Announcer's hard time — line dead (6)
I believe the answer is:
herald
'announcer's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'hard time line dead' is the wordplay.
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'time' becomes 'era' (I've seen this before**).
'line' becomes 'l'.
'dead' becomes 'd'.
'h'+'era'+'l'+'d'='HERALD'
(Other definitions for herald that I've seen before include "One making proclamations - harbinger" , "Usher in; proclaim" , "Proclaim the approach of, like archaic messenger" , "Presage for old announcer" , "Announce, presage" .)