More about Chris...

Gossip:
I found that I was spending less and less time in my home office so I got a cool laptop with Wi-Fi and have been spending a lot of time writing scripts at places with Wi-Fi like Panera Bread Company (Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich), Starbucks (Triple Vente Latte) and Yorgo's, a great bagel place in Norfolk (plain toasted bagel with a schmear). My mother-in-law has Wi-Fi at her house, so next time you are in Norfolk and need to find a Wi-Fi hotspot you can go there. But first you'll have to listen to her tell you how I'm not good enough for her daughter.

Encouraging Words
A multilevel marketing organization hired me to write a motivational CD. Over a thousand words informing the listener about the future of home-based businesses. It was one of those projects that was fun to work on even though it had an incredible deadline. What was stupefying was that only four or five words got changed. By the way, the organization wasn't affiliated with the multilevel marketing operation mentioned below.

Yukon Get Me to Write Anything!
Yukon Steakhouse is chain of restaurants sprinkled around the Chesapeake Bay that hired me to write a direct mail piece telling about seasonal specials. Another one of those stupefying projects: it went out without a single word changed.

Multilevel Marketing Magic!
"Uff" da!" as we say in the trade. A twenty minute CD pitching how to start your own a vitamin and nutrition web site and the script was due in 24 hours! The script had to be approved by their lawyers which made meeting the deadline problematical but I made it. Remember my slogan, "Thank God it's Friday, only three more working days until Monday!"

Your On Hold Message is Important to Us
Studio Center called on me once again to put together an on hold message. This time I took a more 'granular' approach and wrote 25 interludes about the different things the company does. Then each interlude was recorded by several different members of Studio Center's talent pool. That way even if you heard the bit before, this time you heard a different take on it by another voice over talent.

50 Bells Pealing in Harmony
The things you learn writing spots for car dealers! A long time client recently added Isuzu to his other brands. That's where I learned that Isuzu literally means Fifty Bells Pealing in Harmony. Other tidbits: Mitsubishi means diamond; Subaru refers to the cluster of stars called The Pleiades in the West and Honda gets its name from a John Wayne movie. No...wait. That was Hondo from 1953. My bad.

Famous Dave's Turns to Famous Chris
Famous Dave's is a restaurant chain that is growing nearly as fast as Starbucks. This great big operation turned to little old me to enthrall their customers while they are on-hold. This is one of those projects that had to be turned around fast--I was brought in on a Friday evening and had a Saturday morning deadline. This was not a problem because you know my credo: Thank God it's Friday, only three more working days until Monday!

Several recent gigs...
Recently I got called in to write several scripts for Time-Warner Cable in the Midwest, a bunch of scripts for a group of car dealers in Southern California and I just finished a script for a company that builds temporary parking lots. Need some work done on time and on budget? Call (757) 642-8061... operators are standing by!

A very recent note from a Client:
"I just wanted to Thank you for all your help, patience, and talent in helping us create some of our best spots yet. It has been a pleasure working with you and I hope to work with you again the next time around. With your creativity and direction the spots turned out fantastic!! Everyone here is very pleased."

Hampton Roads.TV

This is a video web site that was recently started by the same great folks who brought you pilotonline.com, careerconnection.com, traderonline.com and a whole slew of daily newspapers. They hired me to write and produce a series of radio spots aimed at the 18 to 34 crowd to tell the hamptonroads.tv story (I pulled an Alfred Hitchcock by doing the tag at the end). This was a series of three spots and this was the first one which will begin running after the first of the year. You get a preview here. The company liked the spots so much that they sent an effusive thank you note for sending them my invoice!

Holidays On The Hook!

Here is a spot I wrote for Harry's Seafood Bar and Grill, a string of eateries all over the northern part of Florida. You'll probably get the drift of the holiday message when you click on the arrow.

Another MONSTER On Hold Message for Studio Center

If you hate being on hold as much as I do, then you will understand where this script for the Studio Center on hold message came from (I think I've written five or six of them). Since Studio Center is in the audio production business they couldn't have a standard--and boring--on hold message, right? I didn't want to repeat the success of the first Ron Hold, Private Eye on hold message (it ran for several months... by request!) I opted for a bunch of skits to keep folks entertained while being annoyed as they were sitting there on hold. You can listen to it here (by clicking on the arrow) without bothering to pick up the phone. It's under ten minutes so you might want to get a fresh cup of coffee first.

'Tis the Season!
No, not that season... I'm up to my hips in political spots! But, of course, I'm never too busy to take on a new project even if it isn't a political. A rush spot for a big real estate developer came in early this morning. Luckily, I was already up working on a revision for a gentleman seeking reelection in one of the southern states. After saving the real estate developer's bacon it's back in the trenches trying to repeal the tax on bacon and all other comestibles. Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

A National TV Spot I Wrote
This is the first time I've used Photobucket to play videos, so let me know you if you have any problems. Or if you like the spot and want me to write one for you.

Metropolitan Water District
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consortium of 26 cities and water districts that provides drinking water to nearly 18 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. My job was to write a series of radio spots promoting landscaping with native southern California flora to conserve water. My idea was to call them Power Plants.

Gibson Greetings
In an effort to buck their stodgy image, they hired me to come up with a series of "edgy" greeting cards. Then they hired me to come up with a second series that apparently had the effect of the parent company (American Greetings) making the Gibson division mostly a supplier of gift wrapping paper. At least it wasn't toilet paper.

Double Diamond Entertainment, the sequel
Once again, this small record company is using some very innovative methods to promote their roster of artists. This time out they are pitching automotive dealer networks with a TV spot featuring one of their artists using one of his songs to pitch trucks. Using this synergistic advertising technique the record company will actually make money from their artist promotion. They hired me to write and produce the demo.

Virginia Arts Festival
The VAF celebrated its tenth year bringing major artists to Hampton Roads and they hired me to write all of their TV and radio commercials. The project ended with a total of 20 scripts. My favorite artist was Ling Ling, the pianist so nice they named him twice.

Wyoming's Big Show

The folks at the Sweetwater Events Center hired me to write four radio spots promoting Wyoming's Big Show (that's what they are calling the Wyoming State Fair) and the Red Desert Rodeo Roundup. Here is one of them--starring Cowboy Chris and Calamity Angie Aresco. By the way, did I mention that I do voice overs, too?

Studio Center
They hired me to write a telephone on-hold message promoting Studio Center (I think I've come up with four or five of them). This time I decided to avoid the usual voice-droning-over-Muzak approach and went with a HUGE production featuring an audio noir private eye, Ron Hold. It uses a ton of Studio Center voices and is so very rich with sound effects and music that it took over eight hours to produce. Now THAT'S an on hold message! Interestingly, they have tried to get me a copy of it but my email server thinks it is spam. Should I be insulted?

Time-Warner Cable
A series of humorous radio spots promoting the "triple play": Digital Cable, Digital Telephone, and High Speed Internet. I submitted seven or eight scripts... one that was rejected was recycled and became the Wyoming's Big Show spot that is featured above.

Double Diamond Entertainment
I wrote and produced a couple of radio spots promoting this start-up record company's artists. While the spots sold the music along the lines of a Time-Life Music commercial, the actual thrust was to familiarize radio programmers with the artists and their music. This is a truly innovative form of music promotion.

Tronfeld & Associates
Wrote a series of TV scripts for this Washington, DC law firm. So if you are ever in an accident in DC, you know who to call.

TowneBank
Interviewed bank officials and customers for an in-house video. I was flattered when the agency sent me out on my own for the 12 interviews because in the past one of the agency principles accompanied me. I felt like a grown up, you know? We are in the middle of doing several more interviews for the in-house DVD directed at new hires and new clients.

Wags Doggie Daycare
Raised this web site from a pup. Wrote it, designed it and programmed it. Talk about your high tech renaissance man! Give it a sniff at www.wagsdoggiedaycare.com. If you look closely, you'll see how I got the gig. The Wags logo was designed by Robin MacPherson (rmacpherson@hcdadv.com). Studio Center liked the Wags logo so much they had her redesign their venerable logo.

MUSC Heart and Vascular Center
The Medical University of South Carolina offers a complete range of cardiovascular services and I offer a complete range of writing services, so it just made sense that we got together. What we wound up with is a couple of radio spots dealing with heart care for women.