We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J Rodney Turner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J Rodney below.

Alright, J Rodney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

From a very young age I always wanted to be an air traffic controller. during that time, and using my voice daily to perform the functions of the job I discovered that peers and pilots found my voice to be a subject of interest. It is when faced with mandatory early retirement (age 56) that I decided using my voice, post-retirement, would be the best avenue to serve the future of my family and our needs.

Had I known what a wonderful time I would have telling stories I would have pursued this avenue well before my retirement. And, knowing what I know now, I could have begun my creative career while continuing to enjoy my chosen profession.

J Rodney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In the summer of 1964, Hurricane Cleo came ashore in Miami, Florida. As a young boy of 6, I was mostly an observer as my parents prepared for the oncoming storm. My father worked for Southern Bell at the time, a subsidiary of AT&T, and was responsible for keeping the telephone lines up and operating at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in Miami, which was not very far from our home in Miami Springs.

On this day in August my dad, who knew I enjoyed riding in his company truck, asked me if I would like to accompany him to the ARTCC to “help him”. I was overwhelmed.

Upon entering the building I was mesmerized by the activity and the men sitting around circular glass top tables, speaking into headsets and moving small pieces of plastic around the tops of these tables. It was then I knew I wanted to be an air traffic controller. I don’t remember much about the remainder of that visit, but, fast forward to 1975, I graduate from high school, enlist in the Navy and head to air traffic controller school in Millington, Tennessee.

I serve out my enlistment. I am honorably discharged in September of 1979, but the FAA is not hiring. Yet. I follow my father’s footsteps and obtain employment with Southern Bell as an Outside Technician (aka the Telephone Man). As history indicates, in August of 1981, the President at the time, who shall be unnamed, fired striking air traffic controllers and thus, creating openings for others seeking to become part of that profession. The details of how and why the strike occurred are not material to my story, but do bear research if folks are so inclined. Its interesting to know the “real” story behind all that occurred before, during, and after the strike.

My career took me to Charleston, South Carolina and then Nashville, Tennessee where I would retire in October of 2013. US Federal law requires air traffic controllers to retire at the age of 56. They do allow us to work until the last day of the month in which we turn age 56 so I was lucky enough to retire on Halloween of that year since my birthday is in October.

Because air traffic controllers know before accepting employment how long we will be allowed to work, we know the exact date on which we will retire when we first hire on. All we have to do is look at the calendar and figure out what year we will turn age 56 and the rest is simple.

With this knowledge in hand, and knowing I certainly wasn’t going to sit around the house in the La-Z-Boy while the retirement check rolled in, my wife and I began research for what I night be able to do after retirement. Using my voice was a natural choice, and like the vast majority of folks who dive head first into the voice over (VO)industry, I’d been told most of my life that I had a unique quality to my voice.

I’ve been singing bass in church choir since I was 13. Right next to dad. Who would chuckle at some of the notes I could sing when the men could not.

So, Julie (my bride) and I researched and found some local Nashville folks who could instruct and provide information on the VO industry.

After a one-time course with a local voice actor, I enrolled in the local campus of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting who offered lifetime access to professional studios upon graduation. This was a great learning experience. From behind the camera for television to learning the functions of radio stations, CSB taught you a great deal of these two exciting, separate but related, areas of the broadcast industry.

Having graduated from this course in 2008, I began the process of the real work in VO – Finding Work.

Fast forward to the end of 2013, and while recovering from minor surgery on my left shoulder, I discovered the ACX Masterclass, directed by David H. Lawrence the XVII and Dan O’Day. This was a wonderful course for anyone curious about audiobook narration and how to use the ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) website to establish a solid foundation to begin a career in narration.

I was fortunate enough to receive my first offer to produce an audiobook, while still taking the class, in March of 2014, published and available for purchase via Audible on May 14th of that same year. As I write this I am lucky enough to have produced over 230 titles. Many through the use of ACX but also a great deal through my favorite audiobook publishing house, Tantor Audio, a division of Recorded Books.

Telling stories has become such a fun and rewarding pursuit that, while it pays very well, it does not seem like a job or even a career. It feels like I’ve been given a gift. Not a gift I deserve, but certainly a gift I want to cherish as long as I’m able to breathe and read aloud.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In early 2021, I was diagnosed with Unilateral Partial Vocal Cord Paralysis. This was devastating. not only to me and my future, but for my clients who counted on me to produce their work. After speaking with the surgeons and voice therapists at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Vocal Clinic we diced the best course of action was a procedure to inject botox into one side of my vocal cords. Don’t ask me to explain it, just know that it worked

I was out of work in my new chosen profession for less than a year. However, in this industry that can be crippling to entrepreneurs trying to establish a reputation for high quality work that can be trusted and relied upon.

Since returning to the booth in late 2021, I’ve been able to begin to re-establish myself as a trusted narrator and producer and I am beginning to make efforts to expand my business beyond audiobooks into other genres of the voice over industry.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an audiobook narrator is reading the comments from my clients when they truly enjoy my work and say what we all want to hear — “Thats exactly how I heard that voice in my head when I wrote that character”

To be able to act out these stories and tell them in a way where folks listening are captured by nothing mr than my voice, is exciting, humbling and very much an unexpected reqard for doing something I love and enjoy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jrodneyturner.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JRodneyTurner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrodneyturner/
• Twitter: @JRodneyTurner1

Image Credits
Rodney’s Head Shot — no credit necessary Bloody Joe — Tantor Media The Long Surrender — Tantor Media Undertaker’s Moon — Alex McVey