Voice Tracking That Doesn’t Sound Tracked
Listeners forgive a recorded break. They do not forgive a break that could have aired in any city on any Tuesday. Local is a writing problem before it is a recording problem.
Voice tracking has a reputation problem it only half deserves. The bad version is obvious: a generic liner, a weather number with no texture, a laugh that was recorded before the song ended. The good version is indistinguishable from live to anyone who is not in the building — and most listeners are not in the building.
The difference is almost never the microphone. It is the prep, the timing, and the permission to sound like a person who lives there.
Write to the hour you are in
A 3 p.m. break that mentions “tonight” as if the talent is still in breakfast is how tracking announces itself. Daypart-specific copy is not a luxury. It is the minimum. So is leaving air for the song that actually played, not the song that was scheduled three days ago and got swapped.
Local is specific, not patriotic
You do not sound local by saying the city name. You sound local by knowing the highway that is a parking lot at 5:40, the high-school rivalry that still matters, the festival that the morning paper already covered. A remote partner can still do this — if someone in the market feeds the details, and the tracker is expected to use them.
- Prep sheets with three local facts per show, not a Wikipedia paragraph
- Timing marks in the log so talk-up and hit-the-post are possible
- A kill list for liners that have been on the air more than two weeks
- A same-day recut window for news, weather, and artist appearances
Format dictates delivery
Country tracking is not CHR tracking. Alternative can survive a little more attitude than AC. A partner who has programmed those formats knows where the smile belongs and where it is poison. Matching the station’s existing talent — or deliberately contrasting them — is a brand decision, not a casting accident.
Fast turnaround only matters if the track still sounds like it was done after the song, not before the week.
PPG delivers daypart-specific tracking with format-appropriate delivery and a turnaround that respects your board op’s afternoon. The point is a consistent station sound when live bodies are scarce — not a cheaper impression of one.