Wes Tinsley
Beaufort’s Sonic Man
story by ERIN WALLACE photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY
Think about any time you watch a movie, see a production on stage, or listen to a song on the radio. Now visualize all the work that goes into bringing these specific acoustics right to your ears, and the effort taken to ensure these acoustics sound accurate. Then consider this work and attempt to pair it with a person who implements these techniques. Who is this person exactly? A sound engineer, of course! This kind of engineer puts in immense time and effort to make these masterpieces come to life and sound sublime. Fortunately, our community is blessed with our very own professional Sound Engineer, who is no stranger to the world of the ear!
His name is Wes Tinsley, and he’s been in audio production since 1985. Originally from Greenville, he has been a member of our beloved town for 19 years. Wes wears many hats: sound engineer, as mentioned, but he also is a web designer/developer, photographer, and audio engineer. In other words, Wes is a multimedia designer, and his experience is unmatched. For almost 40 years, Wes has worked on projects in leading industry markets, from audio production and broadcast media to digital and film photography. Locally, Wes works the shows at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) Center for the Arts/Chamber Series and for Beaufort International Film Festival by aiding in graphics and sound. It doesn’t end there because Wes’ clients — over the years — range anywhere from church ministries throughout the country to musical groups and sports networks, local and beyond. He’s there providing the utmost service.
Let’s backtrack quickly and look at how exactly Wes wandered into the Lowcountry as a sound engineer. To begin, Wes and his wife, Betty, made a great team as they had a local business in their old hometown many moons ago, where they provided broadcast tape duplication services. Then after several years of working with NBC and South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) in Greenville, Betty and Wes decided to move to Beaufort to start their own production company. With our town right in the middle of Charleston and Savannah and no local origination channels at the time, it just fit the bill. During the first years of their company, Wes was still able to dabble in the field, receiving more and more experience through different gigs, like running a production company and working at a local printing company.
Regarding his credentials after high school, Wes studied Graphic Design and also took classes in a film and video program. The school was known as the Fine Arts Center in Greenville at the time but is now the Governor School of the Arts. Next, Wes received his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification as a Broadcast Engineer. This FCC certification qualifies him to work today with engineer broadcast equipment for TV stations, even transmitters and tower equipment. Wes currently works with Dr. Caroline Sawyer on the TV show By The River, where Holly Jackson is the host. Meanwhile, the show is produced by USCB and SCETV. Interestingly, By The River displays in-depth interviews with South Carolina authors and poets.
While Wes has diligently pursued his career, he’s a dedicated family man. He has a son, Jonathan, and a daughter-in-law, Melissa, and these two have blessed Wes and Betty with Savannah, their granddaughter back in Greenville. In case you were wondering, Wes and Betty love being grandparents! Now for the million-dollar question: How did it all start for Wes? Nowadays, our society tends to career hop and quit when the going gets tough, but not this sound engineer! It began when Wes was 14 years old, working in a large church and doing audio work for regular services and large holiday productions every year. Thus, it was this distinct background as a teenager that truly pulled him into the sound production life, and it was here where his spark for sound amplified over time and experiences. Wes’ steady commitment to his passion over the decades is abundantly refreshing in our day and age as adversity tends to cause us to give up. What an inspiration he is!
I asked Wes about the best and most challenging part of his career. He informed me that the best part of his job is the gratitude he receives from clients. Wes states, “When they say at the end, ‘This show was great because of you!’ That is the highest compliment.” No matter what tools are used to bring the sound clients are looking for, being able to successfully convey the desired sound to the audience is the highest form of praise, in Wes’ opinion. The most challenging part of Wes’ work is some folks do not trust him to do the job he’s supposed to do. Even in those situations where his aptitude is in doubt, Wes still delivers quality sound, swiftly dispelling the disbelief. After so many years as a sound engineer, skillfully capturing the right acoustics always remains the same for him.
So, if you’ve never taken the time to contemplate the amount of work spent to engineer so many sounds we soak in, step into a theater or turn on the radio. Since most of us appreciate personifying things, I’m sure you’ll envision Wes and his incredible contributions to sound engineering. Wes is more than a man who is good with acoustics; he’s a man with a passion for enhancing the arts that we listen to — and for that — we are grateful to have him as a Lowcountry neighbor, making our community sound better.
