I Wanna Talk!!! Dee Snider Becomes Voice For MSNBC
By
Frank Meyer,
Contributing Editor
Saturday, February 9, 2002 @ 11:57 AM
MSNBC Enlists Twisted Sister F
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MSNBC has enlisted Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider to do voice-overs for the news network. Since the early winter the flamboyant frontman has recorded promotions for Brian Williams, Ashleigh Banfield and Alan Keyes, among others.
“Ashleigh Banfield—wherever the story goes, she’s there,” a deadpan Snider says in one spot. “Getting the tough interviews. Finding the real answers.”
Snider was hired by MSNBC after a lengthy search, said Val Nicholas, the network’s vice president of advertising, promotion and marketing. “We wanted a little bit of in-your-face,” Mr. Nicholas said. “We wanted somebody to cut through all of this clutter. Plus, I used to like Twisted Sister.”
Mr. Nicholas said that the first time he heard Mr. Snider’s scratchy voice, he didn’t know it belonged to the singer. He said an MSNBC colleague, Dave McCoy, purposely kept that fact from him, playing Mr. Snider’s audition tape without disclosing that it was the Long Island–based rocker. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is great,’” said Mr. Nicholas. “And Dave goes, ‘O.K., good. Because it’s Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.’”
“He’s pretty much a regular guy who just got into rock ’n’ roll,” Mr. Nicholas said. “He was always married; he always had a family.” Nicholas says the network wanted a “different voice” that was less stuffy than traditional news announcers. “We don’t advertise [that it’s Dee],” he said. “But we’re not ashamed of it, either.”
Snider, who is currently in Texas playing himself in a VH1 movie about his battles with Tipper Gore and the PMRC, also hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and has done voice-over work for several years for the likes of Sony, CNN and the New York Lottery.
“MSNBC was apparently looking for more of an attitude,” Mr. Snider said. “They really wanted that guy that I am when I’m doing my morning radio,” Mr. Snider said. “Just sort of self-assured—‘I know what the fuck I’m talking about, and you want to listen to me because I’m the shit. And if I say that MSNBC is the best news on cable, then it is the best news, because I said so.’”
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