Starting Tuesday, Betty Rake will get off the bus one block sooner than her Wrigley Building destination of 20 years, when she starts another chapter of her career.
One of Chicago’s best known music specialists, Rake was named audio studio manager of fast-growing Bosco Productions, after two decades as ARU’s studio manager.
“We’re thrilled to have her here,” says Angelo Bosco, owner and executive producer of the low-key audio company he founded in 1990, that has grown into a thriving full-service production company. “This is a big change for me,” Rake says, “and one I am really looking forward to.”
She replaces Iwona Awlasewicz, who moves into the new slot as manager of Bosco’s expanding video department.
Rake will start by working with actor Dennis Farina, who is in the studio several times a week to re-record 176 narrative sound tracks for the classic 1987 series, “Unsolved Mysteries,” that starred Robert Stack.
In her new position, Rake will build on her extensive music library expertise, production, talent payments and casting. “I’ve always been a champion of Chicago voiceovers,” she says, noting her ambition once was to be an actress.
More than half of Bosco Production’s 11,000-sq. ft. of space is devoted to the audio department’s three studios, with engineers Doug Pieper, Adrian Roberts and three-time Emmy winner Robert McNaughton.
The audio side also offers multi-lingual recording, ADR, DVD authoring, full casting service and voiceover classes.
Five years ago the company segued into video, notes Bosco, and that division now occupies half of the floor below. It has a stage, two Avid edit suites and offices for director Steve Deroba and affiliate producer Kordt Larsen.
Currently, the video department is engaged in producing seven spots for the 2008 Chicago Bulls/DeMaio & Co. campaign for an early July airdate.
Rake was one of ARU’s first employees when engineer Mike King and his wife, Sue, started the recording company. A Wisconsin native, she spent several years in Los Angeles before returning to the Midwest.
Bosco Productions is located at 160 E. Grand; phone, 312/644-8300. See
