Think that Gen Z doesn’t want to work? Radio Ink is sounding the alarm: it’s time to wake up to the realities of recruiting and retaining Gen Z in radio sales at our next free Radio Masters Sales Series webinar: Catching Zs: Wake Up Your Next Gen Recruitment.
On Tuesday, June 24, at noon ET, join Radio Ink Online Editor Cameron Coats and RAB President and CEO Mike Hulvey for an essential conversation for managers, sales leaders, and anyone looking to build the next generation of sellers.
Mike will share his front-line insights from NAB Show 2025 and from his work with college students through the Radio Talent Institutes. Hulvey’s message is clear: Gen Z isn’t disinterested – they’re just different, and the industry needs to adapt to recruit them effectively.
What attendees will learn:
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How to attract Gen Z talent using the platforms and values they respond to
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What today’s college students are saying about careers in radio sales
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Why traditional recruitment models no longer work – and what to do instead
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How to build a work culture that engages and retains younger sellers
REGISTER HERE FOR THIS FREE SALES EVENT
MEET THE SPEAKER
As president and CEO of RAB, Mike Hulvey leads radio’s advocacy efforts by helping to drive business, grow advertising revenue, communicate radio’s digital transformation, and help attract new sales talent through recruitment and training efforts.
Hulvey joined the organization in April 2024. Before RAB, Mike was CEO at Neuhoff Communications, Inc., an independent broadcasting company that owned and operated 20 radio stations in Illinois and Indiana, along with a revenue-generating digital business.
ABOUT THE RADIO MASTERS SALES SERIES
For the past three years, Radio Ink‘s Radio Masters Sales Summit has brought together radio’s greatest sales minds – creatives, executives, and visionaries – to help sellers across the US generate serious revenue. Now we’ve introduced the Radio Masters Sales Series – a free monthly webinar designed to equip radio sales professionals with the knowledge and strategies they need to stay ahead in our ever-changing industry.
I think Mike and Cameron have an excellent outline of core issues to discuss about recruiting Gen Z to sell radio. Bravo, you guys. This will be extremely important and informative—and Mike, thank you for your excellent leadership in providing the latest, highest quality information to sell radio that the RAB has ever delivered. Your team provides the best resource to sharpen your product knowledge and close more deals on the planet.
Let’s be frank. There’s a nationwide shortage of truck drivers, teachers and nurses—to name a few. Why? These can be difficult, thankless jobs with awful conditions, long hours and minimal pay. Only those with exceptional determination can make a decent living over the long term in those careers, but it takes a toll on their mental and physical health. If these jobs had better overall employee experiences, there wouldn’t be a shortage.
If you’re truly being rational and objective here, does a career in radio sales look like a stable, lucrative career choice for a 22-year-old today? If it did, do you really think it would be difficult to recruit them?
Let’s agree that “Gen Z” is the most connected generation in history. They don’t make a sandwich without texting 25 friends about what they’re doing, then posting short videos on social media platforms. They’re constantly sharing brief updates and opinions and if they’re curious about anything, they have it researched in about 12 seconds. I’m no authority on it, but I think they’re very, very, very smart. They’re skeptical. They’re curious. They’re also consuming and sharing information on a level that was once unheard of at a speed that was once unheard of. Hold that thought.
It would be reasonable to assume that many of them have already shared what they know about a career in radio sales with each other and you have to admit, some of it isn’t pretty. They all have older brothers and sisters, neighbors, friends, cousins, parents, aunts, uncles etc. Some of those people have careers in radio right now. What do you think they’re sharing? Could it possibly be a little less than inspirational in recent years?
Gen Z certainly respects and understands the power of social media. They use it every day. Radio listening levels and the power of a good radio campaign are a little more vague and intangible to them, so they see it as a fading media choice. If they spent about 2 minutes on the RAB website, they would have a different impression of radio’s impact altogether. Until then, they’re sharing brief bits and pieces of their friends and family in radio. How much of that could be positive in recent years?
Meanwhile, on any given day, they see social media influencers making a fortune, literally. How could they not be attracted to that—or curious about it as a career choice?
They see social media platforms generating hundreds of billions and building a serious revenue growth trajectory along the way. They see friends and family who work for Facebook, Instagram and Google in sales positions getting the best training, the best equipment, the best office space, the best support, the best perks, the best pay packages imaginable and the best benefits. They also see them having fun and filling their pockets with cash. That’s hard to ignore.
Then they see the largest companies in radio run by the industry’s “best and brightest” struggling to make a single dollar of profit, firing top level managers, laying off front line employees in bulk and disrupting people’s lives after providing less than adequate support along the way. They see huge radio groups making LESS money in first quarter 2025 as well. It’s an industry appearing to go backwards right now, not forward.
Does that look like an attractive career path? Do you think Gen Z’s parents would push their Gen Z kids to get into an industry where all of the largest players went bankrupt and their share prices melted down over 90% in the last 5 years? Does that seem like a solid future?
I think the challenge here is to get Gen Z to ignore what they’ve already learned about radio careers in their constantly updated circles of shared information—and show them how things have evolved and improved. This certainly requires things to actually evolve and improve.
It starts with one of your core presentation subjects, Mike:
“How to build a work culture that engages and retains younger sellers”
It’s all about culture. Build the culture right inside your radio station and you won’t have to recruit Gen Z very hard. They’ll already know about it faster than you can blink and want to be part of it.
Gen Z is telling the radio industry something important right now: “We’re not interested.”
It’s worth understanding why, because it’s not like they’re entirely wrong. They’re forming a very informed impression of radio. Imagine if it was a mostly positive impression. These young women and men could be unstoppable in radio with the right tools, training, support and leadership. So, what does that look like? It doesn’t generally look like what goes on out there today. This is a wake up call.
Great topic, gentlemen—this is extremely important and timely.