Question about Guiding Light announcer [Archive]

09-20-2009, 11:44 PM

Who were the most famous/longest running soap announcers, JT?
Hmm...some of the major names that I can think of include Ken Roberts (Love of Life, The Secret Storm, Texas), Hal Simms (The Edge of Night), Bern Bennett (The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful), Alan Berns, and Don Hancock, who usually appeared onscreen at the beginning of each episode of Love of Life in the 50s.

Some of the more popular/well-remembered announcers:

Search for Tomorrow:
Dwight Weist (1951-1981)
Allison Steele (1981-1985)
Hal Simms (1985-1986)

Love of Life:
Don Hancock (1950s) - usually appeared onscreen before the actual show started in order to "welcome" the audience and hawk merchandise
Charles Mountain (1950s) - the actual announcer/narrator
Hebert Duncan (early 1960s)
Ken Roberts (mid 1960s-1980)

The Guiding Light:
Bud Collyer (1952 until about 1956 or so)
Hal Simms (brief run some time in the early 1960s)
Alan Berns (ca1969-1997)
Martin Bookspan (1997-mid 2000s) - used mainly for sponsor tags at the beginning of the show, and later replaced by random cast members

The Secret Storm:
Basically the exact same list as sister soap Love of Life.

As the World Turns:
Dan McCullough (1956-1982)
Dan Region (1982-1998)
Martin Bookspan (1998-present) - again, only really used for sponsor tags after the first act.

The Edge of Night:
Bob Dixon (1956)
Herbert Duncan (1956-1958)
Harry Kramer (1958-1972)
Hal Simms (1972-1984)

General Hospital:
Ed Chandler (1963-ca1976)

The Doctors:
Mel Brandt (entire run, 1963-1982)

Another World:
Bill Wolff (1964-1988) - also did the spin-off Somerset for its whole run from 1970 to 1976, the sister series For Richer, For Poorer from 1977 to 1978, and the other spin-off, Texas, from 1980-1981 (he was replaced by Ken Roberts for its last year)

Days of Our Lives:
Ed Prentiss (1965-1966)
Macdonald Carey (1966-present) - always pretty much limited to "Like sands through the hourglass..."

The Young and the Restless/The Bold and the Beautiful:
Bern Bennett (1973-2003) - also announced B&B from its premiere in 1987
Marnie Saitta (2003-present) - replaced in 2006 by cast members on Y&R, but still does sponor tags for B&B

None of the long-running ABC soaps besides GH really had announcers. The most that the ABC soaps ever had in the way of announcements were someone to do the "brought to you by..." after the first act (or incorporated into the opening like in the 1990s) and the mid-program break. That's usually an ABC person.

Today, B&B still uses Marnie Saitta for everything, Y&R rotates cast members, ATWT uses Martin Bookspan, the ABC soaps use a staff announcer (and cast members for the mid-show break), as does DAYS.

Thanks to YouTube, you can hear pretty much all of the above announcers doing their thing. It might seem like only a small part of what makes a show, but it really adds a lot, IMO, to have a good announcer. Especially back when the announcer played more of a role in the show. There's a great, great, great episode of The Secret Storm with Charles Mountain doing an awesome narration over a scene of evil Aunt Pauline relishing in the fact that she's framed her brother-in-law Peter for neglecting his kids. And Dan McCullough's announcing duties at ATWT are unrivaled when it comes to sheer majesty as far as I'm concerned.