A radio reporter who lost his voice is back on the air — digitally

This article was originally published June 20, 2018.

An American radio reporter who lost his ability to speak is now back on the air thanks to a computer-generated recreation of his voice.

Jamie Dupree, who began working in radio in 1983, lost most of his ability to speak abruptly in 2016. After a long search for answers, he was diagnosed with a movement disorder called lingual protrusion dystonia, which affects his tongue and mouth.

"I can get a few words out from time to time, but mostly I'm unable to string words together.

The signals get mixed up from my brain to my throat and it's a struggle," he told As It Happens host Carol Off.

Here's what Dupree sounds like now without using the computer-generated voice:

So how was he able to make a return to radio?

It's all thanks to a Scotland-based company called CereProc — and the more than 30 years of radio archives Dupree had of his own voice.

"I remember working around the clock for a week to deliver them all sorts of old audio from my archives," he said.

After receiving the first build of his new, computer-generated voice in mid-May, he said, "I knew it would work."

Dupree, who works for the Cox Media Group, covers Congress and Washington D.C. for radio stations around the U.S. 

To file a report now, he simply has to write a script into a text-to-speech program, which creates an audio file.

Here he is explaining the process with the help of the program:  

The voice may sound a bit robotic, but Dupree says nothing beats turning on the radio and hearing his reports beamed out to cities across the U.S. again.  

"What hit me most this week was on the first day when I had breaking news from the Supreme Court," he said. "I quickly typed up the report and generated it with the new voice. A few minutes later, there I was, leading the newscast ... I was about to cry. It was an emotional moment."  

You can see that moment here:

Still, a struggle for Dupree is the heavy toll his condition has taken on his personal life.

"My kids are young, 9, 11 and 14. I want to be able to talk to them and explain the little things in life. I want to sit and have a conversation with my wife," he said.  

Dupree hasn't give up hope that his natural speech will improve and continues to work to treat his dystonia with his medical team in Atlanta.

In the meantime, thanks to his new voice, he won't be missing a breaking news story again.