What a fun experience, Monday, as the finalists in our recent “Neal’s Signature Sound: The Augenstein Impression Challenge” toured WTOP’s newsroom.
It was such a pleasure to meet finalists Anne of Arlington, Isaac from Front Royal, and young contestants Elijah from Springfield, along with Jack and Kay from Crownsville, Maryland, and their parents.
The tour included stops in the newsroom, WTOP’s Traffic Center, the sports department, and a few minutes in the Jim Farley Glass Enclosed Nerve Center studio, with anchors John Aaron and Mike Murillo.
And the winner? Trevor Russell, of Alexandria, Virginia. He’s a fairly recent listener to WTOP and has won a custom message from me, along with a $1,000 donation to the American Lung Association in my honor.
“I moved here just over a year ago. I do like to stay informed, so definitely was looking for some talk radio and some local news,” Russell said in an interview after the tour. “I was flipping through radio stations and heard the most unique voice I think I’ve ever heard on the radio, and I just stuck with it.”
It didn’t take him long to realize I don’t have a typical rich, flawlessly enunciated radio voice.
“I thought it was ‘WTLP,'” he admitted. “Two weeks later, I realized it was ‘WTOP,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s definitely got something going on,'” with my voice. “I’ve always enjoyed the stories, along with a very interesting voice.”
And, like many listeners over the years, he started working on an impression of my lockout: “Neal Augenstein, WTOP News.”
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I assumed he practiced his impression in the privacy of his car, but asked him, “How does one practice this without losing all their friends?”
Trevor thought for a moment. “I think I was just telling people, ‘Hey, you’ve got to listen to WTOP and Neal Augenstein,’ and I guess that’s where I kind of got good at it, trying to give them an idea of what you sounded like.”
Over the years, I’ve always been thrilled when listeners have offered to privately do their impressions of me. Yet, Trevor, the finalists, and all the entrants were kind enough to record their impression, and submit it through the new WTOP app, available on iOS and Android.
“Oh, well, I just had to get that voicemail recording,” Trevor said. “Once I heard that that was an opportunity, I had to take a chance.”