I don’t believe it’s my imagination – I think there are more so-called “real people” doing their own radio spots in this city than I’ve ever heard before.
 
The list of names and their businesses seem endless:
 
Clothing
Saul Korman
Tom Mihalik
 
Car Sales
Greg Carrasco
George Epitropou
Bessie Vavaroutsos
 
Money
Philippe DioGuardi
Aaron Waxman
Mark Halpern
 
Audio
Mark Mandlsohn
 
Real Estate
Sandra Rinomato
 
And last but certainly least
Jewellery
Jack Berkovits
(and Harold Gerstel & Russell Oliver on TV)
 
Just to name a few. Not to mention all the windows and doors salesmen, the home improvement folks and the guy from the video store who’s always on with Oakley. 
 
These “I run the place and I’m also the spokesperson” types have been around for a long time (anyone remember Casey Togtema and his deeply accented “That’s right Earl” on CFRB or the master showman Ed Mirvish, aka Honest Ed?)  But I can’t recall an era when so many non-pros were actually voicing their own spots.
 
Granted, it’s probably cheaper than mounting a more extensive and expensive campaign, and there’s likely some ego involved. But this trend just seems to be growing.
 
Despite the fact I know most of their names – which probably says more about how much radio I consume than what they offer - I usually turn the station whenever any of them comes on. So the question can be asked: how effective are they at blowing their own horn and do people actually get their message? Is anyone buying their spiels – both literally and figuratively?