Episode 82: Rachel McGrath

Announcer: The Producers, featuring the most respected international talent in the world of audio production and voiceover. Radio, TV, film, and online. In-depth interviews and industry insights, putting you on the inside. This is The Producers Podcast with Ryan Dreen.

Ryan: All right, hey, appreciate you tuning in here, or tuning, okay, downloading, streaming, listening in some capacity, staring at the back of a guy's head while you're on the train going somewhere and you have nothing else to hear but me, whatever, glad you did it. This is episode 82. If for some reason 82 is the first one you're finding, that's perfectly fine. They all kind of stand alone. Oftentimes I'll feature somebody who is 100% radio imaging producer, top of their game, never had a desire to dabble on the voice side. I'll do a 50/50 type person, somebody who is now in, you know, commercial VO and promo work but used to work in imaging. There's always a connection. Rachel McGrath, who will be the guest, coming up in mere moments, used to be big-time radio imaging producer. we'll get her whole story in the interview. Now 100% radio imaging voice talent, although she voices other stuff also. But like I said, as far as females working in the business, she is one of the very, very top, very talented, and a darn good person too. So we'll hear from her in just a minute. I will make mention, I can preview Kelly Doherty. Yes. The, head, you know, I don't actually know the proper, title. I'll have to learn that because it's changed since she was on the show before, but I've been emailing with her and she is going to join me again in, I guess, anticipation of the imaging days in Amsterdam. That's coming up in October. I'm a person who will highly recommend visiting, especially to my listeners that are around the globe, you know, specifically Europe. If you live in Amsterdam, I would hope you would go. But anyway, Kelly's going to be presenting there, and it's been, boy, it could be 5 years since she was on this show, maybe more. So there's a lot that's been happening as she is at the tippy top of nationwide iHeartRadio imaging for all formats. Arguably one of the most, or maybe the most powerful radio imaging human on earth. I'm sure there's arguments against me, but I, you know, it's possible I'm right. Anyway, we'll talk to Kelly coming up soon. I have a couple other, people on the middle burner. I don't know if that's a term. Not the back burner, certainly. Maybe not the front burner. We're working on some pretty heavy hitters though that produce amazing branding around the world. And I will announce those as I am allowed to announce those. that's it though. We will dive right in. Rachel McGrath has a killer all-format demo that this is, Possibly the first time anyone's hearing it. I don't know if she posted it online yet, to be totally honest, but it's a great demo. I had not heard it before we started this interview, and I'm gonna play the whole thing. Usually I stick to about a minute. I really enjoyed her variety. As far as like when you're out there and you want to make an imaging demo and you're not quite sure, you know what, to me, again, keep it under about 2 minutes. Voice demos, probably you should be in about the 60-second mark. But if you're someone at this level, buck 45 or so, and it sounds like this, you have hit it out of the park. So Rachel, you hit it out of the park. great demo. Anyway, we'll hear that and then we will have the one and the only Rachel McGrath. Are you ready for these 2 words? 2 words that'll make your heart stop, your hair stand up, your blood pressure rise. These 2 words are gonna change— okay, fine, it's Taylor Swift. 100.7 Jack FM. People's need for constant validation is hilarious, isn't it? It is though, right? Guys, high five? Listen every day at Floor 20 with Jordan Knight to win. Wiz Khalifa specifically requested Floor 20 as the time. No idea why. Kick the dust up. The only thing you need to win your way in to see 95.5 WFMS country star Luke Bryan is in your mouth. 102.1 The Edge. Eminem, Pearl Jam, OutKast, Skrillex, Beck, Lorde, Foster the People, The Placemakers, Fitz and the Tantrums, AFI, Congo, Capital Cities, Damn, ACL is epic. 95.5 KLOS. Yeah, we're into fitness. Fitting this entire pizza in our mouths. Quick, someone take a picture. Need some energy at work and already had about 70 cups of coffee? Well, you're in luck because we have upbeat, fresh music on today's 101.9 Z103.5. If you're waiting for another commercial, you might want to grab a sandwich. It's gonna be a while. 103 minutes commercial-free right Less posts of your friends' awesome engagements. They are so happy they found their soulmate. And more of us. Like us on Facebook, KC101. The typical human body has 9 orifices. Some count 10. This July, KLOS invites you to allow one more tiny, teeny temporary hole.

Ryan: And I am so, so happy to be joined by the one, the only, the ultra-talented, the multifaceted Rachel McGrath. Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for joining me.

Rachel Mc Grath: Hi. You can't see me, but I'm blushing.

Ryan: Oh, good. That's what I—

Rachel Mc Grath: What a great introduction. Yeah.

Ryan: Every interview, that's my goal to start it off with. It's just usually they're dudes, so it's a little more awkward. But, I, I am— I was telling you this beforehand, and I've tried to make this clear, that I really do have a goal of featuring talented women in this business whenever I can. And, you know, the sad reality is there just aren't a lot of women. I mean, period. I'm not saying that the ones that there are aren't talented, but it's a male-dominated business you work in, huh?

Rachel Mc Grath: It completely and totally is. And, you know, for me, the fact that it's a male-dominated business has only worked to my advantage. Here's the thing though, when I say that, 'cause that's probably the number one question that I get asked is, you know, how do you feel working in a male-dominated And when I say that for me, it has been an advantage, I am not discounting, diminishing, discrediting anything that the women before me went through because they had to fight. I mean, they had to fight to pave the way for me to be able to play with the boys easily now. You know what I mean? I mean, they really had to struggle.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: So, when I say that, I always like to throw in that extra, hey, I know that other women had a huge struggle. It's just, for me, it's been— It's been an advantage.

Ryan: I've got an outline here, obviously, of all the major areas I want to hit when we chat, but you've kind of already brought up an issue that I say we go right out of the gate with is, you know, sort of women and not just women in media. I think women in media in general have a little better time than women in radio, but especially radio imaging. So I would ask maybe a 2-part question. Do you think it has actually gotten better, at least over time, since, you know, before you even started and then since you've been working in it? Has it gotten better for women? Are there more women? Or maybe the second part of that is, if not, you know, what are some of the hurdles that you still face as a woman in the radio imaging world, which is male-dominated?

Rachel Mc Grath: Right. Okay. So first, let me bring up the people that you gotta bring up when you're talking about ladies in radio imaging. You gotta give the respect to Triple K.

Ryan: Sure.

Rachel Mc Grath: You gotta give the respect to Randy Thomas. I don't know either one of them per—

Ryan: Wait, real quick. I always have to just clear up. There's going to be the occasional person who won't know these people. So, Triple K being Kelly Doherty, the imaging vice president at iHeart, also known as Kelly Kelly Kelly or Triple K.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah.

Ryan: There we go. Continue. Sorry. Sorry.

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm speaking in radio talk. Sorry. Right.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And then Randy Thomas, of course. Those ladies, I don't have personal conversations with, but I'm friends with them on Facebook, and I've interacted with them. They've always had respect for me. I have respect for them. How can you not? And then there is Anne deWig. Gotta bring her up. She is just, you know, a classy, talented, just an all-around beautiful woman who I feel paved the way so much for— to make things easier for me. I can't imagine how many times that woman had to deal with the phrase accent voice, which is maybe one of my least favorite—

Ryan: Why don't you explain that? Explain that for people who might not know. not know what that means.

Rachel Mc Grath: Okay, so I was at— okay, this goes into your question about what are one of the problems that I encounter.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: I was— I was— I'm a very outspoken person, and if you say something I don't like, I'm probably gonna have a really sour look on my face. And this happened the other night. I was at a party full of radio people who should know what to say and what not to say. And, I was introduced by a friend, and the friend was like, hey, you know, this is Rachel McGrath. She's on a million stations, blah, blah, blah. And the guy looked me dead in my face and said, oh, but you're the accent voice on all those stations, right? With a straight face. And I was like, I seriously—

Ryan: No, but also dick.

Rachel Mc Grath: I know. So I looked at him. I'd had a couple vodka drinks at this point, and I'm like, did you just say that out loud? That's what I said. I said, did you just say that out loud? And I just, I had to walk away because the thing is, here's the thing though, he did not mean it to be evil. It really was something that he thought was an appropriate question. And I think he got schooled later, but that is more— that is not the rule. That is the exception more often than not. Because the way I say that it works to my advantage is that, you know, it's a numbers game. You can't argue with numbers. If I am going up against less people in an audition, and they're only looking for a female voice, obviously, there are only gonna be females. And there are less of us, I've got a better chance of landing the gig. I just do. You can't argue with that. You know?

Ryan: Let me pause you there just to kind of give people an idea. I know you're on a lot of stations. If you would like to give us a ballpark on how many stations you're on first, I'd love to hear that.

Rachel Mc Grath: It's more than 60 and less than 70. I think that's pretty good, right?

Ryan: Okay. That's a very nice tight ballpark. Got it. So that is a highly commendable and respectable, just number of stages. I also know, and we'll get to this way later in the podcast, that you are not just a radio imaging voice. you know, you have sources of revenue coming from elsewhere. But anyway, the point is, with this sort of hurdle, just because you say, you know, if they're only looking for a female voice and, you know, if you audition, there's going to be far less females, so the odds are up. But give us an idea in the world of radio imaging VO, Yeah. Out of all of the stations that there are, in your opinion, how many or what percentage or how often is a station actually looking for a female voice?

Rachel Mc Grath: I would say that now and every minute that passes by, that number goes way up. I have seen it go up.

Ryan: It goes up? Great.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yes, I have seen it go up since I started. And I'll give you an idea on my station. So let's say, let's say I have 65 stations go in the middle of what I said. I would say that on 80% of those 65 stations, I'm either the main voice or I'm in a 50/50, me and a voice partner. Now, there are some stations obviously that I'm— actually, my new friend Dan Stone just coined a term I like way better than accent. He called it the breaker voice. I'm down with a breaker voice. I could be. I like that term way better than accent. But so that's— Ryan, that's a high number.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: For 80% to be either main or 50/50 voice partnership, we've come a long way, I think.

Ryan: That's a surprising number to me, to be honest. I feel like I've got my finger on the pulse and all that, but that's, it's exciting, it's fun. Give me an idea, since you're probably at least somewhat informed, like when Anne deWig, who's to me potentially one of the real trailblazers in the pure Radio imaging female, as in she started as the producer. She kind of had your path basically just before you.

Rachel Mc Grath: I followed her. She did it first.

Ryan: Right. So like when she was in your position, you know, years before you, I, I, do you have any idea, you know, how many stations would she have been on? And then what would the ratio have been of, you know, accent voice, a terrible term, but to, or to full voice, you know?

Rachel Mc Grath: Oh my goodness. If I answered that, I would be taking a shot in the dark. I cannot say. I don't—

Ryan: I think we could safely say though, we could safely say though that it was probably a lot closer to the other side of the spectrum than it is, you know, 80% full voice, right?

Rachel Mc Grath: Probably. I would guess, yes.

Ryan: So yeah, I mean, it's a guess. That's fine. But I guess the point is just to demonstrate the progress and And it's also almost a— I don't know what the right word is, but it's not positive for those big, beefy, deep male voices that for so long dominated the industry. Now stations in big markets, big stations in big markets, because I know some of the stations you're on are choosing you.

Rachel Mc Grath: There is no doubt that the trend is exactly what you just said. I could not agree more.

Ryan: You know, we'll actually get it. We'll talk a lot more deeper into the voiceover biz in a bit. Why don't we get back to my actual original notes now that we're like, what, 10 minutes in? radio background is kind of where I like to start. I don't like to get crazy with it, but I'd love to hear how you got into radio. And, you know, were you doing something before radio? And then were you doing something along with it? You know, tell us your origin story.

Rachel Mc Grath: I can make a long story short. Basically, I've been working since I was 14. I had a babysitting empire, then I worked at Menards, which is—

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Which is— I worked at Menards. I've always been a worker bee and always had to work for every— you know, nothing ever was just handed to me, ever, ever. For some reason, people get a thing, like, on Facebook, I guess I put out there that I'm a certain way. That is not the case at all. I have been working my ass off since I was 14. And in school, I always did really well. The worker bee gene is just inside of me. And I feel like it means so much more when you work really, really hard for it. It just means more when nobody gave it to you. You worked for it. So there was Menards. Then I was a server forever. And then at 22, I came to a crossroads and I was like, okay, I'm going on a path where I don't really like the direction where it's headed. You could use your imagination there.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. It just wasn't— I didn't I didn't like it. So it wasn't gonna lead to anything good. So I went to broadcasting school, and I wanted to be a news anchor. And then I told you this in our— not in the last interview that we did. I wanted to be a news anchor, but when I saw myself— this was back before we all were videoing each other. There was no iPhone. There was— I'm 34. So there was no iPhone. There was no— you know, I think we might have had pagers still, or the first cell phones were still coming out. So I saw myself on camera, and I freaked out. And I was like, ooh, this is not good. Like, all my insecurities. Oh, I'm fat. Oh, I'm ugly. Oh, I'm this, oh, I'm that. And I let that guide my decision on not going into TV. How stupid does that sound right now? That sounds so—

Ryan: Wow.

Rachel Mc Grath: It sounds so ridiculous, but all I have is the truth, and that's it. So, I went into radio instead. And when I learned Cool Edit, I fell in love— remember Cool Edit? I fell in—

Ryan: I still keep it, yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: I fell in love with it. It just— I was like, oh my goodness, I don't suck at this! And I thought I was gonna be horrible, and I just really enjoyed it. Then I got an internship at 97.9 The Loop in Chicago. I was a promotions intern, hanging up signs, going around to events, always grabbing the mic out of people's hands. I always knew that I wanted to be somewhere on that mic. And, —

Ryan: So you're—

Rachel Mc Grath: Your—

Ryan: sorry, your first job was intern at The Loop in Chicago, a, you know, minor, non-significant radio station.

Rachel Mc Grath: Can I tell you something fun about that too that I'm really excited about right now?

Ryan: Sure.

Rachel Mc Grath: I just signed them to be the voice.

Ryan: Oh, wow. Well, good for you.

Rachel Mc Grath: I know. I'm like jumping up and down in the— but like, people always ask me, do you still get excited about radio stations? I'm jumping right now on this interview.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And like, yes, hell yes, I still get excited. Like, I can't— it's like winning some sort of lottery that somebody picked you. to be on a station that I interned at 11 years ago, oh my goodness. This is in my hometown, yes.

Ryan: Were you on in Chicago before? Is this your first Chicago station?

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm currently on at a station in the suburbs of Chicago called Star 96.7. And actually, their sister station is where I started out as a jock. So I've kind of made everything come full circle. And then just to finish it off, I was a jock there, learned a whole bunch of production, moved to West Virginia, became a PD, was the worst PD in the history of the world, cried every day, didn't fit in at all. Rich Van Slyke was my voice guy. He was like, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be a PD. You're supposed to be a voice girl. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I am. So then I joined Clear Channel in Twin Falls, Idaho before they sold off most of their small market stations. And then Dave Savage, who's now the leader of the Clear Channel iHeartMedia Creative Services Group, he found me and brought me into Atlanta.

Ryan: Wow.

Rachel Mc Grath: So I was only in Twin Falls for 9 months. So I owe a lot for him finding me. And then I got to Atlanta where everything started happening.

Ryan: I definitely knew you from Atlanta. That's for sure where I knew. But you're a Chicago girl. Is that what you— that's where you call your hometown basically?

Rachel Mc Grath: 24 years, yeah. But Atlanta's my home now 'cause I've been here for 8 years and I love it.

Ryan: Right. Okay, great. Yeah. So let's see here. Radio in Atlanta. I know, You were— were you the imaging director there? I feel like you weren't. Tell me a little bit about Atlanta and how that transitioned you into where you got after that.

Rachel Mc Grath: I started off as the production director and made my way into an imaging director, and I ended up imaging the Bull, 94.9 The Bull. And I was the voice of— we flipped the CHR so many times, I honestly could not tell you the names of this— I think it was The Groove and— oh, The Groove and Wild! That's what it was. So I got so much practice doing CH— being a CHR imaging voice right there at my own station. You know what I mean?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And that's where I learned how to be a voice person, was from Cousin Deke. I— having him as my voice person changed everything because on The Bull, He would just open up that mic and go batshit crazy. I was like, oh!

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm like, what are you doing? And I learned, oh, this is supposed to be fun. You can say whatever you wanna say and give ad-libs under— there's one rule to that. You've got to, if you're gonna give an ad-lib, say the line that was written as well. Because if you don't, then it sounds like you're trying to rewrite the copy and you think you're better. Nobody wants that. So, I learned from him how to have fun, how to have a relationship with a producer. He would take the time and say, so, how are you today, Rachel? So, where are you going on vacation? You know, and to this day, we're still friends, and I modeled everything I did after him. And thank goodness, because, you know, he's pretty damn successful now. You know?

Ryan: Yeah, Geek's pretty big.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, pretty.

Ryan: Just so I understand, you were producing the CHR and the country in Atlanta at the time?

Rachel Mc Grath: You got it. Yes. Yes.

Ryan: Yeah, so you got to— okay, so I've always said a thing that makes an imaging voice even better is understanding the producer's role. You know, there's a lot of voices out there that it's quite obvious, you know, when I get their tracks, they've never produced audio in their life for various reasons. For example, sending them in stereo. Why are you sending me mono voice in stereo?

Rachel Mc Grath: I love it. Yes.

Ryan: But anyway, I think having the skill of an imaging producer makes you a better imaging voice. I'm assuming you'll agree with me, but maybe you could expand upon that and why that might be true.

Rachel Mc Grath: Oh my goodness, I was just having this conversation earlier. It is, that is one of the most true things possible because as an imaging producer, even though I don't produce anymore, I still, I'm still always gonna be a producer. You know, I didn't forget. It's, I know, I know where they can make an edit. Like, I'm not just gonna stop in the middle of a sentence and pick it up and be like, oh, you got this.

Ryan: Right.

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm like, no, you don't got this. Let me make it easier for you. You know? So, I'll pick it up in a place where— I'll pick it up at a place where they can make the edit way easier. If there's updates, I know in my head how it was easier to say the updates than— and produce them. If there's lines that are able to be layered, You know, like 97.9 The Loop, 97.9 The Loop, 97.9 The Loop. I'll say it a million ways and be like, okay, they're going to put this on top of that. It's just, it's a producer's mind that cannot be replicated by anyone else.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, understanding stacking, that's a big thing because a lot of times, you know, I think good producers understand a great vocal sound comes in layers and then the good VO understands that you got to give them the right layers to use, just as you demonstrated there.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah.

Ryan: Absolutely.

Rachel Mc Grath: Totally.

Ryan: Anything else that you would say? You know, this is also a bit of a service for the voice talent out there who may not have ever had an experience producing audio. Anything else they should be mindful of?

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, absolutely. When people ask, like my friends are like, oh, you know, tell us about why you're always so busy. I call this job a game of beat the clock. It is. I wake up and it's like a game of beat the clock every single day. When you're a producer and you send a voice person things to say, you want them back really fast. There is no time unless you write in the email, hey, not going to get to this until tomorrow morning, or hey, I'm going on vacation. I'm not going to get to it until next week.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Most of the time you need it 5 minutes ago. So I cannot stress enough to any new voice talent, get it back fast. Otherwise there's going to be somebody who's going to do it faster than you. And now, of course, it's got to be a combination of talent, and speed, you know, because you could be horrible and be fast, and that's not gonna work for anybody. But if you can, just do it as fast as you can.

Ryan: What is— what is a reasonable turnaround? 'Cause I've seen it all. Like, I'm like you. And maybe it's a little bit of, I feel like they could find somebody else, so I shouldn't give them any reason to do so. While, you know, you, more than me, I think, have a very signature sound, so they're not gonna just go find another Rachel McGrath. But anyway, reasonable turnaround, in your opinion?

Rachel Mc Grath: Ooh, this is a really good question. The way that I try to do it— now, of course, there's exceptions. Maybe you have to go to the doctor. Maybe you're sick. Maybe— there's always gonna be an exception. But on a normal day, what I try to do is get anybody that sends me something back within 3 hours. Now, I really want to get it back in less than an hour, 'cause I'm— like I said, I'm playing beat the clock with myself. So— but usually, 3 hours is where it is. I would say anywhere from 5 to 6 hours is acceptable too. When you're starting to get into the, send it back in the 23rd hour because my contract says 24, I'm not a fan of that. But listen, I can't say what's on anybody else's plate.

Ryan: Yeah, right.

Rachel Mc Grath: There's some guys who are phenomenal, spectacular. You've got the Chad Eriksens, the Steve Stones, the Brian Lees, the Chris Corleys. who have transitioned into TV. I can't— as far as I know, they're all pretty fast, but I don't know, maybe there's a TV station that needs them right away and they can't do it as fast. So I can't say what's on somebody else's plate. Do you know what I mean?

Ryan: Do you prioritize stations? And I don't even mean this that it would necessarily be bad, but does Market 230 get identical priority as The Loop will get now? Or do you have to prioritize stations in some way?

Rachel Mc Grath: Oh, I would say, you know, if there's a station that I know is going to send me copy and they're going to send me more copy and then they're going to send me more copy, if they send me something, I'll probably do it first because I know more is coming. And usually those are, those are the big markets that, you know, that are sending the most copy. So I suppose I suppose maybe they'll get done a little bit faster, but only because I'm trying not to drive myself nuts. You know what I mean? But there has never been a time when I'm like, oh, small market, I'll do it later. Like, that never. I don't care if you're a market $700 million. You still picked me, you're still paying me, I'm still gonna go as fast as I can.

Ryan: I'm going in a pretty disjointed order now. I apologize. I'm asking you a few smaller questions that I just— I don't want to forget. But as far as writing deals, I know you're represented, but can you give people, again, we don't need to talk specific dollar amounts by any means, but can you give people some idea on the amounts of copy stations will sign on to do deals with you for?

Rachel Mc Grath: There's a lowest amount that my agent is going to accept, and then there's a lowest amount that I would accept in my head. That's why I have an agent. Because before, I would just take anything. I mean, 'cause to me, you know, I didn't grow up with a lot of money.

Ryan: Sure.

Rachel Mc Grath: I thought, oh my goodness, this is, you know, it's $50 a month more than I had before. Yippee! Like, of course I would do it. What I've realized now is that that's a really bad decision because if you're really busy, It only makes good business sense to have a bottom, to have a shelf. You know what I mean?

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

Rachel Mc Grath: So yeah, there is one. And, you know, if you want me to give you a number, I don't wanna get in trouble. I would say that it's lower than people think it is. And definitely for new people, you should not have any sort— I'm very passionate about this. If you're new and you're trying to break into it, you don't have a shelf. You don't get a shelf. There is no shelf. You don't get a shelf. When I was new, I did stuff for free all the time. I did more free stuff than I did paid stuff. And you wanna— that builds relationships. And relationships are the thing that build a business. Without relationships, you don't have a business.

Ryan: I've heard this argued from both sides pretty sternly, and you just said you have passion about this. So, you're taking the side that it is worth doing free work at some point in your career It builds relationships, those relationships turn into real money and long-lasting jobs. You might, I'd ask you to expound upon that just a little because there are people out there that would say without a doubt, you know, your skill is a profession and it has value and you should never give it away for free. There's definitely people thinking that right now.

Rachel Mc Grath: I could not, totally, we see it on our radio imaging and production board. That is one of the most highly discussed topics, isn't it?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: It's always up there. And all I have is my truth and my story. And I know that had I not have done the free stuff or the cheap stuff, the super cheap stuff, I would not be— I would not be being interviewed by Ryan Green. This would not—

Ryan: Well, then maybe you've made a terrible decision. Sorry, go ahead.

Rachel Mc Grath: No, stop.

Ryan: Stop it.

Rachel Mc Grath: It's because doing the stuff for free or really cheap, when you're new, it builds experience. Like I said, it builds experience and relationships. People don't forget if you've done something for free for a PD when they're in a jam, or even a production director, you read a spot for them for free. In the Clear Channel creative forums, we used to trade our voices on there all the time. And now I'm actually the voice person for some of those people that I got to know then, 'cause they remembered, hey, this girl, helped us. People are always going to remember. And I think what people need to learn is to take your ego and get a steamroller and steamroller over it. Because guess what? When you're new, you don't have a shelf. That's it. You just don't. You don't get one. You don't.

Ryan: I hope now that we've been talking for like, I don't know, what's it been like 20, 25 minutes? People are hearing that you are pretty genuine. You know, you're grounded, you're successful, you're all these things. And I warned you ahead of time, I'm letting everybody know that I warned you ahead of time I'd bring this up.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, you did.

Ryan: So I think I was aware of you, but I didn't know you at all when I read this interview with you in Rap Mag. And I'll be honest, I told a buddy of mine— I won't say who it is because I'm like, whatever— that I'm like, man, did you see that in that rap? Like, did that come off as the way I think it came off? In my eyes, you're a totally different person than the person who I read interviewed. And again, it was reading an interview, which I'm never a fan of, but, read the interview of. And how many years ago was that? And also, do you agree that that came off bad? And also, do you think you've changed since then?

Rachel Mc Grath: Okay, I agree that it came out— it came off horrifically bad, as I told you earlier when you asked if it was okay to bring it up. That thing haunts me. I wish I could take it and light the fucker on fire because I just— I hate that thing so much. Listen, I think I was 27 or 28 at the time. I was young.

Ryan: Okay.

Rachel Mc Grath: I didn't learn— I didn't grow up in any kind of house that taught me humility, or be kind to others, or really anything that normal people learn. I had a lot of a little bit later in life. Just put it that way, okay? So, when I got this opportunity to be in this magazine, first of all, I didn't have anybody helping me like I do now. You know, I didn't— Nobody said, hey, have them send you the questions beforehand so you don't sound like an asshole. You know what I mean? Nobody said that. Yeah. Yeah. And I came off sounding like just a pompous, just a horrible person. And I hated it. And I think the person who was interviewing me was getting a kick out of it. They definitely did not have my best interest at heart because none of that— I have never taken anything for granted. Every single thing that I have is in my heart. I love my radio stations. I'm too emotional about them. All the producers, I'm friends with. They know who I've dated. They know what I ate for dinner last night. They know where I'm going on vacation. They know if I cried earlier, and that's why I'm late on the file.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: So, it's like, It's just that interview was just a horrible representation. Again, you know what though? It was a great lesson for me.

Ryan: It made you learn. Well, I just wanna say before we got too far into this that I kinda went, wow, you know, I was only just kinda barely aware of you at the time, so I didn't really know you at all. And since then I've gotten to know you mostly, you know, in text form, you know, emails, online, whatever.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah.

Ryan: And you're so not that person.

Rachel Mc Grath: Thank you.

Ryan: A, you had matured over time, and B, it was a text interview, which are just not my favorite, 'cause there's no tone of voice, et cetera. But I just wanted to bring it up only to say that I think you are so much better than that person that gave me my first impression of you. And for anybody else that might have felt the same way, I hope they're hearing that as well.

Rachel Mc Grath: Well, I appreciate you saying that, Ryan. And in our contact with each other, you're pretty cool yourself. You know that. We've always gotten along in every— And every interaction we've ever had, we're always like super cool. But how do you not get along with other radio people? Like, we're all a little weird, right? We're all, we're all doing the same thing. We all have the same goal.

Ryan: You, you brought something up, so I want to ask your opinion on this, and I want to say it as, you know, down the middle, impartial as I can. The voiceover community, the people that exist solely on that side, and the people that exist solely on the radio side, I feel like there is a lot more vitriol and just unhappy people on one side of that spectrum. And on the other side, it seems like everybody is more like a family and just a little bit happy to know each other. And, you know, like we're all gonna look out for each other. Do you see that or am I crazy?

Rachel Mc Grath: I see what you're— you're not— well, we can't discuss that. I don't know if you're crazy.

Ryan: Yeah, okay. No, I'm certainly crazy, but—

Rachel Mc Grath: You might be crazy good from what I've seen.

Ryan: Maybe.

Rachel Mc Grath: But, like, okay, so I do know a lot of the people that are just voiceover people, and I will say they embrace each other a lot. I don't know. I think it might be that the radio people and the voiceover people are separate, so we just see the other side of them. I'm not sure about that one, 'cause I will say, in my experience, I've seen the voiceover side be a community, and embrace each other as well.

Ryan: You have.

Rachel Mc Grath: But I've also seen a lot of— I keep bringing up these forums on Facebook, but I just see— I see guys on there that— I'm not saying just guys, but it's usually 'cause it's male-dominated.

Ryan: People.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. There was a guy on there the other day, and he was like, oh, man, I'm so sick of all these big voice guys booking all the gigs, and I don't need to work with— I don't need to work with— And I'm like, oh my God, you're doing it wrong. You can't do that. That's just what it— like, big—

Ryan: Yeah, you're doing it wrong.

Rachel Mc Grath: You're doing it wrong, buddy. You're just— stop. Like, people in radio are so sweet and so nice. All the guys I mentioned early— earlier, I can call them on the phone, and they'll give me advice. The big voice guys, they'll give me advice about anything I want. They'll take time out of their day. And these are major people. Like I said, Chad Erickson, Steve Stone, all these people that are so big in the business, and successful, they will take the time to talk to little old me. So don't call them big voice guys, big and all. No, they worked their asses off to get to where they are. And if anybody's gonna say something, you know, a little sour grapes-ish about them, it's because they're mad that they're not them.

Ryan: There's definitely some of that jealousy drenched in it. That is such a useless emotion, and I feel like I, I'm kind of riding both sides of the fence, you know, myself professionally, and I just feel so much more comfortable in conversations and even on, you know, forums and everything over on the radio side.

Rachel Mc Grath: No, but I see what I do. I do, I do see what you're saying. Look, now I'm paranoid and I keep opening the door to make sure that I'm still recording. I'm like, stop going black screen. Oh no, we are.

Ryan: Okay.

Rachel Mc Grath: You know, you never want to do a whole thing and then be like, oh, it didn't record. Sorry.

Ryan: I don't know if I've mentioned it on the podcast before. I certainly would not say who it is, but it happened one time. I got the email, all right, we're all done. Okay, great chatting with you. Awesome.

Rachel Mc Grath: Cool.

Ryan: Later. Then the email like 30 seconds later, got a problem. None of it recorded.

Rachel Mc Grath: So you had to—

Ryan: You know, that kind of thing.

Rachel Mc Grath: Did you have to do it all over again?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah.

Ryan: And I guess I'm pulling the curtain back. I like to do these interviews where we each record our own side so that you People can hear you on your vocal chain, 'cause I'm talking to professional voice artists. I don't wanna do a Skype interview, for example, because the quality is still not even close to good.

Rachel Mc Grath: Totally.

Ryan: And I don't have ISDN wired up in here. Do you have ISDN? Maybe we can just switch gears and go into a little bit of tech.

Rachel Mc Grath: I do not have ISDN. I do have, now, I don't know if by the time I get into doing a ton of TV, fingers crossed, I'm hoping that by the time that happens, that I am ISDN will be obsolete. I'm hoping, hoping, because, you know, gotta think positive. But in, like, in the interim, I have Source Connect. And so the one time that a client was like— I don't find that they, that they always want to do ISDN, but the one time that a client insisted on ISDN, I just did a bridge and it was easy peasy. You know, I think it's like, what is it, like $30?

Ryan: Right.

Rachel Mc Grath: I think it's $30, $30 bucks. And if you're getting a client who wants to record you via ISDN, it's usually going to be a— you're going to be making a lot more than $30, so it's worth your while, you know, to just do a bridge.

Ryan: Especially for $30 for the bridge, but the cost of the ISDN, yeah. So you're hoping it just gets obsolete. Of course, I think the industry, short of network television, has been hoping ISDN would be obsolete for like 15 years, and it hasn't happened. 'Cause it's like the 4 main networks are holding on for dear life, it seems like. From what I hear—

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm gonna keep on hoping and you can't stop me.

Ryan: You could.

Rachel Mc Grath: I'm gonna keep hope alive.

Ryan: In your world, and we'll kind of dance around here, tech and then your daily routine and maybe even go a little bit back in time again, but in your world, what percentage of your day is voicing radio imaging and then what percentage is everything else?

Rachel Mc Grath: Oh goodness, okay, so things have changed since the last time I talked to you. So pretty much 90% of my day is voicing radio imaging. I think telling you how many stations I had kind of helps to explain why that is.

Ryan: Certainly.

Rachel Mc Grath: It just has to be. And of course, my number one priority is gonna go to the people who have selected me as their voice and who rely on me to get stuff done fast. So it's 90% radio imaging. Those are the people who feed me. I love them. I will do anything for them. Then I would say the other 5% is auditions. Auditions obviously are very important, especially moving towards the TV front or whatever other avenue I want to go down. So 5% auditions, and then the other 5% would be doing maybe a TV spot in a medium-sized market. And I do still have one company that I do on-hold messages for.

Ryan: Okay.

Rachel Mc Grath: And it's funny 'cause the on-hold messages are all Jenny Craig and curves. And every time I get it, I'm like, are y'all trying to tell me something? Are y'all— I'm like, why does it gotta be Jenny Craig and curves? Like, why can't it be the pizza place?

Ryan: That's pretty funny. And now that brings you back to your days when you almost wanted to be in TV, and that makes me sad 'cause of all the women's self-image issues of the world and all that.

Rachel Mc Grath: I know. I mean, at the end of the day, of course, none of that matters. Of course. But, you know, I'm definitely not neurotic about, about a lot of that stuff, and I'm not afraid to admit it. You know, I've got tons of flaws and issues, and I'm self-conscious about a whole lot of stuff. You know, I'm a person.

Ryan: Yeah, that's weird though. I, I don't have any, so it's odd. yeah, whatever. so, let's maybe, the radio imaging, I understand. I figured, you know, when you, when you get up above 50 stations, it's going to dominate a lot of your time. I'd be curious if the fact that that has shifted so— well, maybe not so significantly, but it has shifted Does that push you out of doing some work that you might want to do or want to try to do?

Rachel Mc Grath: It absolutely does. 100%, no doubt about it. I have to actually consciously think, okay, stay, you know, Tuesday nights, I'm going to do the, like, the long-form VO or the narration, or I'm gonna teach myself this. And another thing that really, really helps me to focus on that And that, when I'm being pulled so hard back into radio, is the vocal training. Like, a couple months ago, I trained with David Lyerly, and he is so great. I mean, he just gets your number immediately, and he's like, he'll tell you the way you're saying things is, he'll tell you what to change about specifically about the way you're saying things. Super easygoing, super laid-back dude. So if I schedule a training session, then I'm forced to do it. Does that make sense? I am forced to do it. So I gotta start getting back into that. I've also trained with Maryse Tobias, who instantly looked at me and she goes, Rachel, I need you to believe something. And I'm like, what? She's like, you belong at the voiceover party. And I'm like, I do? I was like, I do? Oh my God. Yeah, I was so excited. She just gets into She knows what you're— she's the psychological aspect of it, you know what I mean? They're both phenomenal though. Love them both.

Ryan: Yeah, after talking to a lot of people that have worked with her and having interviewed her, her— not a nickname, I don't know the right phrases, but the Voice Whisperer. She is more than just a voice coach, I suppose. She's more like, yeah, certainly she can coach voice talent, but she gets in your brain, I guess.

Rachel Mc Grath: Mm-hmm, and she's got this calm energy to her, and when she listens to your voice, she gets this smile on her face and she cares. She doesn't— she's not— Marie Forleo is not in this after your money. She cares. So, yeah, she's definitely more than worth it.

Ryan: You mentioned 2 different coaches. I assume they have 2 different styles, maybe 2 different prices, but can you tell me a little bit about the different ways coaching can work and, you know, if you can recommend one way over another? What I'm talking about is like Skype sessions versus phone sessions versus in-person. and then the different styles of coaching that might be used, and what's best or what works for you?

Rachel Mc Grath: I don't know if I'm a super-duper— actually, I know I'm not a super-duper expert on this. And let me say this, I have never had any radio coaching. You know what I mean? All my coaching is for everything, so to speak, to de-radio the voice, which I have come to find out that turns out is ridiculous. You don't need to de-radio anything. You just have to learn to be more yourself and not yell or whatever it is that people think is wrong with radio. You know what I mean? Okay, but I'll do it quickly. Liarly does phone sessions. I don't know, he might— I can't quote exactly what he does, but I've only done Skype audio sessions with him.

Ryan: Sure, yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And they've worked really, really well. You don't feel rushed. He'll give you copy. and then he'll critique, and you're allowed to say, I would like to work on this, and then you work on that. So basically, you're in charge of the outcome of your vocal training session. Same thing with, Maurice Tobias, but I've been to her weekends. So now when you go to a Maurice Tobias weekend, you get to play with other voice people, which is, to me— which is, to me, the best part of the weekend. You know what I mean? 'Cause it's like 10 of you in a studio, and y'all end up going to lunch together, going to dinner together, talking about voiceover problems, talking about voiceover successes.

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: and then, you know, you come together with Maurice, and you all get to listen to each other. And it helps you. I think hearing other talents helps you, and being in front of other voice talents helps you grow too.

Ryan: Is it intimidating at all to do the group session in person with other—

Rachel Mc Grath: what—

Ryan: I mean, at least I know if I showed up, I would think everybody else in the room belongs there more than me. But is that intimidating, or do you just get over that pretty fast, even if it is? Or is it not intimidating?

Rachel Mc Grath: Do you remember how I told you that Maryse looked at me and said, you belong at the voiceover party?

Ryan: Yes, yes.

Rachel Mc Grath: It's because she could sense that I thought I didn't.

Ryan: Okay.

Rachel Mc Grath: So, yeah. It's really intimidating.

Ryan: Yeah, but—

Rachel Mc Grath: I mean, I don't know if there's a point that you get to at your career where you say, I should be here, or, I'm good enough, but I'm not at that point. I mean, I get nervous because when you're at home, By yourself, I'm the most comfortable. It's just me and my producer. And, and because I'm, I'm pretty much friends with all my producers, I feel comfortable with them. Then all of a sudden you get into a room with a whole bunch of other voice talents, some who are in your same industry. You're like, whoa, this is, this is different. You know, it's— and it's just, it's— it is intimidating. Now, would that stop me from going? And is it worth it and super fun in the end? Yes. So no, it wouldn't stop me from going, but yes, it's super fun in the end.

Ryan: Yeah, I got that. Wow, okay, cool. I didn't really get into this, and I'm thinking there's people that would be curious. So when you officially pulled the trigger and became a full-time home studio voice talent, at what point was that, and what kind of precipitated that decision for you?

Rachel Mc Grath: I felt I had been at— I keep calling it Clear Channel because that's what it was. Obviously it's iHeart now. Sure.

Ryan: I was at Clear Channel too.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. So I call it iHeart in the present and Clear Channel in the past, 'cause that's just how it is.

Ryan: Exactly.

Rachel Mc Grath: So I was at Clear Channel for 4 and a half years in Atlanta. I felt that I had learned all that I could. And I felt that if I stayed any longer, I might stay forever. Do you know what I mean? And my goodness, there is nothing wrong with staying forever. Was that my dream personally? No. So, I knew that after the 4 and a half years, I was like, you know what? I gotta take this leap. I gotta take— and I miss— I will— I say this all the time. I miss that camaraderie. I am still—

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Really good friends with more than a handful of people from that building. Those people are gonna be my lifelong friends. We would jump in the hallways together and play and go out. And, you know, those get to be your family. So, I miss them dearly, and I wish I could still have that. But of course, I'm happy that I made the leap. And, you know, I didn't have a plan when I made the leap. I probably did it in a stupid way, Ryan. I really did. Yeah.

Ryan: I love to get into those stories. I've asked it of a few people that have been on the show. You know, when in the 4 and a half years did you say, all right, my goal is to eventually be on my own? And then a second part is, when you went on your own, I guess without having having a less crass way to say it, did you have any money in the bank or did you sort of just go, well, hope I can eat, but here we go?

Rachel Mc Grath: No, totally. These are good questions. I knew in year 1, I probably knew in the first 6 months that I wanted to be on my own.

Ryan: Oh really? As a voice talent?

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah.

Ryan: Oh wow.

Rachel Mc Grath: As a voice talent, yeah. By the time I got to Atlanta, I knew. So I knew that it was now or never if I didn't jump ship. I knew that I had to take a leap of faith. Did I have any money in the bank? Absolutely not. In fact, I had to borrow $7,000 from myself. I remember the exact number. I had to borrow $7,000 from myself out of my 401, which, trust me, at the time was not big. So, I really, really was taking a huge risk. I had no security blanket. I had no savings to fall back on. I just—

Ryan: Wow.

Rachel Mc Grath: I just knew that I had to. What I had was a dream, and I had hope, and I had I had relationships. I keep saying relationships, but it's because they're the most important thing. I knew a ton of people by that time, so I bet everything on those. And thank goodness, it kind of worked. But, you know, for people going on their own, you know, if you want to take the leap, take the leap. But if you don't know anybody and you don't have contacts, I would recommend not taking it. Unless you're getting out there and pounding the pavement and making connections. Yeah.

Ryan: When you did that, what kind of revenue did you have though? I mean, did you have 3 stations that were regular clients? Did you have 20? Did you have enough money to at least pay the rent, the car, and buy food? Kind of where were you at though when you pulled the trigger?

Rachel Mc Grath: That's what I had enough money for, to pay the rent. That's perfect, to pay the rent, the car, and buy food. I definitely had to take a step back that first year from taking— I love to go on vacation. It's one of my all-time favorites. I never buy stuff. 'cause stuff doesn't make me happy. I spend money on experiences. So, I had to experience a lot less. That first year, I definitely had to pull back on the experiences. And thank goodness, after that first year, when I signed with Atlas is when things really started to blow up. You know what I mean?

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

Rachel Mc Grath: And that was hard in and of itself. You know, I kept getting turned away, turned away, turned away. So, I didn't give up. I just kept redoing my demo. demo. But I never, I never was digging through the couch cushions like I had been at other points in my life. But I was, yeah, I was, I was really having to watch. I think I had like 18 stations when I went on my own.

Ryan: Oh wow, okay. That's also, that's a good— I would have thought less. Okay, so 18 stations and you have enough to, you know, eat. You're not gonna die, but you didn't have any fun. How many years or months did it take for you to maybe, I don't know, build up another 10 or 20 stations, whatever it took for you to go, all right, now I can go travel again, and I'm out on my own. How long did that take?

Rachel Mc Grath: It took me about a year. I would say, yeah, about a year. And then in that year, I signed with Atlas. And then after that, that's when it blew up after that. But in that first year, I was successful, kind of signing stations on my own where I could start to go have experiences and have fun and play again. So I think it took me about a year. But remember, this is me asking every— I mean, I had no shame. I would just ask anybody I knew. I'd be like, I'm a voice girl. I'm a voice girl. Will you hire me? Will you hire me? I just literally, no shame.

Ryan: Well, you had to hustle. Mark Cuban would say you were a hustler. You're a hustler, and that's not a bad thing.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yes, I definitely am a hustler, yes. You do have to be, no doubt.

Ryan: Yeah, so one of the big key Rachel McGrath keys to success is you gotta be a hustler, sounds like, without a doubt.

Rachel Mc Grath: You gotta tell everybody what you do. Take your card with you everywhere and just smile and say, I'm a voice talent. Don't annoy people. I probably, actually, I probably still annoy people. But like, I'm like, who am I kidding? But definitely, and the relationships that I had, I nurtured. Don't ignore your clients. I mean, just be nice, do stuff for them, be nice to them. These people picked you. They picked you. Yeah.

Ryan: That's a hard skill though, right? I mean, a lot of people can't do that. The idea of a cold call where it's in person usually in our business, business, it's really difficult. It's difficult for me sometimes to just walk up to somebody cold, strike up a conversation, and also sell yourself. You know, it's— that's not an— that's not a skill everybody has.

Rachel Mc Grath: That's, that's, that's definitely true. That's why I did try to nurture my existing relationships more. And then when you do that, then they recommend people. They recommend you to their— of course, who are program directors friends with? Let's Other program directors who make the decisions on stage.

Ryan: Sure.

Rachel Mc Grath: Who are production directors, who are imaging directors, other imaging directors. So, I definitely think, you know, your reputation is— even more than cold calling or hustling, building your reputation is everything. And I'm not saying— I don't care what reputation that is. Like, you know, people know if they get me, they're gonna get a whole bunch of takes. I'm gonna go off the script. I'm not just gonna do it and be, you know— but maybe some people want that. But they know that if they get me, get that, they're gonna get the brand that comes with it. Does that make sense?

Ryan: Absolutely, 100%. I think anybody who's good, even the biggest of the bigs, still do kind of all of that that you said. Like, a guy I always looked up to was Jude Corbett, you know, always. And I couldn't believe his turnaround, knowing how many stations he has and had— had and has, whatever, you know. And his turnaround, the takes he gives you, the ad-libs, everything he still gives. And you're like, that's Jude Corbett. You know, he should be, he should be one taken out kind of guy, but nope. And that's kind of, you know, how I think the successful people are modeled like.

Rachel Mc Grath: I don't know him that well, but that sounds like he's awesome.

Ryan: Oh yeah, yeah, Jude is definitely one of my favorites. Let's talk about tech, and you know, we can really dive into the computer issues. I know you're a Mac person, and are you still recording everything in Pro Tools?

Rachel Mc Grath: I never recorded everything in Pro Tools. I only use Adobe Audition CS6 for I meant to say that.

Ryan: I'm sorry.

Rachel Mc Grath: That's totally okay. Yeah, so I had a little issue on Thursday. My hard drive completely and totally failed. And thank goodness my friend Forrest Martin is— he has been— I've known him for so long. He's one of my best friends. And so—

Ryan: Where do you know Forrest from originally?

Rachel Mc Grath: He worked at the Clear Channel Creative Services Group in LA. Atlanta. So I— Oh, okay.

Ryan: That's freedom. Great.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. So we worked together. And I even knew him when I was in Twin Falls because I would do reads for him, you know, like, just because of the Clear Channel Production Network. So from way back in the day, Forrest has been my person. And it's awesome that he actually works at Apple now. Like, isn't that great? But any product that I ever needed, I just was like, Forrest, what do I do? Forrest, what do I get?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And he would either go to the store with me or tell me. So when this happened on Thursday, he's like, Rachael, how old's your computer? And I'm like, almost 4 years. And he's like, get a new computer. And I'm like, okay. So I just listened to him, and now I got, you know, I've got the Retina display, and I secretly kind of wanted it. So I'm excited. And the other And the other tip is I had everything saved on an external hard drive. So all my career was saved. I didn't lose anything. Thank goodness.

Ryan: So our lessons are, I mean, there's really only one lesson I was going to bring up, but have a friend like Forrest. That's lesson 1.

Rachel Mc Grath: Have a friend like Forrest. Yes.

Ryan: Lesson 2 though is, and I've said this a number of times, But obviously external drives for different kinds of content, and I would recommend using multiple external drives. I would recommend mirroring twice on location and then once in the cloud or off-site in some capacity. So you should have triple copy of everything important, 2 on-site, 1 off-site. Do you have a cloud backup system yet?

Rachel Mc Grath: I need, I need to get, to get on that. So yes, I'm definitely gonna back up the external hard drive because, you know, what if a thief comes in here? and just takes it, then, then everything's gone, right? So yeah, I'm definitely gonna back that up.

Ryan: Yeah, so that— so, so another thing that I did is I got a NAS system. Are you familiar with a NAS system? It's a network attached storage, I think is what it stands for. So it's like having my own wire— or wired, it's actually wired, but it's like having your own wired network drives in your house, but I have them hidden in the back of a closet. you know, not in the same room. So in theory, if I were to be broken into and they see all my fancy studio Mac gear, just like your studio, they take it and you're screwed on that end. But then you walk around the corner into the closet of your bedroom and you've got your little NAS drive with your 8 terabytes of everything right there. That's another little trick.

Rachel Mc Grath: That's a great idea. As a matter of fact, I don't know, I was just gonna say where I was gonna hide it, but I have a hiding place in mind already. I'll tell, I'll tell the cats, and that's, and that's it. It'll just be between me and the cats.

Ryan: Yeah, well, post it on Facebook as you would, but then just tell the cat— just tell the cats.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. Right.

Ryan: So, yeah, I just think these hard drive— you know, hard drives are so important, and there's so many people out there with, you know, terabytes of really important career information, and they don't even have one backup. You know, terrible. It's so inexpensive to just protect, you know, everything, even a couple Like, you know, a multi-terabyte drive is under $100 now. Anyway, enough of that. I am interested though, when you're recording your chain, are you using outboard gear? Do you use all plugins? How much do you apply to yourself on your vocal tracks? And then, you know, what kind of mic or hardware do you like to use?

Rachel Mc Grath: Okay, it's super duper simple. I have— some people are gear people, some people aren't. I am not. And I, you know, the gear people are good, I'm good. It's, it's just whatever works for you. For me, you're not gonna believe—

Ryan: Exactly.

Rachel Mc Grath: You're not, you're not gonna believe this. I have a PreSonus Eureka channel strip that I bought on eBay when I first went on my own. And the reason why I haven't replaced it is because it sounds good. You know what I mean? I mean, if it ain't broke, like my stations are, I think, okay with the way I sound. They would tell me if I wasn't. And, so I have a whisper room. you know, I work in what I call my roomio. I had a Cludio the last time we talked. I've moved houses and now I have a— I have a— yeah, I have a roomio now. and so I have a whisper room, a TLM 103 that goes into the, the channel strip. The channel strip goes to an Apogee One. The Apogee One goes right in the computer. That's it. And then when I send out my— yeah, when I send out my files, I would say 70% of the files I do nothing to. I prefer to just send them totally dry. That way the producer gets to do whatever they want. This is funny. On stations, I call them on Deke stations because we have a lot of country stations together. I do put some processing on those. Otherwise he will just blow me away. You know what I mean? Like, I will just get—

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: Deke.

Ryan: Deke puts a lot of mustard on his files. I've worked with his files.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, so I have to apply— what I do is, I'm probably saying this wrong, but you know the VEQ4 plugin? Am I saying that right?

Ryan: Yeah.

Rachel Mc Grath: And the C1, so I do that, and then a little C1 comp gate, and I do that at 20%. Okay.

Ryan: Do you have a hard limiter or anything like that?

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, I'll limit it. Okay, you got me. First I limit it, and then I'll run it through that, but only at 20%. And then some stations request that I put a filter on there. So I'll do the filter. And the filter I use is so funny. It's the bandpass. I've got the whole bundle, but my favorite is the bandpass filter that comes with— it's the Apple FX one.

Ryan: Oh, oh. So do you know what, like, kind of in general when you filter, again, just to give people an idea and to dumb it down a little bit, because all your darn tech speak, Rachel.

Rachel Mc Grath: Sorry.

Ryan: Do you know whereabouts you— I'm assuming you roll off your low end to give that sizzling CHR high sound. you know, feel.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yes.

Ryan: do you know about where you roll off, like 500K? I mean, 500 Hz and below, or 300, or 1,000, or—

Rachel Mc Grath: You got me on this one. I'm gonna have to look and get back to you. Okay.

Ryan: That's fine. I could not say off the top of my head.

Rachel Mc Grath: I know what it looks like, but I don't know what the— I don't know. I don't know.

Ryan: It's a little shelf on the left side of the EQ, right?

Rachel Mc Grath: Yes, totally right. Yeah.

Ryan: I'm guessing you're probably, if, especially if you were directed by anyone like Forrest or Chase or someone like that, you were probably told in the ballpark of 400 or 500 Hz. Anyway, that's for people that are curious, the CHR sound. So people that aren't really aware of all this radio imaging side of our chat, you know, if you want more of that crunchy CHR sound, you're gonna compress it quite a bit. But before that, you're gonna EQ it by taking away a lot of the bass. So to make a big sound, you don't necessarily have to add bass, you have to remove it. So you roll off the low end. That's what we're talking about.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah. And I like that, I like that you said that. Yeah, go look. I call him Master Chase, because he's so awesome. Yeah, yeah, go listen to whatever he's doing and then do that. Easy.

Ryan: Berlin actually is another guy who is really plugged into the geekery. And you, you brought up Jeff Berlin earlier. That is a dude, and he answers emails. He's a machine. The guy's on a billion stations. He's the voice of like 50 TV networks. He's done my podcast twice. And, you know, I'll shoot him an email on occasion. I try not to bother him but once every couple years. And, you know, he'll always write back, and he just knows it all. He just knows.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, and to boot, I finally had the chance to meet him. Super nice guy. Super nice guy, super fun. Like, he's the— yeah.

Ryan: I haven't met him in per— you know, there's— I don't even want to put, like, a lot of other people out of the— you know, not to say Berlin is better than, like, Steve Sykes knows his way around a studio.

Rachel Mc Grath: I've heard that too.

Ryan: Obviously Eric Chase, as you mentioned. Frost knows plenty. Steve Stone, Steve Stone, total tech geek.

Rachel Mc Grath: Totally.

Ryan: There's a lot of them. There's a lot of great resources out there.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, I think I'm not so— I mean, do I know a lot from being an imaging director? Yes. Is it something that I really am hardcore into? I would say no, because I've built my brand without it, you know what I mean? I just, I just don't focus so much on the effects, but obviously the way they did it is working. So it's whatever works for you.

Ryan: I was just gonna say, you already said that, and that's the first thing to remember. I mean, people really do get hung up on, all right, which mic— you know, the guys that own 14 different microphones and are constantly swapping them out and like, all right, if I only could just get the perfect mic, you know, then I'd book the national Ford gig. But, you know, meanwhile, the people that are like, eh, I'm just gonna be good at what I do and I'm gonna talk into whatever mic's in front of me and they're gonna hire me and awesome. And that's, you know, that's all that matters. Just be whatever works for you. Be the best you, you can be. And you've demonstrated that pretty well, I would say.

Rachel Mc Grath: Thank you.

Ryan: Since you're very plugged into the radio side and the voiceover side and And, you know, you kind of got your eyeballs on everything. I'm curious, in 10 years, either where do you think you will be? And maybe you can also tell me where you think radio in general will be.

Rachel Mc Grath: Okay, let's start with radio in general. Radio in general, I think a lot of times people don't know things and they're afraid to say, I don't know. I don't— I don't know. I think it's still going to be very relevant. I think it's still gonna be a fantastic way to reach consumers because who doesn't like listening to music. you know, I think that there's no way for me to accurately predict it. I hope that it will be somewhat in— I hope it'll be in the same state, but we all know how fast things, change, you know what I mean? Do I see it being consolidated more like it is now? Yes. But that's fine. I mean, you know, it— all of, all of the changes in radio don't frighten me or scare me the way they seem to some other people who I see, oh, radio's dead, this and that. Well, it's not. It's just different. But let's think about everything. TV is different. When TV first came out, there were 3 channels and then there was static after midnight. Or was it 10 PM? Of course—

Ryan: It might have been 10.

Rachel Mc Grath: Yeah, of course it's going to be different. But who cares if it's different?

Ryan: Let's just keep up with it and work around So in 10 years, you don't think radio will be nonexistent. Do you think radio will ever be nonexistent? FM radio?

Rachel Mc Grath: I want to say no. I just, I can't imagine getting in your car and not turning on the radio. Can you?

Ryan: No. And especially, I mean, granted, the technology might change, but if major, major weather events happen at times of the day times the over-the-air signals are the only thing you can get. And, you know, what with electricity being down also meaning if it ain't battery operated, you're not gonna get the information. So that kind of takes us all the way back down to FM radio, I think. Right. Or AM. But, you know, I'm— I do think AM radio will die. That spectrum will go somewhere else.

Rachel Mc Grath: I agree. And I'm ex— I'm excited to see what happens as far as where am I gonna be in 10 years? Yeah. I think I had it in my head, so I'm like, I gotta answer this while it's in my head. I think that I'm still gonna be loving all my stations, being a station voice. I think I'm gonna be loving doing movie trailers because I'll have done 10 or 15 by then. Do you hear the—

Ryan: Really? 10 or 15?

Rachel Mc Grath: Did you hear the giggle? I've got to be optimistic. I've got— you've got to have goals and you've got to be optimistic. Like, you know, I—

Ryan: that's Do you—

Rachel Mc Grath: yeah, that's my goal.

Ryan: I'm sorry, I was— I want to be serious about it real fast though. Have you, done any of that yet, or is that still something you need to embark on?

Rachel Mc Grath: Something I need to embark on for sure.

Ryan: Okay, great. No, that's great, that's great. Yeah, hey, they have females doing movie trailers, and that's, that's good, and they're very good at it. And, 10 years, you know, maybe there'll be no men doing trailers by then.

Rachel Mc Grath: Maybe. The one— every time I hear— I don't know who that is on the Magic Mike trailer, but every time I hear her, I'm like, get it, Or there's a possibility that I will also have, you know, had one too many freakouts and been like, I'd be like, I can't do this anymore. And then I'll just be having a restaurant in Tahiti.

Ryan: Okay. I almost asked, it's a question I never ask because I kind of think it's cliché. The whole, if you weren't doing this, what would you be doing? It's, you know, everybody, but I was kind of curious. restaurant in Tahiti, as in owning or just serving drinks and that's good enough?

Rachel Mc Grath: It would be— no, no, it would probably be mine, but I would hire people. I would want to own it, but I would also want to be able to enjoy it. But you know, that's if I have a freakout moment. That would be all the way the backup plan if it all gets too much. Because this business, I feel so blessed and fortunate And just, I'm just so happy to be in it. I just, I love it. It's my heart, you know?

Ryan: Yeah, I mean, without a doubt, it definitely, I'm certain that when people come away from this one, they'll know how much passion you have for it, how much love you have for it. Although, have you ever priced restaurants in Tahiti to this point? Oh my gosh, no.

Rachel Mc Grath: No. I haven't gotten that far.

Ryan: So you've never gone on, no, okay, good. I told you in advance there'd be like 30 things I wanted to talk about, and we only get to maybe 10 of them, you know?

Rachel Mc Grath: I did.

Ryan: 'Cause that's the way it is. But before I ask the last question, I did wanna thank you very much for joining me. I know your day is busy and I know I've just taken away like an hour and a half of your afternoon. So I've ruined your, what is this, Tuesday?

Rachel Mc Grath: You've ruined nothing and thank you for, the pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me.

Ryan: So finally, I will ask you, you know, if there's one piece of advice, and I think you've kind of touched on this already, probably a number of different ways, But, you know, one piece of advice that you'd lay on any newcomer out there, what would it be? And you can talk from the point of radio imaging production, radio imaging voice, or voice talent in general.

Rachel Mc Grath: If you get a client, I don't care if you get one client, treat the client like the most important client in the world. Then if you get up to 10 clients, still keep treating them like These are relationships that you're building. I— how many times have I said relationship in this interview? It is all about the relationship. You must— there's always gonna be somebody trying to— I can feel people breathing down my neck trying to get my job.

Ryan: Wow.

Rachel Mc Grath: The only way I have a sense of security about it is that I know— I know what's in my heart, and that's that I love them, and I treat them the best that I possibly can and bend over backwards for them. If you do that, you're gonna be able to sleep at night, and people are gonna love you. people are going to tell other people about you and you've won.

Ryan: That's awesome. All right, Rachel, rachelmcrath.com. You're all over Facebook. I was gonna just basically tell people, just write Rachel McGrath into Facebook and you'll be the first one to come up. Rachel, thank you so very much for doing the show. I really appreciate it.

Rachel Mc Grath: Thank you for having me, Ryan.

Ryan: Yep. Thanks again to Rachel. Just a, just a really quick Cool person to chat with. I don't think I mentioned it at all in the intro or during the interview, but she's one of those people in the business that does the social stuff correctly. And that's such a stupid thing to say because who am I to say if it's done correctly, right? In my opinion, she does it correctly. It's never the oh so proud to brag today about something I just accomplished. You know, I get it. It's it's a Maybe it's a necessary evil. I've just never been that guy, and Rachel's not that. Well, she's not that guy. Also not that gal. She just does it right, in my opinion. Rachel McGrath dot com. That be her website. She's all over the Facebook. I can tell you that. I'm less and less on the Facebook in the recent days, but she's all over the Facebook, so you can find her there. If you search Rachel McGrath, I guarantee you she'll be the first. one that comes up. Maybe unless you live in Ireland, possible there'd be more Rachel McGraths up there. Whatever. That's it. Kelly Doherty, as I said, will be an upcoming guest. I'm not positive when we'll get that scheduled. I'm working on other people. If you have anyone to suggest, I would love to hear it. I always ask for suggestions because they're obviously like anything, there's always new awesome people that appear on the scene. Somebody that might have been in high school 5 or 6 years ago when I was doing this show is now, you know, at a high level and somebody I need to talk to. I just, well, might not know who they are yet. Contact form on the website. You can just use my Gmail too. I give that out freely, ryandreen@gmail.com. Any way you want to reach out to me is perfectly fine. Thanks so much, and I will talk to you next time. Bye.

Announcer: Contact the show, contribute your opinions, see additional content, or simply stay connected at producerspodcast.com.