Tag: radio

As a life long fan of the Fallout series as well as a host for two weekly radio shows, I feel qualified to break down the best and worst radio jocks the Fallout universe has to offer. Not many people realize how much can truly go into being a compelling and entertaining personality who is at least half way decent at what they do. Spanning over multiple titles, states, and personalities, these are the absolute best and worst on air personalities that the Fallout universe has to offer.

BEST: Three Dog

Host of Galaxy News Radio for The Capital Wasteland, Three Dog is an entertaining jock with a smooth voice to match. Capturing the essence of the stereotypical old school radio DJ, his personality fits perfectly with the tracks he’s playing. Not only does Three Dog fit the bill of a classic radio jock, he also includes precise social observations and great comedic timing which is a huge part of any successful jock. “…Your friendly neighborhood Disc Jockey, What’s a disc? Hell if I know!” is just one of the ever quotable phrases you cam catch Three Dog sending out over D.C.’s flagship station. With all this considered, he is at his core an NPC best described by the word “cool”. From his cool, calm, collected demeaner, to his no cares given approach to calling out what he sees as unjust live on the air. Voice actor Erik Todd Dellums hit the nail right on the head to provide Fallout 3 with the absolute perfect voice.

Side note: Erik’s role as Three Dog was done so well and left such an impact that I regularly encourage my listeners to “Fight the good fight” at the end of each of my weekly shows.

WORST: Travis Miles

Now let’s get this out of the way right now. I enjoy Travis, I am 100% aware of the fact the DJ with no confidence is meant entirely for the irony of it. Travis Miles is a good novelty character and is fun. HOWEVER, we are looking at the best and worst DJs. As a jock, Travis begins as an unconfident and insecure host of Diamond City Radio. Through out the progression of the game, you are able to engage in a side quest to help Travis gain his confidence and in turn impact how he sounds over the Commonwealth air waves. The issue however is, regardless on whether or not you choose to do this mission Travis falls into the one category absolutely nobody in the business ever wants to come anywhere close to, annoying. Travis’s initial style is good for a quick laugh or two here and there, but very quickly grows repetitive and annoying. Even after helping Travis find his confidence, the transition is neat but once again wears thin relatively quickly. The confident Travis more often then not comes across as forced and just seems like a radio host impression rather than a natural sounding host, complete with transatlantic accent.

BEST: Mr. New Vegas

You cannot talk about the best Fallout radio jocks without talking about Mr. New Vegas, and who else to play such a role other than the one and only Mr. Las Vegas himself Wayne Newton. The absolute perfect deep raspy voice to fill the airwaves of The Mohave, Mr. New Vegas is actually just an AI created by Mr. House before The Great War. While Johnny Guitar may get a little stable by your 10th New Vegas playthrough, one thing that never will is the calming tones of Mr. New Vegas. Knowing your audience is half the battle in the radio game, and Mr. New Vegas is able to capture the tone of both the lively strip of New Vegas as well as the secluded deserts of the Mohave Wasteland. Possibly the one universally accepted truth of Fallout is how good Mr. New Vegas actually is and how much he adds to the experience.

BEST: President John Henry Eden

Hear me out now, John Henry Eden may not exactly be the most entertaining host on the planet, however take a step back and look at it in broadcasting terms. Enclave Radio is not deigned to be a high energy music station. It’s a news talk and political information station. If you look at Enclave Radio as the Fallout universe equivalent of NPR, that helps to out things into perspective. Now the problem with this you may be thinking is the fact on of the most important aspects of political and talk radio is to remain unbias, which Mr. Eden clearly does not accomplish. One thing to remember is this is post- apocalyptia. There is no structured uniform government. Politics are debated with guns in the wasteland. So when a sudo-political leader takes a stand behind a certain belief such as those of the Enclave, and has the means to sing their praises while damning the Brotherhood of Steel at a state wide level, why wouldn’t you jump at it? The AI known as John Henry Eden may not be the most likeable or easy to listen to, but when it come down to broadcasting, he’s certainly not the worst.

WORST: Julie

Hands down the absolute worst hails from, surprise surprise, Fallout 76. With the addition of the wastelanders DLC came Appalachia Radio’s new host Julie. A complaint from day one was the lack of effort put into the radio and soundtrack for Fallout 76 but after hearing Bethesda’s solution, I think I’d rather play in silence. I honestly don’t even know where to begin. As far as lore friendliness and believability goes, there is none. Rather than an immersive and fun radio host who shows motive and interest for establishing a presence in Appalachia, we are given Bethesda’s attempt at a “quirky” 23 year old girl reminiscent of a bootleg Travis Miles. We see what you were trying to do Bethesda and you’ve once again totally missed the mark. Julie is not cute, quirky, or funny and certainly not believable as someone who gives any kind of a shit about radio broadcasting. Above all else, would it have killed them to find a voice actor with an authentic accent to the region. That’s like the ONE qualification that could at least help overlook the rest of the issues. We are deep in the wild hills of West Virginia, not Cleveland Ohio.

At the end of the day maybe I’m a little bias, maybe you don’t really look that deep into the Fallout radio. Regardless, Let me know what you think in the comment section below! Then feel free to check out some of my other Fallout related blogs by clicking the link below!

-Style

More Fallout Content

Polls, Legendary Saturday, and Fallout Friday Polls. “Fallout Wiki.” Fandom, fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki.