BY ALYSSA MAHADEO
Our voice is one of our most distinguishing assets. Every voice is unique and we use our speech to express our feelings through inflexion of tone and convey our emotions in any particular circumstance.
A master of voice manipulation, Roger Dey was born in Trinidad then immigrated to Canada at the young age of four and has resided here for the majority of his life. After graduating from High School, Roger attended Humber College where he pursued his studies in Radio Broadcasting. Upon finishing college, he landed an entry level position as a technical operator at CKO a Canadian all news radio station. Concurrently, he was also pursuing an on-air career at a station called CKLN in Toronto. There voluntarily he hosted a show called Socalypso Sounds that promoted Soca and Calypso Music.
While balancing both opportunities, Roger was also interested in starting his own voice over career outside of radio. He had always wanted to be on radio as an on-air personality, but he also wanted to run a business where he could be his own boss.
In 1987 after leaving CKO, Roger began working at CHIN Radio assisting Jai Ojah Maharaj as a technical producer on his show Caribbean Connections voicing many of his show ID’s. During his time at CHIN, Roger experimented with different voices, one of his most famous character personalities being, Ramjit Singh the singing taxi driver who made an appearance on many of Jai’s shows. Roger spent five years at CHIN, until he was offered a job at a new radio station in Burlington called Energy 108. They were a dance music station and they gave him the role of head producer which allowed him the opportunity to produce their commercials as well as station ID’s. He spent six years at the station, and while he was there he suggested that they add a little bit of Caribbean vibes to the mix as that genre of music definitely fell in the dance category. He was allowed the chance to host a show called Island Life on Sunday afternoons where listeners could tune in and listen to a mix of native Caribbean music also reaching mainstream audiences.
By 1997 Roger had spent six years at Energy 108, and for the first time in a while found himself out of a job for a few months. He received a call from another dance music radio station out in Newmarket, Power 88.5, who hired him as a producer, producing commercials, station ID’s, jingles and the works. In addition to this position he was able to migrate his Island Life show from Energy 108 to Power 88.5. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to stay there for long, as the owner sold the radio station after finding himself in some legal trouble and Roger found himself without a job again.
Roger had been running the same gig at each radio station for so long, that producing commercials, station IDs and other voice over work had become second nature to him. He realized at this point in his career, he had the talent, experience and resources he needed to start up his own production company.
Roger began operating his own voice over company in 1998, under the name Roger Dey Productions. Since starting his own company he has found much success and fulfillment in honing his craft. He is very grateful for the opportunities he had been presented with over the years that allowed him to find his voice, and add his own flavor to his various on air shows. “There’s no turning back for me now,” says Roger “This is what I do and I’m really enjoying it.”
After starting up his production company, Roger found himself back at CHIN Radio, where he went back to help his old friend Jai with his Caribbean programing on the station. He was able to co-host with Jai on occasion and even hosted a program on his own program re-adopting his previous shows on Island Life, but this time focusing on the music of the French West Indians that had very similar, but unique sounds from the islands.” I didn’t understand a lot of the lyrics to the songs, as they were sung in Creole, but it didn’t really matter to me because if the music moves you, it moves you.” Roger shares.
Both Roger and Jai, left CHIN, after a few years and joined a newly formed radio station in 2011, catering specifically to the black Caribbean diaspora here in Toronto. That station known across the GTA as G98.7 assigned Roger the important role of Music Director. He worked there for a period of time, enjoying to work that he had done on the airways for so many years, but it wasn’t long before Roger recognized that his passion lay in running his own business and producing his own voice overs, where he could let his creative voice run wild.
Roger’s lengthy career in radio has brought him where he is today, fully immersed in the production industry, providing high quality, fun and memorable voices, anywhere you need a voice! Roger Dey specializes in affordable high quality voice–overs for Radio and TV Commercials, Promos and Imaging. Internet radio, Websites and related media. Narration for documentaries and audiobooks. Character voices for cartoons, films and videogames. Movie trailers. IVR, voicemail and on-hold messages. Podcasts, corporate and industrial presentations, and training videos. Dj Drops, creative scriptwriting and more!
Roger’s easily recognizable and distinguished voice can be heard all around the globe. For the past twenty years now he has been the image voice of 96.1 WEFM in Trinidad. Although he was born in Trinidad, Roger still has a very foreign sounding voice and unlike many of the other stations in Trinidad who use a different style of voice, Roger’s familiarity with the Trinidad accent brings a unique flair to the station, that helps to relate easier to the island locals. He has done many local voice work here in Toronto for many local DJ’s and promoters and he is the official voice of Carib101.com Radio Without Boundaries. Roger can be heard in New York, Ghana, Atlanta, Miami, Cayman Islands. St. Lucia and many commercials around the world!
Roger has immersed himself in the world of voice overs and his passion is what drives him to keep on experimenting with voice manipulation. He loves his work and it allows him the freedom to work from anywhere at anytime. He enjoys the ability to flex his creativity with each new project and exercise his comedic personality when helping a client put together a script. He is extremely versatile spending years in the industry exposed to many different type of voice production. Anytime that he is able to deliver his voice where it is needed he is happy to help.
With a voice heard on Radio, TV and Websites around the world Roger Dey’s versatile sound is available dry or fully reproduced. Turnaround is 24 hrs or less via internet delivery and is surprisingly affordable. Get Roger Dey on your next voice project now! Give him a call at 416-720-3942 and visit his website at http://rogerdey.com/.
Anywhere you need a voice, Roger Dey has you covered!
