NOAA Weather Radio - Voices

Voices

Before 1997, the bulk of NWR programming was via human voice, with a meteorologist recording each message and setting up a looping broadcast cycle. As the NWS added more transmitters to provide better radio coverage, WFO staff had difficulty keeping broadcast cycles updated in a timely fashion, especially during large severe weather outbreaks. The NWS then installed a Console Replacement System (CRS) in every forecast office, which introduced a synthesized voice to read text announcements. Because of the large number of geographic terms routinely used in NWR broadcasts, concatenative synthesis was not suitable. Instead, an unlimited-vocabulary phonetic synthesizer was employed. This male voice was named "NOAA's Perfect Paul" or simply "Paul", although it quickly acquired several nicknames for its mechanically awkward pronunciation and intonation, including "Imperfect Paul", "Igor", "Sven", "Arnold", and Mr. Roboto. Other National Weather Service offices, including Seattle, Oxnard, Fort Worth, and Las Vegas, used a low-tone voice, known as "Harry".

In 2002, the National Weather Service contracted with Siemens Information and Communication and SpeechWorks to introduce improved, more natural voices . The Voice Improvement Plan (VIP) was implemented, involving a separate computer processor linked into CRS that fed digitized sound files to the broadcast suite. The improvements involved one male voice ("Craig"), and one female voice ("Donna"). Additional upgrades in 2003 produced a greatly improved male voice nicknamed "Tom", which can change intonation based on the urgency of a product; "Donna" was altered as well. Due to the superior quality of the "Tom" voice, most NWS offices use it for the majority of broadcast products. Occasionally, "Donna" can be heard voicing a few products, and the original "Paul" or "Harry" voice usually announces the current local time, some river warnings and in some WFO's, the station identity as required by the FCC (example: "Station KEC-55, serving the Dallas/Fort Worth listening area"). Full statements will occasionally be heard in the "Paul" voice if the VIP processor gets overloaded with products or a failure occurs.

A few WFOs have had some fun with their synthesized voices by staging contests whereby their listeners can choose a name for the voices. The WFO in Wichita, KS, for example, gave the "Paul" voice the name "Chance Storm"; when the VIP voices came along, they chose the "Donna" voice to broadcast routine products and gave her the name "Misty Dawn." Incidentally, they have never had such a contest for "Craig" or "Tom", whom they use for urgent products.

Human voices are still heard on occasion, but sparingly, mainly during station identification, public forecasts, National Ocean Fishery Service messages, Public Information Statements, public service announcements, weekly tests and severe weather events. The capability exists for a meteorologist to broadcast live on any transmitter if computer problems occur or added emphasis is desired, or to notify listeners who are concerned about a silent station on another frequency whether that station is dark due to technical errors or a weather event has forced it off the air.

Four forecast offices broadcast weather in Spanish: San Diego, El Paso, and San Juan use a male Spanish synthesized voice, "Javier", for full broadcasts. The Albuquerque weather forecasting office uses "Javier" for repeating weather alerts in Spanish.