I was curious about how much a morning host actually makes (on an annual scale) in a top 10 market. I’ve heard quite a wide range of answers to this question. Some believe that you could make six figures, but that seems like it would be true only in certain cases. The number I’ve heard most often is around $80,000 per year (which seems more realistic). I’d say anything over $100,000 would most likely be reserved for a host who syndicates or is in New York.
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How much does a morning radio personality make in a major market?
- Thread starter fordranger797
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Like most things, it's negotiable. As my college professor once said, it's whatever the market will bear. There might be a union minimum, and then you negotiate up from there. It can be based on ratings, billings, or value, depending on how you structure. The big companies are looking to lower the number of traditional salary+benefits employees. So they might do an independent contractor deal for a show, and the show pays the staff. That way the company has one line item in the budget, and the show is responsible for the rest. Syndication is another negotiating factor. Who owns the show, who gets residual revenue such as podcasting revenue, appearance fees, endorsement fees, etc. It gets complicated. Top talent will hire an agent (who gets a percentage of the deal) and the agent knows all the factors involved. So it can get complicated, especially in the top markets.
Seems to me this topic comes up a lot, and you can probably search around for other responses.
In most of the top 10 markets... maybe up to top 15... a major station with an established local high rated host can make, still, in the very high 6 figures.
I know of a couple of talents who are not networked and who are on Spanish language stations in Puerto Rico, Miami, New York, Houston and LA who are up in the very high 6 figures too.
At stations in the next 10 to 20 market sizes, there will be heritage talent making in the lower to mid 6 figures.
I know of shows in Miami and Houston in the very, very low 7 figure range just on one station.
Agree with David but also depends on how well your show bills. There are still AM hosts making 500k because clients would jump ship if they weren’t on the air.
Some one like raul Brindis in Houston .. also heard in Mcallen ,San Antonio ,Dallas was about 12 years ago making close to a mill but had to take a pay cut a few years ago and is now in the range of about 700k uni#$# has other talents that are in more markets making about half of that but get really nice performance bonuses so what a talent makes (salary)and what they take home in a year can be 2 very different things. I will say that Spanish speaking companies do pay less to talents thank a iHeart would. A on air talent in San Antonio let's say could or even Dallas could start out making $12-14 a hour
You are off by more than half. And now he is only in Houston.
A lot of morning shows are off today, particularly after the pandemic years where stations lost 30% to 50% of billing in the first year.
You are way under for prime daypart talents.
I've seen the Uforia and Facebook pages for the stations, and Brindis appears to still be broadcasting in the SA station, as well as the McAllen and Dallas stations that are on sale. I've seen no indication that he's been dumped or replaced by El Bueno, La Mala y El Feo.
I know Univsion doesn't update its station pages often, but he is still in the Facebook pages.
Wrong and wrong i worked with Raul way after you were gone and was involved with the last negotiation when arni was still managing the show and know the numbers and event a few years ago consulted raul on his more recent renewal and nope wrong again raul continues to be in San Antonio and weekends in dallas and every day at KGBT and even after the new company takes over every station they plan to leave his show on the air on the same 98.5 dial.
Correction David
Gone? Tell them to quit sending transfer payments, then!
Arni moved on over half a decade ago, first to Atlanta and then to New York where he was let go last week.
On a low rated station.
KGBT is not owned by Univision. Hasn't been for several months. We are talking about "today".
They closed nearly two months ago. And in any case, that is a separate payment, not a Univision one. And the new owner has not really defined programming anywhere and has a contract to "buy" Univision product at up to as much as 12 months following the close while they restructure management and content.
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Yeah, I forgot about San Antonio. The show underperforms the stations and the station itself is down to 14th overall 18-49 rank and 15th in 25-54.
McAllen has not been a UVN station for several months now. And a Saturday show is what anyone would call a "filler".
He's also on some stations in places like Indianapolis, but those are not Univision, either.
Saw this just the other day on Indeed.com. Keep in mind; this is AM drive on a classic hits station and top ten in Washington D.C.
Taping?
Well, we’re definitely all over the map on this thread! Kelley’s number seems pretty consistent with what I’ve heard, but I’m sure that there are select personalities who do much better than that (if the right circumstances apply). Nevertheless, I wouldn’t count on six figures as a very realistic number, unless you knew for sure that you were going to become the morning host. Fame is impossible to predict.
Like I mentioned before, a friend of mine who listened to Don on Big 100 the first day told me that Don said that management made him tape his breaks.
I think that was an EEOC post, and required just a minimum pay scale. We know morning talents are not hired off of want ads, but they have to be run to comply with regulations. I'd find a major station in a major market likely to be hiring someone from a smaller market by giving them more money.
In the case of that station, I'd guess that the person they want will need around $175 to $250 to go to DC... if they come from a much smaller market. If they come from a market just a bit smaller, it might be considerably more. .
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Back in their hayday, Steve & DC who were hugely popular in st louis and had been aorund ahwile i think made between $200 and $250K a year
The key word here is outside the red oval: "estimated." The salary range shown is just Indeed's own estimate and not one provided by the employer. If you click the question mark, it explains that it is "based on reports from employees with similar jobs, employer postings for similar jobs, and salary information from the same location."
There can't possibly be enough DC-area morning drive host postings showing up on that site for it to make anything other than a bogus prediction.
There can't possibly be enough DC-area morning drive host postings showing up on that site for it to make anything other than a bogus prediction.
As for someone who has lived in the DC area, that salary range isn't very much, unless that morning man has two spouses with similar incomes.
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