the gazette

							TheGazette
     GAITHERSBURG
                                                                                                                              PamBassett.com


She’s the voice behind voice mail
   by Brooke W. Stanley                                                                                                    In addition to having those
        Staff Writer                                                                                                    voice qualities, Bassett has
                                                                                                                        been very cooperative working
   Gaithersburg resident Pam                                                                                            through the different takes, Koe-
Bassett is the voice on MCI’s                                                                                           nig said.
automated telephone systems,                                                                                               “We’ve been really happy with
including voice mail and 1-800-                                                                                         her for some time,” he said.
COLLECT.                                                                                                                   Tom Moyer, general sales
   Gaithersburg resident Pam                                                                                            manager at WAVA who is a
Bassett is a celebrity who flies to-                                                                                     former co-worker of Bassett’s,
tally under the radar of popular                                                                                        described her voice as having a
culture.                                                                                                                positive energy.
   Though millions of people                                                                                               “I would say Pam has one of
from across the country have                                                                                            those naturally attractive voices,”
heard her voice on numerous                                                                                             he said.
occasions, she said she has never                                                                                          Some voices make people
been recognized.                                                                                                        want to leave the room right
   Bassett is the voice at the oth-                                                                                     away, and other voices make
er end of the line for millions of                                                                                      people want to hang around for
MCI customers who are check-                                                                                            longer, Moyer said.
ing their voice mail, using direc-                                                                                         “Pam’s got a hang-out voice,”
tory assistance, calling collect                                                                                        he said.
or using a long distance phone                                                                                             Since beginning her work with
card.                                                                                                                   MCI, Bassett said some unex-
   As the English operator voice                                                                                        pected perks have arisen, includ-
for the company, Bassett began                                                                                          ing checks in the mail from Sony
in 1993 by spending three to                                                                                            Pictures after the studio used a
                                                                                          J. Adam Fenster/The Gazette
four hours three times a week in                                                                                        selection of her voice work for
                                      Gaithersburg resident Pam Bassett is the voice on MCI’s automated
a recording studio for more than      telephone systems, including voice mail and 1-800-COLLECT.                        1-800-Collect in the 1999 Adam
two months.                              She was working at WAVA                “I always critique myself,” she         Sandler movie Big Daddy. In
   She now goes into the com-         when she got a call out of the         said. “I don’t usually give myself         addition to working for MCI,
pany’s studio in Ashburn, Va.,        blue one day from someone at           a pass.”                                   Bassett has done voice work
about once a week to record new       MCI asking if she would like to           When people think about                 for, among others, Food for the
sound bites or to re-record some      audition for voice work for the        voice work, they think it’s just           Hungry, the American Society of
words or phrases she has already      company.                               about talking, said Jeff Koenig, a         Consultant Pharmacists and the
done.                                    “I didn’t have to market my-        senior network engineer for MCI            Travel Industry Association of
   Bassett, 42, first got interested   self,” she said. “I was floored.”       who has been working with Bas-             America. She has also done cam-
in voice work when she made a            Bassett got the job and worked      sett since 1994.                           paign commercials for U.S. Rep.
mock radio commercial for her         for a while at both MCI and at            “But there’s a lot more to it           Chris Smith (R-N.J.).
10th grade journalism class.          WAVA, though she switched to           than that,” he said.                          Bassett, now a mom, said she
   “It was enough to get me           the sales division at the radio sta-      They must have clear, clean             enjoys spending time at home
thinking, well maybe I could do       tion.                                  diction and speak without any              with her daughter but would not
that,” she said.                         Bassett said she once audi-         extra noise from such things as            rule out the possibility of doing
   She went on to study radio,        tioned for voice work where she        the movement of saliva in the              more voice work. If an oppor-
television and film at the Univer-     would have to play a part, but         mouth, Koenig said.                        tunity came along that met her
sity of Maryland and has worked       that kind of work was not for             Telephones transmit a thin-             criteria, including job flexibility,
at several radio stations, includ-    her.                                   ner or less full sound than the            she would be interested.
ing the local Christian station          “I think it’s a neat fit because     radio does because of its narrow              “It’s been really exciting just
WAVA. At the Arlington, Va.-          I don’t have to be a character         frequency band, and voice tal-             to not know what is around the
based WAVA, Bassett did news          voice,” she said.                      ents also must be able to sound            bend next,” she said.
reports and commercials and              She admits that hearing her         as natural as possible despite the
hosted a show called Musically        own voice can sometimes be un-         thin sound, he said.
Speaking.                             comfortable.