(By Mike McVay) The song by Timbuk 3 says it best and I’ve seen it. Despite the bemoaning of not having a supposed “Farm Team,” there is a bright future for radio in regard to talent, programming, sales, and engineering/technical. Last week, as part of the National Radio Talent System’s training, a part of the RAB and sponsored by the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, I visited the University of Georgia campus in Athens, GA. There I spoke to a group of 30 young college-age students who are interested in a career in media.
The students were enthusiastic, engaged and showed interest and drive. Many reached out to me after the conference to share their resumes, ask questions and request guidance. The group participated in ten days of intense training that touched every area of Radio, TV, Sales, Production, Podcasting, Streaming, Sports, News/Talk, Music Programming, and Engineering & Technical.
The National Radio Talent Institutes are held at various universities and colleges throughout the country. In addition to the GAB Radio Talent Institute at UGA, the Confer Radio Talent Institute is at Bloomsburg University of PA, and the Kellar Radio Talent Institute is at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.
These institutes are underwritten by broadcast associations and companies. Hubbard and Beasley have been involved in underwriting and sponsorships in the past. Through the RAB, they create marketing pieces for the universities and either visit the schools to talk about the program or do Zoom calls into the classrooms. Throughout the year, they reach out to industry professionals like myself who feel would add industry insight and inspire the students by speaking at the respective institutes.
Students take the RAB sales training as a part of the program and are all certified upon graduation as “Radio Marketing Professionals”. The RAB, powering this program, wants to help the industry identify and train sellers and make them a part of its talent pool. The singular mission is to educate, empower, enlighten, and inspire young people and help jumpstart a career in all the various growth opportunities available in media today.
Broadcasters, like myself, participate in coaching, training, mentoring, and sharing with the students. In the case of the event at UGA, V103/Atlanta broadcast their morning show live at the school one morning. A field trip to the Atlanta Braves ballpark and meeting their broadcast team took place on another day. Market after market, I am seeing pictures of our industry leaders participating in these events. The events are well attended and that’s encouraging.
My encouragement to you is to mentor and coach those who want the opportunity to be in media. They’re eager. They have many opportunities to train and practice online, on social media, on YouTube, and via podcasting. You have no right to say there’s no farm team if you’re not taking calls and answering E-mails from those who are expressing interest in radio. Be open to growing your own.
The future is bright.
Mike McVay is President of McVay Media and can be reached at [email protected]. Read Mike’s Radio Ink archives here.
I have to agree with Mike to a decent degree that there’s still interest in radio from young people. I see it in emails, comments, and even calls to me from students of my Youtube Radio Programming channel. Lot of contact over the past 3 years of lessons. But most are out of North America. Not sure if that is significant or not given Mike’s writing here. Perhaps they’re more curious? What I do know for sure is that there are a TON…TON…of very very creative young people out there who’s goal is media in seemingly every form, and those into it already on social media are really great at it. Truly. The task is going to be to get them to add regular media (radio) into their already strong social media workload. Tough part will be doing that. The good part is with literally hundreds of thousands of more than capable young talent out there, radio only needs a tiny fraction of those to ‘restock’ the airwaves.
I think it’s so good that you were volunteering your time to help mentor young people. I do not share your optimism about the radio business. It has literally gutted the talent pool. You are correct, there is very little farm system, but so many good people have been forced out. I would argue that is your farm system right there. Corporate radio will never go back to those people because they perceive them to be either too old or too expensive. I would not encourage any of these young people to pursue radio or media as a career. it is just too dicey to imagine someone making any real money or having a future in a business that is dying daily. Average quarter hour consistently goes straight down the hill for all terrestrial radio. Conglomerates will continue to file bankruptcy and Chapter 11 because it is becoming impossible to make money.
Radio killed the radio star with it’s 10 minute or more stop sets. When radio shifted the paradigm from programming first to sales first, that’s when the decline began. When your ultimate mission in life is to make money, money will elude you. Stockholders replaced listeners. How did that work out?
I’m sorry Mike I cannot wear your rose colored glasses. I’m not being pessimistic or cynical, I’m just being real. You remind me a little bit of President Biden who I personally like, but when he says “I’ve never been more optimistic about this country”, I have to laugh and ask myself what country he’s living in? We have never been more divided in this country with mass shootings and all the rest. It does not give me a lot of optimism. I look at what’s happening in radio and I feel the same way.