The Most Recognizable Voice in New York

Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize

for the unavoidable delay.

I'm a friendly guy, I mean it in a nice way.

I'm sorry if you're stuck in a train,

I literally share your pain because

I'm probably on that same train

wondering, am I gonna get to work on time?

(inquisitive music)

My name is Charlie Pellett and I work at Bloomberg Radio

here in New York, but perhaps better known

as the stand clear of the closing doors guy

on the New York City subway system.

[Speaker] Stand clear of the closing doors please.

It's an interesting story because I grew up

in London, England.

When I first came to the United States

a lot of kids made fun of my English accent.

So I did everything I could

to get rid of the English accent.

How did I do that?

By listening to people on the radio.

I was an avid radio listener,

I just loved tuning in.

And over a couple of years, all traces of the accent

seemed to be completely eliminated.

My wife always jokes that

she married the only Brit with an American accent.

My first experience with broadcasting really came

in high school doing morning announcements.

I loved doing it, it was a lot of fun, it was easy.

From there, went on to my college radio station,

and I loved it, absolutely loved it.

I've been on the air or working at New York

radio stations ever since 1980.

I can't tell you how invigorating, how energizing,

how exciting it is to be doing what I love,

to be asked to do it, to be allowed to do it.

I think I'd take a lot less pay for what I do,

I love doing what I do.

It really is so exciting to be in an environment

that you care so much about.

(multiple radio programs buzz in the background)

We had a couple of coworkers who went together

on vacation to London.

They heard the announcements in the London Tube,

and they came back to New York, and they were passionate

about it, and said, what can we do to improve

the quality of the announcements

in the New York City subway system?

Now you have to realize that, back in the early '90s

the announcements very often were muffled and garbled,

couldn't always hear what was going on.

They set out on a course to improve

the quality of the announcements.

One thing led to another, somebody at Bloomberg knew

somebody at the MTA.

Next thing you know they said, hey we've got new

subway cars coming out,

can you guys record some sample announcements for us?

Well, the question is, who would do the voices?

A number of us recorded the announcements,

the MTA listened to them.

[Voices] Please stand clear of the closing doors.

And Charlie Pellett wound up being

the stand clear of the closing doors guy.

And I thought, wow, this has gone from being a maybe,

this is going to happen,

and all of a sudden, there it was, my voice

coming through the loudspeaker,

saying, stand clear of the closing doors, please.

It blows my mind because New York is a fast paced town,

restaurants come and go, Broadway shows open and close,

celebrities, entertainers, they disappear,

everybody has their 15 minutes of fame.

I've had at least 11 years,

and by New York standards, that's pretty impressive.

It is an absolute honor to be the voice of

the greatest subway system in the world, bar none.