Work in Radio? (country, song, DJ, station)

[MichaelBNA]

Originally Posted by ComputerUser000

I work in radio full time as an on air personality/producer/production guy. Mainly in smaller towns.. and radio isn't easy to get into at all. I've been in it 5 years.. I'd say Im slightly above average in talent.. average voice and where I'm able to make it in radio is that Im single, don't drive.. and i do lots of different things at a station.. host a daily music show, produce commercials, produce live/local paid programming, do lvie remotes, occassionally do the news, help fix things, shovel the snow.. sweep.. vaccum.

Radio is never going to die, but it's definately slowed down. Don't plan on radio as a career really...well, always keep a second job or 2nd skill.... radio can and will fire you at any minute.

If you don't ABSOLUTELY LOVE radio, the occassional long hours and don't have a passion for it.. then don't get into the business. Sorry, but that's the truth... one of the few reasons I still do what I do is I enjoy it so much and enjoy it.....

I work in radio as well and I've done small, medium, & large market radio over the last ten years. I've gotta say this is the truth in my opinion. What station do you work at? I'm at Froggy 103 in Murray, KY. Did I mention that I'm a photographer, author, and club DJ? LOL!!! Seriously.

[ComputerUser000]

Originally Posted by MichaelBNA

I work in radio as well and I've done small, medium, & large market radio over the last ten years. I've gotta say this is the truth in my opinion. What station do you work at? I'm at Froggy 103 in Murray, KY. Did I mention that I'm a photographer, author, and club DJ? LOL!!! Seriously.

Michael:

I am a Producer/Operations assistant at Monster Radio AM 1150 WGGH in Marion, ILLINOIS. I've been a jock in the past though, mainly at country stations.

You can check out my website, onairdj at that dot com thing. My email is walkerbroadcasting at that gmail thing. Drop me a line since we're practically neighbors!

Paul

[MichaelBNA]

Originally Posted by ComputerUser000

Michael:

I am a Producer/Operations assistant at Monster Radio AM 1150 WGGH in Marion, ILLINOIS. I've been a jock in the past though, mainly at country stations.

You can check out my website, onairdj at that dot com thing. My email is walkerbroadcasting at that gmail thing. Drop me a line since we're practically neighbors!

Paul

OH MY GAWD! The owner of the station you work at used to work at 96 STO (WSTO) in Owensboro, KY. I remember him on the radio there and loved his voice. WOW!!! He went by "Fish" on the radio too. Epic.

[ComputerUser000]

Originally Posted by MichaelBNA

OH MY GAWD! The owner of the station you work at used to work at 96 STO (WSTO) in Owensboro, KY. I remember him on the radio there and loved his voice. WOW!!! He went by "Fish" on the radio too. Epic.

He still goes by Fish...at least that's what I call him. We have alot of fun here!

[kattwoman2]

Wow, I really need to check in here more often. Thanks for all of the advice! I really enjoy radio and the thought of radio rapidly becoming smaller is a bit depressing. I also have marketing as a backup plan and will have my Masters in Marketing Com this Spring. I still work at the radio station and the thought of no longer being on the air depresses me a bit. I like connecting with the listeners.

I think I'm going to keep searching for radio jobs, but I'm also going to apply for marketing jobs as well. I might try applying for jobs in television, though I think the days of people moving from radio into television might be over (?). Maybe the perfect balance would be full time marketing or television and part time radio. I like marketing, but I don't know if I can imagine myself not in front of the mic anymore. Thanks for all of your advice. I know it's very competitive and the jobs are dropping but I am still going to give it a shot.

[IXCell]

I moved from radio into television, and I really have enjoyed the move (I was on-air in radio and behind the scenes in television). I would apply to television as well...why not? What do you have to lose?

[catman]

Originally Posted by ComputerUser000

I realize I repeated myself in one sentence.... and maybe could've worded myself better.. but many other radio people agree with me, most of us still in the business have a passion for it.. we're not in it for the money.

Just like being a professional musician! That was the point I was trying to make: we're in the same boat.

[jtur88]

I spent most of my life on the air, radio and TV, from being a Top-40 DJ in 1958 to a weekend relief in 1990, from a TV news anchor in Canada, to a short-wave broadcaster in the Middle East. I was on TV before there was videotape, so all my bloopers went on the air live. I could probably write a book about hilarious experiences. There's an air-check of me, online, from 1963, but I'm not going to tell you where it is.

Believe me, radio now is absolutely nothing like it was then, so I can't really give you any useful advice.

The most hilarious story I've heard about modern-day radio comes from Minot, North Dakota. There was some kind of a local emergency one weekend, and civil defense people tried to contact the radio stations to get the word out. There were 7 stations in the market, and there wasn't a single one of them that had a live human being inside the building. They were all locked up tight with robots inside plugging local spots into satellite music mixes.

[ComputerUser000]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I spent most of my life on the air, radio and TV, from being a Top-40 DJ in 1958 to a weekend relief in 1990, from a TV news anchor in Canada, to a short-wave broadcaster in the Middle East. I was on TV before there was videotape, so all my bloopers went on the air live. I could probably write a book about hilarious experiences. There's an air-check of me, online, from 1963, but I'm not going to tell you where it is.

Believe me, radio now is absolutely nothing like it was then, so I can't really give you any useful advice.

The most hilarious story I've heard about modern-day radio comes from Minot, North Dakota. There was some kind of a local emergency one weekend, and civil defense people tried to contact the radio stations to get the word out. There were 7 stations in the market, and there wasn't a single one of them that had a live human being inside the building. They were all locked up tight with robots inside plugging local spots into satellite music mixes.

That was when Clear Channel owned every station there and a train carrying chemicals derailed.

it's been said since this incident that Clear Channels equipment was working fine, as there was an automated system set up to break in with emergency information.. and that system failed somewhere outside of Clear Channel

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by ComputerUser000

That was when Clear Channel owned every station there and a train carrying chemicals derailed.

it's been said since this incident that Clear Channels equipment was working fine, as there was an automated system set up to break in with emergency information.. and that system failed somewhere outside of Clear Channel

Clear Channel may have "fixed" the emergency automation override, but certainly did nothing to fix the plain fact that there was no local radio in existence in that market, and there probably still isn't.

I was driving from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City on New Years Eve, this was still back in the late 80s. There was a big blue sign on the interstate that said "Weather information, tune to XXX or YYY". I never listen to the radio while driving, but it was middle of winter, in the mountains, so I turned on the radio to one of those stations, and listened for four hours, and never heard the weather, or anything else from a live announcer. And the taxpayers paid for thousands of dollars worth of free roadside advertising for that station.