I recently came across a Facebook post of a man in his 40s who was seriously considering leaving his current career and becoming a radio personality. That post should scare everyone in this industry. Not because of the question, but because of the answers.
What got my attention were the comments and words of “advice”, following the post, from those in and NOT in the industry.
Allow me to share a few, anonymously, of course:
It’s a bad time to join that industry. Even the big-time veterans are getting let go.
Large radio companies are layoff factories right now.
Many extremely talented radio people are either struggling to find work or have just decided to change career paths.
Not worth the time, major effort, and money for embarrassment!
Corporate bean-counters consider talent and creativity a bottom-line problem that must be eliminated. Every year, they slash more and more. It’s bare-boned now.
Sounds “interesting”. Now… what are you gonna live on?
I got fired once in ‘92 and couldn’t rebound into a new gig. Ended up finishing up my college degree and transitioned into a medical sales career. I couldn’t even imagine trying to earn a living in radio now.
Since you said “career”, I assume you want to be able to make money. I left radio in 2002 because I wanted to be able to pay my bills. Lots of things have changed in the industry since then, and not for the better.
Radio careers are far and few between, if any. No lie that I ran into a guy who was on air at a medium market station for a lot of years, who is now a greeter at Walmart!
Not to discourage you, but if you have a family and it’s going to be your only means of support, it’s going to be a tough road. Companies today don’t want to pay what they used to pay for air talent.
In terms of full-time work in radio… run away as fast as you can. The pay is falling like a rock, and the jobs are disappearing even faster.
If this is how people inside and outside the industry talk about radio… why would anyone choose it as a career?
I wish broadcast owners/CEO’s could see these very real comments. If they are interested as to where the industry will be five to ten years from now (as they should be!), there is a HUGE barrier to entry, especially for talent, that must be fixed, NOW, with radio’s image AND radio’s ability to pay. If radio wants a future talent workforce, this isn’t optional…
It’s survival!
Here’s what has to happen:
- Start a REAL in-house air talent training program: Create your own “stars”. Use your current talent to work with incoming students to get them ready to be part of the team. Bring them into the station’s various media platforms. Budget for it!
- Create a company/station relationship with area college stations/departments: Work with colleges that have programs (most colleges still do) and sponsor their campus station. Donate a specific amount of time per week of your staff’s expertise in every facet of the business. Select one or more students for scholarships to be part of the station(s) each year. Build your future year by year.
- Promote all of this on air, online… everywhere: Let people know that this is a different radio industry now. We are looking at 2030 and beyond.
We complain about not having any radio “farm teams” anymore… well, there you have it. Your OWN in-house farm team.
What is it that Google, Amazon, Starbucks, and Walmart, among others, are doing with training programs for their students/entry-level employees, while radio seems to whiff on it? They are manufacturing their future on purpose. That must be the goal from here on.
Back to that Facebook post…
The real question, right now, isn’t whether that 40-something-year-old should get into radio. The real question is this:
Why would he?
