PROFILE
Ron Tarrant
By Andrew King
Y
ou may not recognize Ron Tarrant
by name or even his face, though
there’s a pretty good chance you’re
at least semi-familiar with his voice
and production work.
Despite his relative youth, Tarrant has
established a successful career as a radio pro-
ducer, engineer, composer, sound designer,
and voice talent on a professional journey
that has taken him to five different cities in
the past seven years.
That journey began in Calgary, AB, where
Tarrant grew up. While he liked to keep ac-
tive with skateboarding, snowboarding, and
hockey, he also picked up music at a fairly
young age. “My father, Stewart Tarrant, was a
Canadian country artist, so there were always
instruments and production gear around
the house,” he shares. “When I was about 14,
we would often waste Sundays writing silly
songs and learning how to use an 18-track
recorder.” In high school, he started a band
and began taking the guitar a bit more seri-
ously – “to meet girls, obviously,” he chuckles.
After graduating high school, a 17-year-
old Tarrant enrolled at Calgary’s Southern
Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) to
study radio broadcasting. “Little did I know
that would change my life forever, as I fell
deep into the world of audio and production,”
he says in retrospect.
For his school practicum, he worked
as a production intern with a small-market
station in Airdrie, AB, making commercials
and station branding spots (known in the
business as “imaging”). Only a month in, he
was hired on full-time and stayed with the
station for two years.
“That’s when the bigger journey started,”
he enthuses.
Tarrant worked his way up to major mar-
ket radio in Calgary as a junior producer with
Calgary Flames Radio and Jack FM. “It was
there that I really discovered how incredibly
interesting and creative radio and sound
design was,” he says.
After two years in Calgary, he was pro-
moted to a post with an Edmonton-based
station where he would spend only nine
months before taking another promotion
and setting off for Toronto to brand Rogers
Media’s flagship CHR station, KiSS 92.5.
“For me, Toronto was the absolute dream,”
Tarrant shares. “I was lucky enough to work
with some amazing people and won a shelf
full of awards that grabbed some attention
from the United States.”
Three years into his stint in the Big Smoke,
Tarrant got a call inviting him to audition to
be the head imaging and sound designer for
The Howard Stern Show and the iconic DJ’s
two SiriusXM channels.
“After a seven-month process of demos
and flying down for secret meetings, they
were able to secure me an O-1 work visa and I
made my way down to the Big Apple,” Tarrant
tells Professional Sound. “I spent two-and-a-
half years working on the biggest radio show
in the world, writing, producing, composing,
designing sound, and voicing Howard 100
and Howard 101 on SiriusXM.”
With Stern now amidst his final two years
on the air before retirement, Tarrant was
presented an opportunity to join the team
at ReelWorld, a well-known radio jingle and
production firm headquartered in Seattle
and London.
“It was no easy decision leaving my
dreams behind in NYC, working for my idol,
Howard Stern, but this new adventure and
opportunity with an incredible CEO and
team of the best in the world was something
I couldn’t pass up,” Tarrant explains, noting
he’s excited for what he’s been working on
there to see the light of day in the near future.
Now back in Calgary, Tarrant has launched
ReelWorld Studios North to conduct his
work – work that will be distributed all over
the world and heard on hundreds of radio
stations. He was also tapped to voice all of
Rogers Media’s rock stations across Canada
alongside Bif Naked.
Despite being just over a decade into his
career, Tarrant has earned his share of awards
and accolades, including seven international
Radio & Production Awards, two Crystals
Awards, and in 2016, was named the Outstand-
ing Young Alumnus by his alma mater, SAIT.
Other highlights over the years include
first hearing his voice and work go out to an
audience of over 30 million via Stern’s sta-
tions, and the opportunity to work with the
likes of Metallica and Green Day during his
time there. He also collaborated with famed
record producer Tony Visconti on a Howard
101 tribute to David Bowie that featured a
number of major artists covering the late
icon’s catalogue.
“I love getting in the room with other
producers and learning new or different ways
of doing something,” Tarrant says about what
still drives his passion for radio and produc-
tion. “I love the creativity, and the ability to
feel something really special after a piece
you’ve just made goes on the air.”
Now that he’s once again settled in
Western Canada, Tarrant plans to get back to
a more balanced lifestyle. That includes plans
to get back onto the ice for some hockey, fur-
ther pursue his interests in photography and
film, and to write and record new music in his
home studio for his solo project, Lost in Film.
As for his professional life, Tarrant says
he’s looking forward to working and growing
with his new colleagues at ReelWorld and,
hopefully, “making some of the best new
audio that radio has ever heard.”
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 19