This Is the Guy Telling You the Doors Open on the Right at Belmont Lee Crooks personally thanks you for riding the CTA.

photo: courtesy of wciu

Lee Crooks: The voice of the CTA.

Ever wondered who exactly speaks those warm, familiar words that guide you along the el, thanking you for riding the CTA? He’s a guy named Lee Crooks—the voice of the CTA. WCIU posted a video yesterday about Crooks, a voice-artist who auditioned to be the prerecorded voice of the CTA trains in 1997.

“Every time I hear myself on the trains or on the air, it’s strange, because you expect someone else to be giving those announcements. It’s an out of body experience,” he says in the video.

The voice, Crooks says, is modeled after the Disney World Monorail announcer. The CTA is no Disney World, but Crooks has become an unofficial authority on pronoucing street names. Cheers to you, Crooks, for teaching us all how to pronounce Bryn Mawr, Racine, and to accentuate the I in Paulina.

Share







