Page "NOAA Weather Radio" Paragraph 165

In 2002, the National Weather Service contracted with Siemens Information and Communication and SpeechWorks to introduce improved, more natural voices.

The Voice Improvement Plan ( VIP ) was implemented, involving a separate computer processor linked into CRS that fed digitized sound files to the broadcast suite.

The improvements involved one male voice (" Craig "), and one female voice (" Donna ").

Additional upgrades in 2003 produced a greatly improved male voice nicknamed " Tom ", which can change intonation based on the urgency of a product ; " Donna " was altered as well.

Due to the superior quality of the " Tom " voice, most NWS offices use it for the majority of broadcast products.

Occasionally, " Donna " can be heard voicing a few products, and the original " Paul " or " Harry " voice usually announces the current local time, some river warnings and in some WFO's, the station identity as required by the FCC ( example: " Station KEC-55, serving the Dallas / Fort Worth listening area ").

Full statements will occasionally be heard in the " Paul " voice if the VIP processor gets overloaded with products or a failure occurs.