NoTV: Voice of NPR Dies

[Mark Jeffries]

For 30 years, Frank Tavares was heard on public radio more often than Bob Edwards, Noah Adams, Robert Siegel, Scott Simon, Susan Stamberg, Terry Gross, Ira Glass and Garrison Kellior combined, as the NPR station break voice of the underwriting announcements--"Support for this program comes from NPR member stations and..."--followed by :"This program was a production of NPR, which is solely responsible for its content--This is NPR, National Public Radio."  Mr. Tavares died on Monday after being diagnosed with ALS earlier this year, his age was undisclosed (link from Connecticut Public Radio, where he continued to be their image voice after stepping down from NPR five years ago):

https://www.wnpr.org/post/frank-tavares-decades-voice-npr-has-died

Like everything else on public radio, despite his smooth voice and diction, Mr. Tavares was not loved by all public radio listeners, especially since his breaks over the years went from lists of primarily foundations and individual contributors to non-promotional but borderline advertising for corporations, including Walmart and "...Fox Broadcasting Company, presenting the new musical competition series 'The X Factor' with Simon Cowell, Wednesday and Thursday nights on Fox stations." (Or, unknowingly to him after a "Morning Edition" interview with Kiefer Sutherland about "24," "Fox Broadcasting Company, presenting a new season of the action drama "24," starring Kiefer Sutherland, Monday nights on Fox stations.")  But people in the industry appreciated his professional and his ability to do a ton of breaks on the first take, and when he was replaced by a younger-sounding woman ("young" being a dirty word for longtime NPR listeners--and perhaps "woman"), he was then appreciated.