Bobbi Owens - Excerpt: Up Close:Oprah Winfrey by Ilene Cooper - Narrated by Bobbi Owens
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (US General American - GenAM) North American (US South) US African AmericanTranscript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Oprah Winfrey was being given another chance in 1976 Onley, 22 years old, she had been hired to be a newscaster in Baltimore on WJZ TV, but things hadn't worked out very well. The station had paired her up with an older, well established broadcaster who didn't want a co anger at all, and certainly not a young black woman whose TV experience that come in the small TV market of Nashville the mismatch showed on the air. To make things worse, the station management was having big doubts about Oprah herself. They didn't appreciate her casual speaking style so different from the formality broadcasters showed on a nightly new show. Nor did her bosses like the way she looked. They suggested changes in her appearance with sometimes disastrous results, like the time they wanted her hair straightened and it all fell out. By the time the first show was over, she realized the immediate impact it had made on her life. I came off of that stage August 14th 1978 and I knew that I was home in all my years of being discontent, feeling like something's not quite right, feeling like I was in the wrong place and the wrong job. I knew this is it. I felt like home because it felt so natural. It felt like I could be myself. Oprah Winfrey was now a talk show host, and the world of television would never quite be the same again.