Interview with Bill Young, Bill Young Productions – Concert Industry Voice-over Legend
You may not know the name Bill Young, or have ever heard of his company Bill Young Productions. But, have almost certainly heard, seen and watched his work. For over 30 years Bill Young has been voice of hundreds of thousands of concert ads. What artist has he not worked with. I have saved copies of his radio ads, I have cut out his print ads. I am sure many of you have done the same.
I sat down and talked with Bill for nearly an hour. I was hoping to get some ideas, tips and advice that any artist could use when they are promoting their next show.
Bill discusses how he moved from working in radio to exclusively doing concert promotion work. He discusses how the medium has changed from radio, tv and print to Facebook, Twitter and email. He talks about what you should do when creating a ad for your show. He discusses the most important skill needed when creating a ad, hint it is not a great voice.
Bill Young is someone whose work has had such a huge impact on a industry and has been seen and heard by so many people, its not often you get to talk with someone with that level of experience and are able to get a few nuggets of advice.
Listen to My Interview with Bill Young
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Bill Young Biography
Bill Young began his radio programming career in 1957 while still in high school in Lufkin, Texas. His work took him to Waco, Texas – Omaha, Nebraska – Tyler, Texas and finally to KILT, Houston, then owned by industry pioneer Gordon McLendon. While at KILT from 1966 to 1981, Young was recognized on numerous occasions as one of the industry’s most influential programming executives, winning “Radio Station of the Year” in 1970 and “Program Director of the Year in 1971.” While at KILT, he created the Hudson & Harrigan morning show, which became Houston’s most popular radio program for more than forty years!
In addition to his radio career, Young became known as “the voice of rock ‘n roll!” After creating the acclaimed radio/TV/print advertising for ZZ Top’s record-breaking, year and a half long “World Wide Texas Tour,” concert promoters from Seattle to New York City began looking to Young for unique and powerful radio commercials. He left radio in 1981 to create Bill Young Productions. The company began supplying Radio, TV, Print, and New Media advertising for the touring industry – literally creating thousands of multi-national campaigns for the industry’s top performers — Paul McCartney, Eagles, Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, AC-DC, Madonna, Led Zepplin and hundreds of others. Bill also directed hundreds of television projects including music videos for George Strait, Clay Walker and Winona Judd. He wrote and directed TV ads for touring Broadway events including South Pacific with Robert Goulet, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” with Michael Crawford, and Agatha Christie’s Mouse Trap starring Elliott Gould and Mariette Hartley. Young was Associate Producer of the Broadway musical Jekkyl & Hyde which ran for over 1500 performances on Broadway. Meanwhile, his voice appeared on national TV ads for Budweiser, Chevy Trucks, Labatt’s, CBS Sports’ World Series promotions for CBS radio, FOX TV’s “King of the Hill” and ABC-TVs “In Concert” series.
In his spare time, Bill and Olympic Champion Mary Lou Retton created and produced the popular children’s series “Mary Lou’s Flip Flop Shop” for PBS-Digital.
Highlights from Bill’s illustrious career are featured in his recently completed book, “DEAD AIR – The Rise & Demise of Music Radio,” available thru Amazon, Barns & Noble online and Kindle. ”
If you are interested in learning about his history and reading some great stories I encourage you to buy his book.
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