Diane Williamson returns to WHAS and wants you to enjoy karakoe while benefitting Lifespan Resources
October 2, 2023 • 11 mins
Former radio personaility (and the voice of OnStar) Diane Williamson (and a cutout of her mom JoAnn) talks her WHAS career, the crazy aspects of voice work, and doing a little singing for Lifespan Resources and how you can have a good time and benefit their mission...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Let us, gentlemen, I haveanother of our broadcast legends in the studio
with me, one of the voicesthat have shaped our universe around here for
decades. That would sound good,Dane, That sounds pretty good. I
don't think it's Diane Williamson back atWhas where she belonged. She's been on
(00:21):
other stations. She was never ashappy as she was when she worked right
here with me. If you sayso, actually, I will say.
I will say that of all,and I have said this in your absence,
and so I can verify it's true. Anybody that has ever asked me,
oh, you know, what's Terrylike, or what's this other person
that I worked with like? Ialways can say Terry of all the people
(00:43):
that I worked with in radio,And please, I hope no one else
is offended. You were always soconsiderate and so helpful. I'll never forget
one time I was producing your bestof Minors show and it needed to come
on on a Saturday, and Iwas you know, I would usually do
it Friday night, compiled your bestclips from that week, and we'd run
the Shaw on Saturday. But Iwas ill, and you did my job
(01:06):
for me because I couldn't do it. Oh that's nice. Yeah, I'll
never forget that, and you knowyou're I forgot it, but I'm glad
that was nice of you to sayyou never know the impact you Well,
I like I like you know,my colleagues. I've had a great run
here. I'm in my thirty ninthyear here and I've we've we've had a
zillion great people, and I liketo see everybody succeed. I mean,
I've always felt that way. It'slike, well, you know, it's
(01:32):
the basics saying all boats rise andwe all benefit from that. But you
like to see somebody And you werea kid when you came to the door
too. You're making me feel oldwhen you're talking about how long you've been
here, because I was here whenyou were here, yeah after after I
was already here a few years.Yeah, but still, but you know,
it's good to see you. Andpeople know your voice because it's famous.
Well, I do tell people whereto go. Please explain that.
(01:56):
So a few years ago, maybeten years ago, on Stare was looking
for a new voice to replace thewoman who you know, they'd launched the
platform with, and I guess Iwas right in front of the right people
at the right time, and theydecided they liked me, and so they
selected me to replace her, whoshe was great. I don't know soon
I'll be replaced. You never know, right and it's there's way it is.
(02:19):
But I've had a nice tenure runof saying turn left now, fuel
level is low. I knew youwere going to give me some of those
frentacting and advisor, the one youdon't want to hear, and I really
did record this was vehicle event detectedcontacting an advisor that means you've wrecked a
crash. There's some other things thatthey had me record, like I had
(02:43):
to sneeze. They wanted me todo a burp kind of thing. I
guess these are Easter eggs. Inthe programming for Star they had me say
some cuss words, which I willwill not repeat, of course, but
it was and for years, Imean, I still record with them.
They ended up having me doing theFrench Canadian voice. I don't speak French.
(03:06):
They had me do the Spanish voicefor Latin America South America, and
I also don't speak Spanish. Theyhired a linguist to come in and tutor
me for about two weeks to saythese little phrases, phrases rolling and there's
the guttural ours that they the Frenchspeaking, which I can't do again.
I mean it was I was drinkinga little bit of wine during those sessions,
(03:28):
or tequila, depending on what Iwas doing. But no, I'm
not Kidding's fun. So they did. They trained you. They loved your
voice so much. They thought we'drather have a linguist train you than just
find someone who already knows the language. Blew the dude in from Turin,
Italy, and he stayed in southernIndiana for a full two weeks and we
worked, you know, really hardon that. I had to rent a
studio so we could both, youknow, because my little was that French
(03:51):
and Spanish. This one same tutor, one guy, he's got a PhD.
It we're still Facebook friends. Hetravels all over the world. But
it was crazy, I figured,But now, you know, AI will
just take over and they won't needme anymore. It is interesting what's happening
on that realm though. But yeah, a lot of people don't realize how
much work that is that goes intothe phrasing and all the things that can
(04:12):
come up for on Star or anyof those emergency service things. They have
to they have to knit these phrasestogether, and the inflection has to sound
normal and real, and AI isnot there yet. I think I think
I might be able to retire beforeAI gets me right. We our company
has taken a woman's voice who worksfor us in Seattle or Portland or somewhere,
(04:35):
and then they took all of herphrasing, all those things, and
then they built these other personalities totry it out. It's like, I
don't know how far long it is, but when they show you, when
they play the manufactured thing, youcan tell, yeah, you can.
It's I'm not real scared about ityet, but it's coming. Human emotion,
(04:56):
though, is hard to replicate.Human words, aren't ye, even
inflection, even over enunciation. Allthose things can be done right, but
a response to a real situation ishard for a robot to figure out certainly.
And usually when I get a script, and I do a lot of
(05:18):
interactive voice response system like a phonesystem. If you call Macy's or Bloomingdale's,
that's my voice. I do alot of that kind of work sometimes,
But I do all some commercials andI do narrations. I do a
lot of e learning now, soI can see where that means that,
Like, well, kids stayed homea lot during the COVID textbook, Uh
huh, so I wouldn't necessarily readthe textbook, but I was narrating the
(05:41):
lessons that not in real time.I just record the lessons and then currently
I am teaching math to children ingosh all over the world at this point.
There's a company in Bairut, Lebanonthat does e learning, and they
hired me to do all their mathlessons. And I've learned a lot of
math. That's what's fascinating about ourbusiness. Like you know, you and
(06:04):
I both know, after decades ofinterviewing people, talking to people who do
different things in life, we haveheads full of small buckets of information about
a zillion different things. It's true, yea, it's not much deeper than
a saucer. But I know alittle bit about a jackhammer. I know
something about ice sculpting. I knowsomething about cardiology. You know things because
(06:30):
you interview people, you learn,they teach you things and you're like,
wow, I read a script that'sa tutorial for someone who's you know,
learning a new skill. You know, years ago I did some work with
Papa John's where I was training theirnew employees on how to make a pizza.
So I know how to make apizza now. I learned that from
John Schnader. Actually we did thaton TV one morning, and I said,
(06:54):
can the millionaire boys still make apizza? And he was able to
take care of that, then wellhe better be. Yeah, you know,
your hands just do what they do, all right. So this brings
us to now, I didn't knowthis about you that you sing. Oh
goodness, no, I do not. Well, you are singing publicly at
some karaoke thing. That's why youwere going to visit me on the show,
(07:15):
That is correct. I am participatingin a fundraiser on October twenty fourth
at Caesar's for an organization that servessouthern Indiana called Lifespan Resources. And I
don't know how they found me,but they someone called me and said,
hey, would you be in Voiceand Voes? They're big fundraiser and I'm
like, what do I have todo? And they said, well,
you know you have to sing,and I'm like, well, art not
(07:38):
my boyfriend and I do karaoke alot he introduced me to it. So
I'm like, I ain't scared todo it, but it isn't a matter
of you get a little tequila courage. I think a little liquid courage is
going to be involved that night andpossibly tomorrow night because so we're doing the
big fundraiser on October Tuesday, thetwenty fourth of October. I think that's
the right day, and but theythey also ask us too if we can
(08:01):
do a little mini fundraiser in advanceof that. So we are tomorrow night
at the Enchanted Forest Music Hall inNew Aubany on Main Street. It's at
forty one West First Street, Firstin Maine in New Albany, next to
the YMCA. So we're having fromseven to ten tomorrow night a karaoke benefit.
We're're gonna ask people to pay tosing, and all proceeds will go
(08:24):
to life Span Resources. I metthis organization five years ago when my little
ninety two soon to be ninety twoyear old mother had an accident in her
home and we realized that she neededa little bit more help around the house
and being to be able to stayin her home and and her life Span
Resources. They've helped me get momin front of the source the resources that
she needs to live more independently inher own home. And they've been doing
(08:46):
that for me for five years.So what wouldn't I do for life span
resource? Absolutely, your mom wasso proud when you first got on WHAS
two, Like there you're showing meher. I know, I'm I'm brought
vis. She's a doll. Shewas so proud of you when she heard
your voice coming out over this radiostation. She had no idea you'd be
(09:07):
global though, something in other languages. Neither did I. But this it's
a great organization. I'm honored itsfortunately, though Terry, it's not a
singing competition, Okay, good,It's a fundraising competition. Okay, so
that's why I'm trying to raise funds. What are we talking about? What
kind of songs? Well, I'mnot supposed to tell anybody what I'm doing.
(09:28):
I'm gonna guess. Okay, eightiespop, you're close. But but
I will say I'm doing a duetwith my darling boyfriend, Art Decker.
I met him with some event Ican't remember where. Yeah, I don't
know, some kind of event.Well we've been together ten years. But
but I I've roped him into this. So we're doing we're doing a duet
and Dolly Parton and Islands in theStream. Yes, yeah, no,
(09:54):
that's not okay, now that's notWe're also I was thinking, yeah,
we're also. We have practiced aJohn Price song called in Spite of Ourselves,
but we think the lyrics are alittle too blue too. Yeah,
that might I introduced him one nighttoo, didn't you a nice little fellow?
John pryme? You meet the nicestpeople here? You did. That's
exactly right. It's a cool thingabout radiothers. There's that you find out
(10:16):
people that are friendly and nice tothe help, the hired help meaning us,
yep, and other people like getout of the way. And we're
not naming names. Yeah, untilI get a tequila courage bucket. That's
not what's what's in this. Bythe way, this is just Ginger rale
I promise he is carrying her jogOkay tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, seven
to ten at the Enchanted Forest MusicHall in New Auven, Indiana. It's
(10:41):
at First and Maine, and Ihope people will come. We've got QR
codes you can scan to donate andwe will take cash donations as well.
Fantastic. Yeah, Diane Williamson,We're proud of you. Another one of
our alums who's gone global. Thankyou, Terry and done it for so
long, and proud to call youa friend. Back at you, all
right, sister, Back in afew on news radio AD forty whas
Let us, gentlemen, I haveanother of our broadcast legends in the studio
with me, one of the voicesthat have shaped our universe around here for
decades. That would sound good,Dane, That sounds pretty good. I
don't think it's Diane Williamson back atWhas where she belonged. She's been on
(00:21):
other stations. She was never ashappy as she was when she worked right
here with me. If you sayso, actually, I will say.
I will say that of all,and I have said this in your absence,
and so I can verify it's true. Anybody that has ever asked me,
oh, you know, what's Terrylike, or what's this other person
that I worked with like? Ialways can say Terry of all the people
(00:43):
that I worked with in radio,And please, I hope no one else
is offended. You were always soconsiderate and so helpful. I'll never forget
one time I was producing your bestof Minors show and it needed to come
on on a Saturday, and Iwas you know, I would usually do
it Friday night, compiled your bestclips from that week, and we'd run
the Shaw on Saturday. But Iwas ill, and you did my job
(01:06):
for me because I couldn't do it. Oh that's nice. Yeah, I'll
never forget that, and you knowyou're I forgot it, but I'm glad
that was nice of you to sayyou never know the impact you Well,
I like I like you know,my colleagues. I've had a great run
here. I'm in my thirty ninthyear here and I've we've we've had a
zillion great people, and I liketo see everybody succeed. I mean,
I've always felt that way. It'slike, well, you know, it's
(01:32):
the basics saying all boats rise andwe all benefit from that. But you
like to see somebody And you werea kid when you came to the door
too. You're making me feel oldwhen you're talking about how long you've been
here, because I was here whenyou were here, yeah after after I
was already here a few years.Yeah, but still, but you know,
it's good to see you. Andpeople know your voice because it's famous.
Well, I do tell people whereto go. Please explain that.
(01:56):
So a few years ago, maybeten years ago, on Stare was looking
for a new voice to replace thewoman who you know, they'd launched the
platform with, and I guess Iwas right in front of the right people
at the right time, and theydecided they liked me, and so they
selected me to replace her, whoshe was great. I don't know soon
I'll be replaced. You never know, right and it's there's way it is.
(02:19):
But I've had a nice tenure runof saying turn left now, fuel
level is low. I knew youwere going to give me some of those
frentacting and advisor, the one youdon't want to hear, and I really
did record this was vehicle event detectedcontacting an advisor that means you've wrecked a
crash. There's some other things thatthey had me record, like I had
(02:43):
to sneeze. They wanted me todo a burp kind of thing. I
guess these are Easter eggs. Inthe programming for Star they had me say
some cuss words, which I willwill not repeat, of course, but
it was and for years, Imean, I still record with them.
They ended up having me doing theFrench Canadian voice. I don't speak French.
(03:06):
They had me do the Spanish voicefor Latin America South America, and
I also don't speak Spanish. Theyhired a linguist to come in and tutor
me for about two weeks to saythese little phrases, phrases rolling and there's
the guttural ours that they the Frenchspeaking, which I can't do again.
I mean it was I was drinkinga little bit of wine during those sessions,
(03:28):
or tequila, depending on what Iwas doing. But no, I'm
not Kidding's fun. So they did. They trained you. They loved your
voice so much. They thought we'drather have a linguist train you than just
find someone who already knows the language. Blew the dude in from Turin,
Italy, and he stayed in southernIndiana for a full two weeks and we
worked, you know, really hardon that. I had to rent a
studio so we could both, youknow, because my little was that French
(03:51):
and Spanish. This one same tutor, one guy, he's got a PhD.
It we're still Facebook friends. Hetravels all over the world. But
it was crazy, I figured,But now, you know, AI will
just take over and they won't needme anymore. It is interesting what's happening
on that realm though. But yeah, a lot of people don't realize how
much work that is that goes intothe phrasing and all the things that can
(04:12):
come up for on Star or anyof those emergency service things. They have
to they have to knit these phrasestogether, and the inflection has to sound
normal and real, and AI isnot there yet. I think I think
I might be able to retire beforeAI gets me right. We our company
has taken a woman's voice who worksfor us in Seattle or Portland or somewhere,
(04:35):
and then they took all of herphrasing, all those things, and
then they built these other personalities totry it out. It's like, I
don't know how far long it is, but when they show you, when
they play the manufactured thing, youcan tell, yeah, you can.
It's I'm not real scared about ityet, but it's coming. Human emotion,
(04:56):
though, is hard to replicate.Human words, aren't ye, even
inflection, even over enunciation. Allthose things can be done right, but
a response to a real situation ishard for a robot to figure out certainly.
And usually when I get a script, and I do a lot of
(05:18):
interactive voice response system like a phonesystem. If you call Macy's or Bloomingdale's,
that's my voice. I do alot of that kind of work sometimes,
But I do all some commercials andI do narrations. I do a
lot of e learning now, soI can see where that means that,
Like, well, kids stayed homea lot during the COVID textbook, Uh
huh, so I wouldn't necessarily readthe textbook, but I was narrating the
(05:41):
lessons that not in real time.I just record the lessons and then currently
I am teaching math to children ingosh all over the world at this point.
There's a company in Bairut, Lebanonthat does e learning, and they
hired me to do all their mathlessons. And I've learned a lot of
math. That's what's fascinating about ourbusiness. Like you know, you and
(06:04):
I both know, after decades ofinterviewing people, talking to people who do
different things in life, we haveheads full of small buckets of information about
a zillion different things. It's true, yea, it's not much deeper than
a saucer. But I know alittle bit about a jackhammer. I know
something about ice sculpting. I knowsomething about cardiology. You know things because
(06:30):
you interview people, you learn,they teach you things and you're like,
wow, I read a script that'sa tutorial for someone who's you know,
learning a new skill. You know, years ago I did some work with
Papa John's where I was training theirnew employees on how to make a pizza.
So I know how to make apizza now. I learned that from
John Schnader. Actually we did thaton TV one morning, and I said,
(06:54):
can the millionaire boys still make apizza? And he was able to
take care of that, then wellhe better be. Yeah, you know,
your hands just do what they do, all right. So this brings
us to now, I didn't knowthis about you that you sing. Oh
goodness, no, I do not. Well, you are singing publicly at
some karaoke thing. That's why youwere going to visit me on the show,
(07:15):
That is correct. I am participatingin a fundraiser on October twenty fourth
at Caesar's for an organization that servessouthern Indiana called Lifespan Resources. And I
don't know how they found me,but they someone called me and said,
hey, would you be in Voiceand Voes? They're big fundraiser and I'm
like, what do I have todo? And they said, well,
you know you have to sing,and I'm like, well, art not
(07:38):
my boyfriend and I do karaoke alot he introduced me to it. So
I'm like, I ain't scared todo it, but it isn't a matter
of you get a little tequila courage. I think a little liquid courage is
going to be involved that night andpossibly tomorrow night because so we're doing the
big fundraiser on October Tuesday, thetwenty fourth of October. I think that's
the right day, and but theythey also ask us too if we can
(08:01):
do a little mini fundraiser in advanceof that. So we are tomorrow night
at the Enchanted Forest Music Hall inNew Aubany on Main Street. It's at
forty one West First Street, Firstin Maine in New Albany, next to
the YMCA. So we're having fromseven to ten tomorrow night a karaoke benefit.
We're're gonna ask people to pay tosing, and all proceeds will go
(08:24):
to life Span Resources. I metthis organization five years ago when my little
ninety two soon to be ninety twoyear old mother had an accident in her
home and we realized that she neededa little bit more help around the house
and being to be able to stayin her home and and her life Span
Resources. They've helped me get momin front of the source the resources that
she needs to live more independently inher own home. And they've been doing
(08:46):
that for me for five years.So what wouldn't I do for life span
resource? Absolutely, your mom wasso proud when you first got on WHAS
two, Like there you're showing meher. I know, I'm I'm brought
vis. She's a doll. Shewas so proud of you when she heard
your voice coming out over this radiostation. She had no idea you'd be
(09:07):
global though, something in other languages. Neither did I. But this it's
a great organization. I'm honored itsfortunately, though Terry, it's not a
singing competition, Okay, good,It's a fundraising competition. Okay, so
that's why I'm trying to raise funds. What are we talking about? What
kind of songs? Well, I'mnot supposed to tell anybody what I'm doing.
(09:28):
I'm gonna guess. Okay, eightiespop, you're close. But but
I will say I'm doing a duetwith my darling boyfriend, Art Decker.
I met him with some event Ican't remember where. Yeah, I don't
know, some kind of event.Well we've been together ten years. But
but I I've roped him into this. So we're doing we're doing a duet
and Dolly Parton and Islands in theStream. Yes, yeah, no,
(09:54):
that's not okay, now that's notWe're also I was thinking, yeah,
we're also. We have practiced aJohn Price song called in Spite of Ourselves,
but we think the lyrics are alittle too blue too. Yeah,
that might I introduced him one nighttoo, didn't you a nice little fellow?
John pryme? You meet the nicestpeople here? You did. That's
exactly right. It's a cool thingabout radiothers. There's that you find out
(10:16):
people that are friendly and nice tothe help, the hired help meaning us,
yep, and other people like getout of the way. And we're
not naming names. Yeah, untilI get a tequila courage bucket. That's
not what's what's in this. Bythe way, this is just Ginger rale
I promise he is carrying her jogOkay tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, seven
to ten at the Enchanted Forest MusicHall in New Auven, Indiana. It's
(10:41):
at First and Maine, and Ihope people will come. We've got QR
codes you can scan to donate andwe will take cash donations as well.
Fantastic. Yeah, Diane Williamson,We're proud of you. Another one of
our alums who's gone global. Thankyou, Terry and done it for so
long, and proud to call youa friend. Back at you, all
right, sister, Back in afew on news radio AD forty whas
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