Cyberpunk book which had a minor side character with a cybernetic implant to give him a perfect broadcaster's voice

Question

I think I read this in the early 1990s, as part of a paperback in the English language. One scene recently popped into my head and I'm trying to pin it down. The main protagonists had some important information that they wanted to broadcast (I want to say the scene happened around the midpoint of the book, so it probably wasn't the climactic "reveal of the villain's plans). One of them said that they knew just the right person, said person being a man with a raspy voice. When one of the other protagonists expresses doubt, the man does something to activate his cybernetic implant and he's suddenly speaking in a perfect broadcaster voice. The catch is that the implant does progressive damage to his vocal cords, leading to the current rasp.

They proceed to the man's van (or maybe a truck), which is fitted with broadcast equipment, give him the information to transmit, and then leave. The broadcast goes on for some amount of time before a flash of light and explosion obliterates the van, explained as being a missile that homed in on the radio transmission signal, launched by the company from whom they'd gotten the information. I think the guy who'd recommended the broadcaster indicated that they'd expected the outcome, but that the guy only had one or two more uses of his implant before he'd lose his voice entirely, and went into the job knowing he'd probably die.

As a kid who often did public speaking, and got complimented on his voice, I was fascinated at the idea of being able to turn on such a voice with the flip of a switch, and also a bit horrified at the idea of losing one's voice in the process. It also led to me doing a bit of research, and finding that the radio-guided missiles were a real historical weapon, used to take out military broadcast vehicles during wars.

Just based on the books I was reading at the time, and the theme of the cybernetic implants, this might be one of the Shadowrun novels.

Answer 1

It was indeed a Shadowrun book, Just Compensation, by Robert Charrette, and the broadcaster is Cheese.

"No times, no times. We is talking to the airs," Music filled the interior, backing an angelic choir that sang about the coming of the ITRU Truthcast. Cheese spoke into his microphone, astounding Andy. The man's voice changed utterly. His street dialect vanished, the wheeze disappeared, and from his throat came a cultured, deep, reverberating voice that might have come a Shakespearean actor's.

If he could speak like that, why had he talked to them in such annoying tones? Kit noticed Andy's perplexity.

"He has a voice modulator," she said.

He'd guessed that. "Why doesn't he talk that way all the time?"

"Bad hardware," Cinqueda said. "Rasps the vocal cords after a while. Gonna shred them one day if he—"

Found by grabbing all of the Shadowrun paperbacks I could at my parents' house when I went down for Christmas, and paging through them.