Angst, anger, and a dose of disillusionment can be found in the numbers from the latest AQ3 research on how radio talent handled last year. The Jacobs Media survey of more than 600 on-air personalities, hosts and producers was revealed during a Wednesday webinar hosted by Fred Jacobs.
“Last year was a Helluva a year, this year hasn’t been a whole lot easier. Certainly every personality was tested last year,” said Jacobs leading off the hour-long deep-dive into the anonymous thoughts shared by radio professionals.
“The average air personality in the country wears three hats and if you are in a smaller company it is a little north of that,” revealed Jacobs. “So the rhetorical question I have is….’How many different jobs can you have before your effectiveness really begins to dry up? Or in fact you just plain burn out?’ I think that’s something that management and corporate really need to think about.”
The on-line survey process gave ample room for participants to speak their mind without fear of retribution:
“Markets should be self contained. Cookie cutter programming strategies don’t work! All market managers and GMs should have significant time logged as a programmer/air talent.” (Gen X Male, Small Company, Music/Spoken Word Station, Market 1-20)
“You need to invest in current and future talent because they ARE the station.” (Gen X Female, Large Company, Music/Spoken Word Station, Market 1-20)
I would say to give local markets autonomy. A one-size-fits-all approach does not apply to radio. People come to radio for companionship and connection, and we are not delivering on either of these fronts.” (Millennial Female, Large Company, Music Station, Market 51+)
“Please fire all the old men in charge who say ‘…but that’s how we’ve always done things.’” (Millennial Male, Company Size Unknown, Music Station, Market 1-20)
“As you saw the overall image for the biggest companies in radio has been tarnished in the past couple of years. We all know in radio what happens when we get a research study back and we’re kind of down in a key image area. You gotta go to work and address it,” said Jacobs. “So, I think as it pertains to reputation and even beyond that to action; this is something that the corporate honchos in some of the biggest companies will hopefully in fact take to heart.”
“Then the flip side to that is that if you are a corporate executive at a medium or smaller company you may really have an opportunity to become a destination for talent; right? Because obviously at this point no one ‘owns the hill’ being the most desirable type of company to work for. But, there is no doubt that right now medium and small companies have that opportunity to kind of grab that reputation while they can.”
The research showed that three in ten are making less money since COVID; and among those two in three point to fewer or no appearances and endorsements. One in four has taken a second or third Job; with COVID being the main, but not the only driver.
According to the numbers, many feel management and owners don’t care.
A couple of other participant concerns that caught Fred Jacobs attention had to do with airchecks and women in radio.
“Obviously when 47% of talent say they are never airchecked, this is a real problem. If you are not being airchecked by your program director or somebody in that position, you might need to find somebody, maybe an industry friend whom you trust who will critically aircheck you and maybe you could aircheck them, kind of a reciprocal thing. You need somebody to put an ear to what you’re doing.”
“For women on the air, what a tough journey. This was something as an older male in the radio business; I’m not sure that I really understood while working at the station level. It is something that I have come to at least better understand, especially doing this research, just how arduous and difficult it is for women in radio. Our research showed the gender gaps that are absolutely very real. This something that I think every company needs to think about seriously if they aren’t doing it yet.”
