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Walter Dixon voice over professional

Walter Dixon Gets Unexpected Part on NPR's Only A Game

After being cast as "Narrator" in an NPR short feature, voice actor Walter Dixon ended up with a more dramatic role. The project was a radio production of Floored, a true story by sports writer Bill Plaschke about basketball, cancer and a mysterious five million dollar gift.

In July, Walter was commissioned to read the narrator's part in an ensemble cast recording. The quotes in the story were to be read by other actors. During the recording session Walter read the whole story, quotes and all. "If I read straight through, without jumping in and out," Walter said, "it's easier to stay in sync with the tone of the story".

In the end, it was the parts he could have skipped that got put on the air. Four months later, Walter was listening when the story aired and heard someone else's voice narrating it. "I thought, That's funny. What happened?" A minute later, he heard himself reading the lines he thought would be thrown away.

"The lines he just tossed off were so great" said producer Karen Given, "I thought, well, he's just perfect for that." So Karen made some changes and the part of "Anonymous" who reveals the mystery at the end of the story went to the "Narrator".

"I read it all the best I could," Walter said. "Sometimes something you don't expect to be heard by anyone ends up getting a lot of attention." The story "Floored" was featured on over 300 stations carrying NPR's "Only A Game" on Saturday, November 12th.