Tag Archives: 1984

Audio Book Recording & Production, The Radio Days/Daze, VoiceOver Marketing

Airlift Productions Asks “What’s In A Logo?”

April 2, 2024 Micheal Leave a comment

Original Airlift Productions LOGO – 1984 by Harrel Grey

It’s kind of strange the way inspiration works. I was sitting at a bar here in downtown New Orleans that no longer exists in a hotel that no longer exists while dreaming of a business that didn’t yet exist – and it struck!

In my second year on Q-93 radio ( WQUE-FM, New Orleans ) as afternoon air personality Mike McCann, I was frustrated and, to be honest, somewhat frightened and more than a bit concerned.

After all, I would not have been at Q-93 had a format change not led to my being terminated/fired from my on-air job in Philadelphia! And wouldn’t have been in Philly had they not let the entire air staff go in Nashville! A similar story – station sale & format change – led to my exit from St. Louis.

Short story longer, I used to wake up in a cold sweat on the waterbed (hey, it was the 1980s) in the middle of the night wondering where I’d be when I reached age 40, to say nothing of 50 or 60 if I stayed on my current path.

So, my Q-93 partner in crime Ron Chatman and I were sitting around the bar at Bert’s, a bar on the first floor of a now-imploded and long-gone hotel on Canal Street, having a few and comparing battle scars while musing about our collective futures.

Bing-Search-Generated Image page for Airlift Productions

I grabbed a bar napkin and started doodling, sketching, dreaming – and came up with the first crude version of the Airlift Productions logo.

Airlift – as in ‘to the rescue’, with all it’s heroic connotations. If all radio & TV commercials are indeed sent over the air, “Let me give your Air a Lift!” Alphabetical listings being what they are, I’d also be listed first in all the recording studio listings.

** Airlift Mike narrates James Patterson’s best-seller “The Chef”, now available on worldwide AudioBook platforms **

Plus, I somehow knew all those years ago that the studio would be involved in projects bigger and loftier than just commercials, so it just had to be Airlift ‘Productions’. I knew that I was on to something.

The year was 1984.

After hiring local artist, the late Harrel Grey to fine-tune my crude bar napkin logo rendering, I trademarked it with Baton Rouge officials, got my first bonafide freelance account – WGNO-TV/Tribune Broadcasting – and was off to the races.

Airlift Productions Logo Reboot ~ re-imagined by Digital Artist Ethan Anderson ~ 2012

Today in 2024, if one were to do an internet search with just those two words ‘airlift productions‘ in a search engine – with no qualifiers, no country or state, nothing else – out of over several million possibilities worldwide and worldwide-web-wise – there I am.

Hard to believe that as I write these words it is forty years later, but that’s what the calendar tells me.

Meanwhile, the technology, the recording gear & the delivery methods somehow grew into my dream & vision.

And the jobs? Well, Airlift Productions has today recorded and delivered audio all around the world – literally!

Mandarin Chinese-translated video for the Port of New Orleans, Shell Oil Industrial Narrations for Melbourne, Australia… Arabic audio for MBC (Middle East Broadcasting) in Dubai…and AudioBook production for every major player on Manhattan Island in New York City.

Furthermore, the latest “plum” fallen from this marketing tree?

I am now heard nationwide as the Imaging/Announcer Voice for iHeart Radio’s Michael DelGiorno & his “Your Morning Show” Talk Show every weekday morning – from Sacramento to Nashville and from Tampa Bay to Youngstown/Akron.

With Anchorage and Washington D.C. waiting in the wings….

As I provide the “Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson” – Four breaks an hour through three hours of conservative talk every weekday morning across America!

Yes, while most my age have thrown in the towel, walked away… or passed away, here in 2024, I find myself still writing new & exciting chapters.

So, what’s in a logo? In a word – Everything!

And I do mean every little and BIG thing.

Airlift Productions Recording Studio, New Orleans, Panoramic Studio Pic

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Steve Scalise & Airlift Mike during a break from “Back In The Game”, Airlift Productions NOLA, October 2018

“Mike, I can’t thank you enough for the great job you did coaching me through the audio recording of my new book, ‘Back in the Game!’ Since this was the first book I’ve ever written (and recorded), it was all new territory for me. You made the entire process go very smoothly, and I am incredibly happy with the final product.

I appreciate all you did to bring this book to life. You know you are really good when both James Carville and I are in complete agreement that you are great to work with!!” – CONGRESSMAN STEVE SCALISE

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Airlift Productions – Telling America’s Greatest Stories from New Orleans… since 1984

Airlift Productions – we’ll leave the mics hot… and the light on for you.

**.. to the Rescue from New Orleans since 1984 ~ **~… to the Rescue from New Orleans since 1984 ~ ************

The Radio Days/Daze

McCann, Walton & Johnson On-Air At Q93-WQUE, 1984

June 5, 2017 Micheal Leave a comment

AirliftProductionsWalton-Johnson-McCannWQUE1983 — Times-Picayune Pic featuring WQUE Radio’s new hires – **Walton & Johnson** … oh, and that Mike McCann dude (**Airlift proprietor Micheal Ziants** ) during the radio days/daze)

The world sure was a different place in 1984.

Ronald Reagan sat in the White House, America was watching ‘Cosby’ & ‘Family Ties’ on cathode ray tubes, Wendy’s was asking “Where’s the Beef?” …

Videotape & VCRs were state of the art, ‘Romancing the Stone’ was huge at the box office, Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games, the NFL had competition with the USFL – and Cut Off, LA native Bobby Hebert was QB for it’s Michigan Panthers …

Closer to home, ‘Dutch’ Morial reigned as Mayor of New Orleans, K&B Drugstores were on every corner, Maison Blanche still sat on Canal Street … and the Crescent City opened it’s doors and welcomed the world with the 1984 World’s Fair!

And the day it opened – May 12th, 1984 – yours truly, as Mike McCann, was wrapping up my first year on Q-93 as afternoon air personality.

My weekend gig was doing mid-days on-air every Saturday and, as fate would have it, the day the World’s Fair was unveiled, I was doing the duty – with Walton & Johnson as co-stars.

Really.

John & Steve had a remote broadcast on this Saturday from the remodeled Maison Blanche department store on Canal Street – and dropped in from time to time on the broadcast. Oh boy!

Hard to believe that this aircheck is now thirty-three years old! Although the station positioning statement “30 minutes of non-stop music IN STEREO!” is for sure a giveaway.

And the music? Cindy Lauper, Van Halen, Rod Stewart, Culture Club, Madonna …and Prince Rogers Nelson danced in the ‘Purple Rain’.

Give a listen to New Orleans radio in 1984 – in this newly unearthed, never-before-heard gem. It’s WQUE-FM broadcasting from the top of the Tidewater Place building in the 1400 block of Canal Street on May 12th, 1984 – LIVE with Mike McCann —-

Man, it was so hard to find good part-time help in those days. 🙂

MichealZiantsAkaMikeMcCannWQUE — a full-page ad in Sunday’s Times-Picayune promoting WQUE’s Mike McCann

Interestingly – and not so coincidentally – 1984 was also the year that I decided to prepare my exit from the radio days and create Airlift Productions! As to Walton & Johnson? Well, John & Steve are still today in 2017 plying their trade in syndication on some of America’s finest radio stations…mgz

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“When I need BIG ‘I-know-that-guy’s-voice!’ sound for any production I am working on, the first call I make is to Airlift Mike. Micheal’s penetrating vocals and second-to-none production quality give my movie & audio feature projects the instant respectability they need. If you want to sound like a pro, meaning no one gives a second thought to your audio because it is so well executed, you want to call Airlift!”

— MIKE CHURCH, World-Famous Sirius/XM Talk Show Host, Founding Father Film Maker, Writer & Producer of ‘The Spirit of ’76’ and ‘The Road to Independence’ & Creator of the Veritas Network/Crusade Channel

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Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy & Digital Magic from NOLA since 1984!

The Radio Days/Daze

One Angel Down … Airlift Productions Still Blue

April 21, 2017 Micheal Leave a comment

MichealZiantsAKAMikeMcCannQ-93BlueAngelsFlight1984 — **Micheal Ziants aka Mike McCann**, Q-93, ready to board this Blue Angel SkyHawk jet, Belle Chasse, LA – 1984

It’s all over the news this April 2017 week in New Orleans. The Navy’s Blue Angels return, after a six year hiatus, to Belle Chasse for another air show. Along with all the attendant stories of G-force, incredible speeds, and death-defying stunts.

And watching the news coverage I couldn’t help but flashback to my radio days, (cue the harp music interlude) ~ it was the spring of 1984, Belle Chasse Naval Air Base. As Q-93 Radio afternoon air personality Mike McCann, I was invited to take part in promoting the upcoming airshow at the base.

MichealZiantsAKAMikeMcCannQ-93BlueAngels — Uh-oh, no turning back now …. Airlift Mike preparing to be Air-borne!

This proved to be one of the more remarkable days of my entire life. Picture yourself, if you can, hurtling through the skies over the Gulf of Mexico at over 500 mph UPSIDE down in the cockpit of an A-4 Skyhawk jet!

My co-pilot? Lieutenant Commander Mike Gershon. Square-jawed, clear-eyed, Bond-like, heroic, courageous, fearless… and dead way before his time. Little did either of us realize the day we flew together that the very next year at an airshow in Niagara Falls he would make history.

Mike Gershon became one of the few Blue Angels to ever perish in action. The crash was fiery, frightening and unforgettable. And today, courtesy of the you tube crowd, you can bear witness to the tragedy – as well as meet Mike & his widow, Sherri, here …

Lieutenant Commander Gershon – together with his #7 jet pictured – now belong to the ages. But today, I’d just like to say…’ Mike, thanks ever so for this incredible memory, sir. For the laughs, jokes, stories, and this fantastically joyous ride-of-a-lifetime!’

And for the 21st century reminder that not all heroes die in battle.

MikeGershonAndMichealZiantsBlueAngels 1984 — **Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants** with Lt. Cmdr. Mike Gershon ~ Belle Chasse Naval Base, LA – 1984

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“My experience with Airlift Productions was top notch from the start. My company is based in Los Angeles and I had a client that needed to do a last minute VO session in New Orleans. Micheal was incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating, not to mention a blast to work with! Our session turned out beautifully.”