Future Talent

[jerry367]

Going forward, who in the world is going to waste their life on radio, since it now has even less to offer talent than ever before?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Why do people become firemen and policemen? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become social workers and ministers? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become career military? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become artists displaying and selling their wares in some quaint resort town? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Not everybody CAN be a "rock star" of the business world. Some people simply want to do something they do well and enjoy.... as the find their niche in this thing we call civilization.

As soon as the people with "investment banker" mentality get it through their head that a radio station is something more than a printing press for money, then maybe we can let the people who just want to communicate get on with providing something for the policemen, the firemen, the school teachers, the military personnel and the artists in quaint little day-trip towns. and the social workers and prison guards and the farmers and the veterniary technicians turn on the radio and just enjoy it... like a day at the beach or a walk in the woods.

 

[jerry367]

Why do people become firemen and policemen? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become social workers and ministers? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become career military? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Why do people become artists displaying and selling their wares in some quaint resort town? Not because of what society offers the "talent".

Not everybody CAN be a "rock star" of the business world. Some people simply want to do something they do well and enjoy.... as the find their niche in this thing we call civilization.

As soon as the people with "investment banker" mentality get it through their head that a radio station is something more than a printing press for money, then maybe we can let the people who just want to communicate get on with providing something for the policemen, the firemen, the school teachers, the military personnel and the artists in quaint little day-trip towns. and the social workers and prison guards and the farmers and the veterniary technicians turn on the radio and just enjoy it... like a day at the beach or a walk in the woods.

Unlike those other professions you mentioned, NONE of them requires the constant uprooting and relocating on short notice that radio careers often require. This can and does tear families apart over time. NOT a small sacrifice. Yes the industry has always wreaked havoc on the personal lives of the talent, but this was the price you paid for the "upside", which was the potential to entertain and build a large audience, make a lot of money---and yes, have people know your name.

Unfortunately, that “upside” has been almost completely nullified with the industry’s volatility being at a fever pitch. You simply cannot trust ANY situation. ANY. Total chaos. And unlike all those other professions you mentioned, at least you can keep your family intact while you work, are out of work, look for work, etc. etc.

If you work in radio and had the nerve to have a family, you will be paying quite the price for trying to stay in the business.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

After 15 years I left the business because I valued family life and stability more than I desired the perceived benefits of the industry.

I have observed some people having the good fortune of putting in LONG or permanent relationships with a given station or company. One of the things that got crossways in my throat was the number of management/ownership people who seemed to have no concern about creating a new style of broadcast life. The industry might be in better shape (Who gets to define "better"? ) if more managers and owners felt some kind of committment to "human-ness" into the industry. Think about all the creative minds and talent that avoided the industry or left the industry in a effort to find sanity for themselves and/or their family.

I've spent my life as a communicator of one sort or another. I thought once we were empty-nesters I could return to some small obscure community and own and operate a "showplace" example of effective and fun radio. Right now I guess I have to say: "Fat Chance and Slim Chance really say the same thing."

 

[TheBigA]

Going forward, who in the world is going to waste their life on radio, since it now has even less to offer talent than ever before?

You'd be surprised. It has a lot to offer the very few extremely great talent who know how to market themselves and operate in the reality of a multi-platform world. And yes, you need to be willing to make personal compromises.

But if you're an average or lower talent, who needs to be told what to do or say, needs training and guidance, and doesn't own a cell phone or a computer, then you're better off in another field. And don't expect great on-air opportunities to open where you already live. You must be present to win. Don't expect to star on Broadway by playing summer stock in Oshkosh. Don't expect to be "discovered" for a movie role in Portland. And don't expect to become a major market power jock by taking the overnight shift in Fargo. Those opportunities don't happen any more. If you want to work in Chicago, move there now.

Here's the bad news: It's supply & demand. Right now, the supply is way too great, and the demand is low. There's a whole lot of average talent on the air right now, and they'll be getting replaced by better quality national names as the years go by. But just about every day, I hear someone say they're looking for an original on-air person who understands how radio works. And those big national shows will need top talent. Someone eventually gets that big gig. It could just be you. If the price is right.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Talent already in the business doesn't count. That ain't the question.

The best people on the air didn't start in Chicago - or didn't stay there their who career. Maybe they got a board-op weekend shift, but the best talent learned their craft by putting in time in one or more smaller markets where they learned to relate to an audience, do production, promotions, remotes, and a thousand other skills that turn you into a major market talent.

Where do you learn those skills now? Well, there are still a few small market opportunities, but even they don't have the time or inclination to hire inexperienced people when so many experienced people are on the street. Even then, they don't pay enough for an entry level person to pay for an apartment, car insurance, and enough Cheerios to stave off starvation.

Even if you could find that gig, how many PDs have the time or skill to develop talent these day? Most of them are now computer jockies, churning out programming and music logs, meeting with sales & promotions (or what's left of promotions), and dealing with both HR & personnel about the latest edict from corporate.

Hardly a recipe for bringing the "best and brightest" into the programming side of the industry.

 

[TheBigA]

Where do you learn those skills now?

Those aren't the skills you need to learn any more. You need to learn skills in integrating social media with on air. You need to learn skills of building a fan base. Lots of other personal business skills that have nothing to do with the job, but with handling your own affairs as a personality, such as grooming and style.

You also speak from a period where talent was in short supply, and you needed to develop people to fill more and more jobs and stations. That's not the situation now. Now, radio can pick and choose people who get it, and know what they're doing from scratch. They don't get training or development from the station, but from their own personal manager or consultant, who they've hired to groom them for their career. I'm not kidding. I know a bunch of radio people who are coming into the industry that way. It's not the 60s any more. But just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad. It's just not the same as it used to be. And a lot of people seem to know that, and are ready for the new reality. Today, a personality walks into a station with their own team. Their own producer, their own side-kick, and their own consultant, who does the post-show critique.They know how to do production and remotes, or they know who to hire who can do all that for them. Everyone is a specialist. The station doesn't hire an employee with benefits, but signs up a self-contained show.And yes, the PD isn't involved in the show, but is a computer jockey who represents the station's interests with the talent and manager. And that's not just in the Top 10 markets, but probably most of the Top 100.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Now, radio can pick and choose people who get it, and know what they're doing from scratch. They don't get training or development from the station, but from their own personal manager or consultant, who they've hired to groom them for their career. I'm not kidding. I know a bunch of radio people who are coming into the industry that way. It's not the 60s any more. But just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad.

I'm going to take your scenario for now and run with it. For now there are enough bodies left over from the remnants of the industry as we knew it that some how a select, talented (maybe lucky?) few end in a position to walk through the door with their own entourage that can make on the big time stage.

Let's walk through this scenario another 5, 10, 15 years. Let's assume a grandchild comes to me and says: "My friend here from college has this desire to be an entertainer or host or star someday in radio. You were in the business. Tell us how to get there."

For the future generation of on-air people, is there a track one should take during college years? And what employment do you seek among the visits by career recruiters? Study law? Study science? Study acting? Do you need to butt your head against the wall in some other profession which is your plan B in case broadcast stardom never arrives? At what age do you begin investing time, energy and specific training to go for the brass ring? Age 35? Age 28? Or is this in the future just one great lottery system where someone with the right genes, the right personality, the right connections has an opportunity fall out of the sky?

And about that time your wife looks at you and says: "O.K. You're the wise old man with a little bit of answer for every dilemma in life. Watcha' gonna tell the kid?"

I'm stumped my friend. Wind me up and point me in the right direction.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Apparently, in the future, only very rich kids will have a shot at radio. I'm sure that the masses will relate well to them.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm stumped my friend. Wind me up and point me in the right direction.

I don't think there's one answer. I'd say if a kid is looking for a sure-fire way to succeed as a broadcaster, he's probably looking at the wrong career. He may prefer the kind of occupation where you have to pass a test, or graduate with a certain college degree. Broadcasting doesn't have that. Personally, I don't think broadcasting has ever been that kind of career. There are many ways to get to the same place. But I think you need a good combination of knowledge, connections, humor, creativity, hutzpa, and determination. They don't teach that in school.

I once met the advice talk show host Bruce Williams, and asked him how he got on the radio. He was the mayor of a small town in New Jersey, and ran a florist shop. He played golf with the GM of a local radio station. One day, the GM said to him, "You'd be good on the radio." So began a 40 year radio career.

 

[TheBigA]

Apparently, in the future, only very rich kids will have a shot at radio. I'm sure that the masses will relate well to them.

Rich people? Where do you get that idea?

But then again, the masses somehow relate to Howard Stern. The masses related to Dick Clark. The masses relate to Rush Limbaugh. The masses relate to Tiger Woods in more ways than one.

I was listening to Elvis Duran a few days ago, and they were playing a dating game. One of his staffers had to sell himself to a female caller for a date. The first thing out of his mouth is "I have a six figure salary." This is a guy who is not the host or the second banana, and he puls down six figures, working for Cheap Channel! How can this be?

 

[nolaradiobuff]

It's "Radio" so think "Theatre of the Mind". It's 4 figures plus 2 zeros.

 

[jerry367]

They don't get training or development from the station, but from their own personal manager or consultant, who they've hired to groom them for their career.

Just where are these beginner talent getting all the cash for such costly preparedness?

 

[TheBigA]

Just where are these beginner talent getting all the cash for such costly preparedness?

One doesn't always have to pay in advance, but rather promise a percentage once a job is offered. There are lots of people who are willing to invest their time and knowledge in your talent, if you have any to begin with. But that's the key. You need to begin with some raw talent that needs guidance. If not, then look into accountancy.

I always say that broadcasters could learn a lot by watching recording artists. They have no money when they begin, yet they put together a big and experienced team around them that will determine how their career will go. Broadcasters need to see themselves as professionals, and professionals have a vision. If the goal is to attract "the best and the brightest," as Rox said, then we need to aspire to higher things.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Your view of how recording artists succeed is as warped as your idea that "talent" will bring free help from a "personal manager or consultant" who's qualified "to groom them for their career".

Most musicians play a lot of free gigs to get to the low-pay gigs that keep food on the table while they build an audience. By the time they have a "big and experienced team around them that will determine how their career will go", they've already invested a lot of their own time and talent into their career, and enough local success to get them noticed by the big boys.

Radio isn't immune to the same problems that the record companies are seeing. The fact is that great talents don't need the record companies anymore. They can go direct to their audience via the Internet. Record companies are now trolling the Internet looking for talent - and a lot of talented artists are wise to the scams that the recording companies call "contracts". More and more artists are distributing their music directly, skipping the recording companies.

Sooner or later, the recording companies take notice, and the smart ones reject the "standard" contract and retain control of both their music and their career. Ask Ani Difranco about how much of a handicap it is to start your own record company.

Radio needs to recognize two things: It's inherently a local media, and it needs talent to separate itself from other content delivery systems. Radio has to provide the immediacy that a podcast lacks. It needs to present targeted content synthesized from the overwhelming amount of content readily available from other sources. Learning how to do that ain't simple or easy. If it was, YOU'D be doing it.

 

[TheBigA]

By the time they have a "big and experienced team around them that will determine how their career will go", they've already invested a lot of their own time and talent into their career, and enough local success to get them noticed by the big boys.

"Investing their own time and talent into their career." That is exactly right, and exactly why so many on air radio talents fail. They DON'T invest anything in themselves. They just want a job with a salary and benefits. That's not an investment.

The fact is that great talents don't need the record companies anymore.

That's exactly right, and great radio talent doesn't need a job with salary and benefits any more. They don't need towers or transmitters. They can take their talent directly to the people and bypass all the corporate structure, if they are willing to invest in themselves and their talent. But most of them are not.

Radio needs to recognize two things: It's inherently a local media, and it needs talent to separate itself from other content delivery systems.

It’s not inherently local. Thinking small is what’s killing radio. Radio is a mass medium and it needs to program to the masses. It needs to remember how to do that. Radio’s mistake is forcing the audience to operate on radio time. “Traffic and weather together at the 8s.” What happens if I can’t wait til the 8s? I go online and get traffic right now. What’s more immediate than that? Or I get a text message sent to my cell phone by the state department of transportation. About 30 states offer that service right now. What’s more immediate than an instant text message? This is why radio is in trouble. You build all these myths about what radio is, and meanwhile other media are beating you. The problem with delivering “targeted content” is that radio can’t do it. It is one size fits all. If you live in one neighborhood, and there’s a water main break in another, you don’t care. But it’s important to the people who live there. Why do I have to listen to coverage of a water main break that has no impact on my life? I don’t, so I change the station. People already know how to get what they want. And it’s not just young people. Retirement homes are teaching older people how to use new media to solve their particular problems. There is nothing radio can do that is unique. All it can do is live with all this new competition, and understand that the past is over.

 

[TheBigA]

Let me add that because record labels are firing A&R staffs and don't cultivate talent, it has opened a whole new area for management companies and even music publishers. Music publishers like Sony ATV are signing artists to development deals. That's how Taylor Swift got started. She didn't come up through the label system. She came through music publishing.

There is a whole new route for on-air talent that doesn't inolve sending demo tapes to PDs. It doesn't involve show meetings with overworked PDs that oversee 6 stations in a cluster. But it's off the radar. You won't see job postings through conventional sites. You need to know who to contact and what they're looking for.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

There is a whole new route for on-air talent that doesn't inolve sending demo tapes to PDs. It doesn't involve show meetings with overworked PDs that oversee 6 stations in a cluster. But it's off the radar. You won't see job postings through conventional sites. You need to know who to contact and what they're looking for.

I'm "over the hill" and not a viable candidate for building an on-air talent career. But I find it interesting that you do nothing in this post to help some 28-year old out there who hasn't quite found his/her "groove" in the industry.

Well, Whoop-Tee-Doo. If I am floundering around, doing all the wrong things, how do I decipher the code: "You need to know who to contact and what they're looking for."

I could hear it in the neighborhood. All the younger generation in my part of world, shouting in unison: "Thank you for telling me that I need to know what I need to know."

 

[TheBigA]

I find it interesting that you do nothing in this post to help some 28-year old out there who hasn't quite found his/her "groove" in the industry.

If you haven't gotten it together by the time you're 28, it's time to start looking at Plan B.

I know that's harsh, but it's the truth. Sleeping on your friend's couch is fine at 24, but not a good career path when you approach your 30s. Radio is a young business. You need to make it happen while you're young.

How? Who do I talk to? Invest in yourself. Attend some of these national conclaves and DJ meetings that happen around the country. Meet other people like yourself. They will be your friends for the rest of your life. As their careers grow, so will yours. When I was a kid, someone told me "it's not what you know, but who you know." I've learned that it's both. You need to be out there and visible, so when an opening happens, you are top of mind.

 

[Prais]

"talent doesn't need a job with salary and benefits."
Tell that to your wife and she will soon be your x-wife.

MEET PEOPLE. Be friendly. Visit stations and meet everybody. TALK! Meet sponsors, meet clergy, meet radio people. For heaven sake, smile. Just doing that and you'll be ahead of alot of wannabees. Big A said; "it's not what you know, but who you know." Absolutely correct.

Get rid of that Lujack attitude.He made it and retired. He ruined LOTS of (imitator) wannabees, too.