Posted by chicagomedia.org on July 28, 2008 at 07:46:47:
The man behind the voice
Homer Glen's Russ Mitera provides voice for commercials at 670 "The Score" radio station, and more
"Scoreheads" - that is, fans of Chicago's WSCR 670AM "The Score" radio station - surely know his voice.
From commercials, to sound bites promoting the talk station's many programs, to comical bits, Homer Glen resident Russ Mitera's voice is a staple on one of Chicago's most popular sports-talk radio stations.
He is The Score's production director and director of creative services.
"I do a lot of voice-overs, commercials, I'm voice of the White Sox radio network (on the station) and I am the voice for The Score's imaging work," Mitera said. "I basically produce the sound of the image the station is trying to portray."
Mitera, 37, has been at 670AM since 1992, when he earned an internship in production.
He had originally set out to pursue a career in on-the-air radio broadcasting.
"I grew up listening to 'Johnny B' (Jonathon Brandmeier, who currently hosts a morning show on WLUP 97.9FM) and I remember thinking, I want to be like that. My friends and I would even host fake radio shows in the bedroom growing up. We had the tape recorder and pretended like we were doing radio shows," he said.
After high school he decided to pursue his childhood dream, attending Columbia College.
It was there, during a class, that his career path changed directions.
"I just had awful stage fright," he said. "At Columbia (during a class) they had a studio and the class would be right outside with the instructor watching you try to perform a show. And this is back in the day when there were records, no compact discs or computers. I was just too jittery with it."
Wanting to stay in the industry, he then tried his hand at sales, earning an internship selling advertisements on B96.3 FM. But, despite prospects for a hefty salary, he wanted out of sales.
"It was just too much business stuff, no fun, no creativity."
It was on Mitera's third try that he found his calling in the radio industry.
"Some friends told me to take a 'Production 1' class at Columbia. I actually excelled at it right away," Mitera said.
His success during production classes led to an internship with WXRT 93.9 FM, where he saw immediate success, and was faced with a career-altering decision.
"They gave me a choice - stay at WXRT and be an assistant production director or go to The Score and be (head) production director. Back then WXRT was thought of as the place to be, and The Score was like the red-headed step child."
"I wanted the promotion and I liked the idea of moving ahead in my career," he said of the move to 670AM.
"The best part of my job is having the chance to be as creative as I want. You can't do that at every job, so that's what I like about this one," said Mitera, who recently finished a parody of the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell," voicing-over the lyrics with "Highway to Bourbannais," as the radio station continues coverage of the Chicago Bears training camp, held in Bourbonnais. "Plus a lot of cool guests come in - we had a number of White Sox players in after they won (the World Series in 2005), the 1985 Chicago Bears and (Mike) Ditka too."
"(The job) is never mundane - there's always something different going on."
Mitera moved to Homer Glen in 1998, with his wife, Brandie. They now have a son, Matthew.
"We liked it because there were still farms out there," he said. "It was the last bit of 'ruralness' that was close to the big city."
Mitera said his favorite moment in the radio industry came around 10 years ago.
"WXRT used to do this huge fireworks show every year in May and one year they recorded my voice for the introductions before the show. There were something like 500,000 people on the lake-front and they had speakers up and down the lake-front. There I was with my family and I'm hearing my voice over the speakers in front of all these people — that was a cool moment."
(Homer Horizon)