Behind The Subway Voices

Hamster rides the subway

What happens on late-night, drunken subway rides? One man recently heard voices... like, those typically garbled announcements, yet allegedly crystal clear. Upon wondering about the humans behind the familiar voices, he fell down a rabbit hole online and came out with a pretty thorough article on the subterranean sounds.

First off, last year some new voices were being sought out — at the time, 33 announcers covered 15 posts throughout the system, and 14 were soon to be hired. The curious author covers about 4 of the voices — Charlie Pellett, Jessica Ettinger Gottesman, Dianne Thompson and Catherine Cowdery — noting, "as the story goes, in 1999, Bloomberg Radio donated the time of some of its employees to the MTA as a public service. This group recorded various announcements for alerts that would ultimately become the sound of the underground for millions of New Yorkers."

And an interesting fact: most of the orders are given by a male voice, while informational messages are from females. Which do you prefer? We think the city should get celebrity voices down there — if drivers can get Sean Connery to be the voice of their GPS, straphangers should too! Or at least this lady.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on January 4, 2010 3:18 PM

Comments [rss]

Splicer

So in other words, Bloomberg "suggested" to some of his radio employees that they should "donate" their voices. This should be a paid gig, not a freebie.

ohhleary

Also, you must've skipped the part where they mentioned that happened in 1999 - three years before Bloomberg took office.

Not everything is a freaking conspiracy, ass.

MrManhattan

No, if "Bloomberg Radio" donated the time, that means the employees were paid. This is a common practice with big corporations, since it has the double dip of tax deduction, and good (free) publicity.

emilee537

actually, they weren't paid

Tower18

One beef I have with the automated announcements, most noticeably at Times Square while listening to the barrage of available transfers, is that they don't very well distinguish between "N" and "and." This is okay at Times Square because the N stops there, but at other stations "and" can sound like "N" but no N train stops there.

lucyvanpelt

I laugh whenever I see those, and wonder why they don't start text-only campaigns by dead celebrities.

"HI, I'M ABRAHAM LINCOLN, REMINDING YOU TO MIND THE GAP."

Rob T Firefly

There are celebrity announcements on the LIRR. It was bland enough to begin with, but things took a slightly surreal turn when the railroad decided to start transcribing the celebrity messages onto the scrolling LED signs on the platforms. It's one thing to hear some actor asking you to be courteous with your cellphone, but it's just weird when an LED sign is silently flashing "HI I'M ALEC BALDWIN, REMEMBER TO WATCH THE GAP" at you.

Wza

Just slow down and speak loud and clear.

That's all I ask.

jlocke

For the love of god and all that is holy, Christopher Walken please

buttface

Replace all train/track info with LED signs.

Lose the "we are watching you, terrorists!" alerts.

Lose the "protect your titties from being groped" alerts.

Announcers: obsolete.