Legendary Melbourne + Adelaide radio voice-over man Jim ‘Bero’ Berinson passes away aged 92
Many in the industry, particularly in Melbourne and Adelaide, will be saddened to hear of the passing of legendary radio voice-over man, Jim ‘Bero’ Berinson, who has passed away peacefully at the age of 92.
In the early 70s Bero teamed up with Street Remley, working in Melbourne and then Adelaide, to create the greatest radio production and writing business in the country.
Bero began life as an opera singer and singing taxi driver in Perth in the 1950s. A 3AK radio executive was a passenger one day and liked his voice so much, he asked him to come to Melbourne for an audition.
When 3AK became a ‘daylight’ station in 1957, its very first breakfast team was Berinson and Lennie Holmes.
Showcasing his singing talent Bero later went on to star in live variety show TV Showboat, which aired during 1960 on the ABC.
In the early 70s he teamed up with Street Remley, working in Melbourne and then Adelaide, to create the greatest radio production and writing business in the country.
Phillip Webster was a young engineer at Remleys when he first came in contact and Phillip was one of the many Bero mentored. Many of today’s engineers and radio writers owe a great deal to Bero.
When James Rickard, until recently ECD at KWP! Adelaide, first met Bero he was terrified. Says Rickard: “He was a legend and I was an inexperienced writer. I nervously handed him my script and he asked me how I wanted it read. While feverishly genuflecting and apologising, the best I could offer was a few stammering words and little or no direction. He told me in no uncertain terms, ‘It’s not enough to write it son, you must know how it sounds.'”
2 Comments
The man of a thousand voices. Came very close to replacing Mel Blanc for Warner Bros cartoons at one stage. Incredible talent. We once had an Irish client who wanted an authentic Irish VO for his international whiskey TV commercial. Every real Irishman we hired to do the voice over was rejected by the client because they didn’t sound authentic, or they sounded like Irishmen who had their accents affected by years of living in Australia. After exhausting our supply of Irish VOs, we got Bero in to impersonate an Irishman. Instantly approved. Rest in peace, Bero.
I loved Jim. He was the most sincere old rascal I’ve met. I hired him for voice overs and book readings. We had so many laughs and he always told me I was his ideal replacement. Ha! What a laugh. You don’t replace a masterpiece with a cheap copy!
Once, early in our relationship, I wrote the script in an indicative dialect form, such as, ‘Ze bookah, she isah, sitting on a the-ah shelf-ah.’ The sound booth nearly collapsed in his rage at me for thinking he was so stupid and talent-less he could’t work out the accent for himself. ‘Just write, IN ITALIAN *&()*+*))* ACCENT, you ^%$#^%$ amateur!’
He was born Shem, but became known as Jim. He confided that he was bullied and bashed terribly at school because of his Jewish heritage. I wish I had written more things for him to read for me.