WASHINGTON — Eight years ago, Metro was looking for its voice.
It turns out, she was a Lexus dealership employee, the GW Hatchet reports.
“At my work, I page people over the loudspeaker,” says Randi Miller, a D.C. native, on her YouTube page. The lyrical tones she uses when asking salesmen to meet customers or pick up the phone got the attention of co-workers and customers alike.
In January 2006, her general manager urged her to enter the Metro “Doors Closing Voice” competition. After 30 years of operation, Metrorail had decided it needed an update and posted an online audition script.
The instructions were to read it, record it and send it in. The pay was absolutely nothing — other than the thrill of knowing your voice reaches thousands of people every day.
“I waited until the day before the entry was due,” Miller told the Hatchet. “And decided, well, what the hell.”
Miller beat out more than 1,200 others who also wanted to announce the openings and closings of the Metro doors over and over again. Metro gave her a $10 fare card and a Metro cap for winning. But she was happy.
“I got instant celebrity, which is what I always wanted as a kid,” Miller tells the Hatchet.
Her voice sticks in so many riders’ heads that many people who meet her think they are old friends.
“They’ll say, ‘Have I met you before? Because there is something about you that is so familiar,'” Miller says.
She hasn’t ridden the rails in almost seven years, but says her association with Metro has been a wonderful experience.
“Metro really does open doors.”
*Ding ding* Doors opening.
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