Carolyn Hopkins and Jack Fox became two of the best-known recorded voices in American travel through work for Innovative Electronic Designs (IED), a Louisville-based supplier of automated paging systems. A 2013 account in The Verge said IED equipment carrying their recordings was installed in 110 airports and the New York City subway system. That is a historical figure reported in 2013—not a verified count of current deployments—and neither performer was the sole voice in every location.
Who are the voices travelers hear?
Hopkins and Fox recorded announcements for IED clients, whose computer-controlled paging systems could play the appropriate audio across large facilities. The Verge described Hopkins’s delivery as warm and folksy, and Fox’s as a classic, booming announcer style. Those are the feature’s characterizations, not measured descriptions of their voices.
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The familiar sound of a transportation system can come from multiple people, and announcements vary by operator and purpose. The 2013 Verge feature specifically noted that New York City subway announcements included other voices; Charlie Pellett, for example, recorded the system’s “stand clear of the closing doors” message. A 2014 VICE overview also identified Pellett among New York transit voices. Bernie Wagenblast’s work spans other regional services: a 2017 Port Authority profile described his recordings on AirTrain JFK, AirTrain Newark, South Jersey trains, and NYC subway cars. These examples should not be collapsed into a claim that one person voiced all announcements for one agency or region.
How did Hopkins and Fox get the work?
Carolyn Hopkins: from radio and singing to recorded announcements
Hopkins had produced radio and performed as a singer in a regional soul band. According to The Verge, her first voice assignment for IED was for Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon in 1989. Recalling the direction she received, Hopkins said, “They wanted a very happy smiling voice!”
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Jack Fox: a radio voice recruited for a different kind of announcement
Fox had spent years as a radio personality and voice-over artist. The Verge account says IED sought a male voice after the Gulf War began in 1991, aiming for a sound that was friendly yet authoritative, and recruited Fox. He described his approach this way: “I picture someone standing on a moving sidewalk and I’m talking to that person with a friendly quality to my voice, so it won’t be so cold and sterile.” He also called the work “my airport ministry,” explaining, “My father was a minister, and I think of this as my airport ministry.”
How a recording becomes an announcement across a facility
IED, founded in 1978 according to the 2013 feature, supplied automated paging systems for large complexes. Co-founder Hardy Martin had roots in Louisville’s music scene and recording work. The production model connected performers’ work to the systems used at each site: clients supplied scripts, voice artists recorded lines and variations, and the audio files were loaded into the facility’s notification system.
That approach lets a recorded voice deliver standardized messages through a computer-controlled system rather than requiring an announcer to speak every routine message live. It also means the recording belongs to a particular client’s scripts and installation; it does not establish that Hopkins or Fox voiced every announcement heard at an airport.
What does “110 airports” mean?
The Verge reported in 2013 that IED’s recordings could be heard in 110 airports and in the New York City subway system. The number describes the installation reach reported by that article at that time; it should not be presented as a current airport total.
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A separate Air Travel Design Guide refers to Hopkins recordings in more than 200 airports, citing a 2015 WBUR story among its sources. That figure has a different stated scope and date context from IED’s 110-airport installation figure, and the guide does not establish a directly comparable, current total. The available accounts therefore support neither a definitive present-day count nor a claim that the figures measure the same thing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the announcements are designed to sound approachable—and can still be hard to hear
Fox’s description of imagining one traveler on a moving sidewalk captures the interpersonal aim behind a recorded public address: make a system message feel less sterile. Hopkins’s “happy smiling” direction points to a similarly welcoming tone. In an unexpected moment while traveling, Hopkins said, “Sometimes it can be strange, because I’ll be traveling somewhere, and forget I’d recorded something, and suddenly hear my voice,” The Verge reported.
The Air Travel Design Guide describes airport PA messages as covering service status, ground transportation, construction, boarding, delays, and emergencies. It also identifies competing terminal noise, reverberation in large hard-surfaced spaces, and passenger inattention as barriers to intelligibility. The guide notes that some airports use quieter-airport policies that limit routine announcements in certain spaces; that observation does not establish the current policy at any specific airport.
What the story does—and does not—show
Hopkins and Fox illustrate how voice performers, client scripts, and installed paging systems can carry familiar recorded announcements across many sites. The historical 110-airport figure belongs to IED’s reported reach in 2013. It is not evidence of today’s coverage, of a single voice serving every location, or of either performer recording every message in the New York subway. The distinction matters because transportation networks mix agencies, locations, announcement types, and sometimes live, recorded, or synthesized delivery.
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