting on my own. I put my skills to work by creating an Internet radio station from my bedroom.

This was also the year I completed my post-secondary education at a local community college.

2015
Left Radio Station

Over the course of the last three years, I had been picking up side jobs in an unrelated field on a regular basis. The income from those side jobs had become more than I was making at my hourly radio job. As a young, single guy trying to make ends meet, I decided to pursue the higher-paying work even though my passion was in radio. After all, I still had my Internet station to play with.

2016
Began Freelance Commercial Production and Voiceover

In spring 2016, the professional baseball team in my city approached me to help them produce radio commercials. They had signed a broadcast agreement with a new radio station which didn't have the manpower to produce a mass amount of radio spots. This is when my freelance business started to take off. I produced dozens of commercials the first year and got the opportunity to voice the imaging for the baseball broadcasts.

During this time I also began marketing my commercial production services online. Over the next few years I continued doing this, while also working with local video producers providing occasional voice work for their videos.

2016 - 2019
Career Change (kind of?)

From 2016-2019, I continued focusing on the side jobs (live events and sports) which ended up becoming a primary source of income.

I concentrated most of my effort on the side-jobs and coasted along the way in my voiceover business, accepting the odd job here and there but not really promoting it.

2020
Full-Time Voiceover

Like with a lot of people, March 2020 affected my career in a big way. Due to the freelance nature of live events and sports, 100% of my regular income for the foreseeable future disappeared over a few days. Big challenge.

This is when I decided to focus solely on voiceover work. I had all the equipment at home and all the time in the world.

I now work on voiceovers for only a few hours a day from home and bring in enough income to pay my bills and put some into savings. The only thing I would do differently is to have started a few years ago!

My Equipment Chain

Here’s what I use for voiceovers:

  1. Electrovoice RE20 Microphone
  2. Triton Audio Fethead Mic Booster
  3. Presonus Audiobox iTwo
  4. Sony MDR-7506 Headphones
  5. Mac Pro
  6. Adobe Audition
Equipment Chain flowchart

Demos

These resources can give you a feel for what you can accomplish as a voiceover artist.

Radio Voiceover Demo

Select voice work from FM and internet radio imaging and commercial projects.

Radio Production Demo

Audio I've produced over the past few years as a radio producer.

Corporate Video Narration

Corporate Voiceover Read

This read was for a promotional video.

Video Ad Voiceover

Voiceover for an Internet video ad.

VoiceOver Tips