The New Voice of Bragg is seeking to find the new voice of Bragg Memorial Stadium at Florida A&M University.  If you haven’t seen the entertaining production FAMU puts on at every home game, you should add it to your bucket list.  The marching band alone is well worth the price of admission.

But football games aren’t all about bands, it’s about the full experience and the new P. A. announcer is going ot have to step into the shoes of a man who had been there for 30 yeras.

In the first part of this three-part series produced by FAMU, 19 contestants were chosen to come to Florida and audition.

Let’s take a look at the contestants and we’ll provide a little feedback on each:

Will Brown is a third-generation Rattler and has experience attending football games at Bragg.  He is very articulate, an excellent reading voice and very pleasant to listen to.  The speech flows freely, but doesn’t have the grasp of a P. A. announcer.  His personality could find him on TV as a reporter or an excellent voice over artist.

Victor Clark is better known as Andre and has a passion for announcing.  He too has a good speaking voice, but doesn’t seem to punch out his speech.  If feels more like he’s reading off the paper and not putting feeling behind his voice.  He’s also a little nervous which is to be expected.

Quentin Cooper is from Georgia but lives in Tallahassee now.  He has a beautiful P. A. voice with a great pace and inflection.  He stood out to us right away and put some emphasis into announcing FAMU.  He probably should have paused after calling the Rattlers.

Darryl Felton* from Pensacola immediately had a lot of personality.  He sounds like he could be a preacher and instantly grabs you with his style.  He sounds like a P. A. announcer.

Curtis Ford III* is another FAMU alumnus from Tallahassee.  He does a great job with inflection but tails in the end.  He has a solid voice that will get better with experience.

Cedric “Doc” Foster* has 43 years of radio experience which doesn’t always equate to success on the P. A. side of the microphone.  His brief audition showed that he could be a great presenter of in-game elements, but not sure if his pace can keep up with the play.

Ralph Gaines has a broadcasting background.  It sounded more like he was reading the script for the first time.  He gave a very relaxing interview, but needed to relax behind the microphone.

William Gilmore has the confidence going into the audition to be the next voice.  He introduces himself at the start of the script which he delivered well.  However, most P. A. announcers don’t introduce themselves, and if they do it’s at the end of the game.  There are a couple of ways of thinking on this style, but those are reserved for longer stories.

Kofi Hemmingway* is from South Carolina but now lives in Tallahassee with parents who taught at the school.  He has a great voice and delivery.  He grabs you right away.

Jacquell Lawson* is the first female applicant that we see and it’s awesome FAMU is looking at the possibility of a female voice on the sound system.  With a broadcast background from the school, she comes right out and delivers a good audition though inflection is a little off and monotone.  She did give a great “FAMU Rattlers”.

Clarence Pearson* is another alumnus of the school and comes out strong.  He also introduces himself but stumbles as his nervousness gets the best of him.  His pace is too fast, though the energy is there.  He his rough around the edges but has the ability to refine those edges and be a good announcer.

Luis Perez* comes from Miami and has been an announcer for eight years.  He has that solid P. A. announcer voice with proper inflection and that deep voice but sounds like Brent Musberger on the mic and isn’t as clear during the audition as you hoped when listening to his interview.

Kendall Randolph is another local product who has an low-key style on the microphone.  He delivers pretty well, but should open up a little more to really let his personality shine.

Earl Rickman* came in from Michigan to try out.  He had a long way to go, but on the microphone delivered a good audition.  Would like to hear more from him.

Sterling Stevenson* is an alumnus and does a great job reading with inflection during his brief audition.  He’s strong on the microphone with a great voice to listen to and is very articulate.

Tevin Studdard comes from Indiana for the audition.  He brings it when introducing the Rattlers and has a pretty good voice with tempo.  He should keep announcing and working on his style.  He shows his swagger during the audition.

Edwin Sylvain* is another alumnus and former member of the Marching 100.  He has a great voice for the microphone but is reading a little too much.  He could have an inside shot at this with his history with the school and with some work could produce a good show.

Charles Trahan* comes from Columbia, Maryland and had announced basketball at FAMU.  He has a great voice and also has as inside track as he’s been there.  He did show a little bit of nerves but at the first audition you have to expect that.

Now that we’ve seen and heard from all the candidates, it’s going to be a tough call but wait!!!  We learn who the 11 are that advance:

• Luis Perez
• Curtis Ford III
• Jacquell Lawson
• Clarence Pearson
• Darryl Felton
• Earl Rickman
• Charles Trahan
• Edwin Sylvain
• Kofi Hemmingway
• Sterling Stevenson
• Cedric Foster

Listening to these announcers, we could see some early favorites, but it’s going to be tough to whittle it down to the end.  The hard part was the eight who didn’t advance are still good announcers and all have the ability to be put into announcing situations and work well.

We have not seen, nor requested to know who the winner of the show is going to be so we find out as we’re watching the show.  We hope you enjoy watching with us.  We’ll also link each episode in the videos section of the website so you can go back and watch again in the future.