• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Connecticut School of Broadcasting - Needham

WTF are you talking about? Are you upset because I value a college degree over a trade school certificate? How does that translate into hiring bad talent?

OreoJoe417 said:
So NHRadio, you belong to the group of bosses that's been hiring the bad talent in radio that got the rest of us great radio guys coming along to save the day. I guess we should all thank you!
Click to expand...
 
CSB? I wouldn't waste my money....
Go to a real, academic school, and learn some real life stuff as well.
You'll need it. Chances are you will not be able to make a living from
radio alone for a looooooong. Just don't spend ALL of your time at the
college radio station. Go to classes every once in awhile... ;D
 
The thing I would suggest is going to college, majoring in something that can add to radio but also provide future employment in something else, working at your campus station, and finding an internship at a local station where you set very clear parameters as to what you will and will not do during your interview. Be certain to research the station if you aren't familiar with it and offer constructive criticism about its programming.
 
Okay, I am a 30 year industry veteran who started as a DJ and worked my way into management. I have always worked in programming. I NEVER thought I would offer this advice to someone who obviously has caught the radio bug as I did three decades ago.

If you want to be on-air, stay out of the business unless you plan to hold two jobs and/or spend long periods of time without a paycheck. In today's news recaps I think I must have come across the names of 20 professionals who had been downsized. The rage right now is to fire night jocks, morning show producers or eliminate a live shift with Seacrest, Delilah, etc. Even when the economy rebounds and radio's earnings recoil, I doubt these companies will go back to live and local shifts.

If you want to get into radio, get some marketing education and get into sales. A good sales person in a medium sized market can make 6-figures and more. A good midday or PM drive personality in a similar market will never make that much money.
 
Didn't "Danny from Quincy" go to CSB? Sorry, couldn't resist.
 
LasVegasRadioJunky said:
Okay, I am a 30 year industry veteran who started as a DJ and worked my way into management. I have always worked in programming. I NEVER thought I would offer this advice to someone who obviously has caught the radio bug as I did three decades ago.

If you want to be on-air, stay out of the business unless you plan to hold two jobs and/or spend long periods of time without a paycheck. In today's news recaps I think I must have come across the names of 20 professionals who had been downsized. The rage right now is to fire night jocks, morning show producers or eliminate a live shift with Seacrest, Delilah, etc. Even when the economy rebounds and radio's earnings recoil, I doubt these companies will go back to live and local shifts.

If you want to get into radio, get some marketing education and get into sales. A good sales person in a medium sized market can make 6-figures and more. A good midday or PM drive personality in a similar market will never make that much money.
Click to expand...

is sales really as depressing as it seems? i've been considering going into sales because I know how to market and talk, I'm just nto sure if it's worth it...perhaps I should start a new topic
 
If you cannot manage rejection, you are not tenacious and no not mind cold-calling I don't think you would find sales to be depressing. Although at some levels you can't operate this way, some of the most successful sales people I have known write and produce their client commercials on their own. So, if you like to be creative and get behind the microphone you can have the best of both worlds.

Sales is..
Prospecting
Questioning
Managing Objections
Closing Sales
Product Knowledge
Market Knowledge
Policy/Procedures Knowledge
Cultural Understanding
Personal Accountability
Sustaining Drive
Self-Starting Ability
Being Coachable
 
LasVegasRadioJunky said:
If you cannot manage rejection, you are not tenacious and no not mind cold-calling I don't think you would find sales to be depressing. Although at some levels you can't operate this way, some of the most successful sales people I have known write and produce their client commercials on their own. So, if you like to be creative and get behind the microphone you can have the best of both worlds.

Sales is..
Prospecting
Questioning
Managing Objections
Closing Sales
Product Knowledge
Market Knowledge
Policy/Procedures Knowledge
Cultural Understanding
Personal Accountability
Sustaining Drive
Self-Starting Ability
Being Coachable
Click to expand...

message me with your email address, i got a few questions for you if you don't mind
 
a couple years later, i very much appreciate all the general feedback!

one consistent theme in these posts has been how difficult to earn money at first, unless you throw yourself into sales....

i wouldn't have much interest in sales (unless it were concurrent with on-air staff as jibguy suggests), however i have been fortunate and smart to have an excellent income from a part time job (4 days per week) and dividend income, so really i'd do it for free on a limited part-time basis...i know from my 'interview/test reading' that i have the chops, and i do really enjoy playing perry como records. a small station as exists in milford, framingham, cambridge would be fine. i'm 30. but i do have an acoustic duo with my girlfriend which is my primary focus over any other professional pursuits, though.

any advice for me, specifically?
 
Buy time on your own, and try to gain a following.
Start out small, and try to grow an audience.
We have time available! Call me! ;D
 
Entering radio through the sales dep't usually is a gueling experience. A Boston station will test you out by giving you an area between Acton and Fitchburg and see what you can do. Meanwhile the other salespeople at your station will keep an eagle-eye on you to make sure you don't step on their toes. - And if you buy time on a station, you MUST ask the station: "If I pay all my renting-time bills on time, obey all laws, and keep my program in good taste, will you guarantee me that time-slot for as long as I want it, and at a future price that reflects a rise of only a cost-of-living adjustment? The answer must be "yes", and such conditions must be in writing in the contract. Very few stations will do that though. Otherwise, you'll most likely be just pi**ing your money away for a short-lived on-air experience.
 
JIBGUY said:
Entering radio through the sales dep't usually is a gueling experience. A Boston station will test you out by giving you an area between Acton and Fitchburg and see what you can do. Meanwhile the other salespeople at your station will keep an eagle-eye on you to make sure you don't step on their toes. - And if you buy time on a station, you MUST ask the station: "If I pay all my renting-time bills on time, obey all laws, and keep my program in good taste, will you guarantee me that time-slot for as long as I want it, and at a future price that reflects a rise of only a cost-of-living adjustment? The answer must be "yes", and such conditions must be in writing in the contract. Very few stations will do that though. Otherwise, you'll most likely be just pi**ing your money away for a short-lived on-air experience.
Click to expand...

Aw, c'mon Bob...say "pissing". It's 2011.
 
WLYNgm said:
Just don't spend ALL of your time at the
college radio station. Go to classes every once in awhile... ;D
Click to expand...

Worked for me... ;)

Best times of my early years were spent at WDJM!

26 years later, I'm a PD in a market of 5.5 million. 2 million of which don't exist according to Arbitron. They must be invisible. Oh, wait...you mean if I pay for it, you can see them and they suddenly listen to radio? Oh...COOL!

They won't teach you that at CSB either :)
 
LasVegasRadioJunky said:
OEven when the economy rebounds and radio's earnings recoil, I doubt these companies will go back to live and local shifts.
Click to expand...

I can think if very, very few radio jobs that were eliminated in any kind of cost-cutting effort that were ever restored.

Thank you.

By the way "tight board, third endorsed,broadcast school grad, ready now, will relocate" didn't work thirty years ago and won't work now. Even if you no longer need your third phone and think calculating power by the indirect method refers to the electoral college.
 
I can't speak for other brokered time stations,
but I can speak for US -- all of our programmers
are guaranteed their time slot/payment schedules
for as long as their contract is in force.
 
WLYNgm said:
Buy time on your own, and try to gain a following.
Start out small, and try to grow an audience.
We have time available! Call me! ;D
Click to expand...

Oh NO, not this again ::)

Come on now, say it with me.... TIMM-BERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ;D
 
Just a suggestion! Lighten up!
All I'm saying is that if you think you have the
next big idea, why not step up to the plate,
and take a couple of swings??? :D
 
WLYNgm said:
Just a suggestion! Lighten up!
All I'm saying is that if you think you have the
next big idea, why not step up to the plate,
and take a couple of swings??? :D
Click to expand...

Haha, sorry, didn't mean to offend.... it's all in good fun ;)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom