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Is there life after radio?

oaktree said:
Notice that to the sentence from every one of these posts comes down to "$ales."

I know ... plenty of "on air" people HATE sales, with a passion. It's not a "free pass" paycheck, it's not "glamorous," it's a grind, it's full of rejection and there are too many objections.

However, there IS life both in and out of radio if you do it right ... and these posters are all right. Here's another way to explain it ... from first hand experience and I will do it again in a minute.

First. Remove the word "Sales" from your vocabulary. It doesn't exist. I don't allow the word in my radio stations now or in the past. Ever. You can't sell "air." But ... clients can BUY one thing they can't BUY anywhere else on the planet: They can BUY TIME. And what a product TIME is. Does it work? Sure it works. There are millions of examples out there that clients know ... but no one has asked them to BUY IT because many are too busy trying, in vain, to SELL it.

People like to BUY. They hate to sell.

Second: What are you getting people to buy other than time? Simple. If I were you, I would beg, plead, bargain and whatever it took to get a morning program that sounds decent, is relatable and part of the community you serve. It could be "format" radio, it could be "personality" radio, but most of all ... it has to be radio that speaks to and WITH your community ... from YOU.

The reason: The easiest thing ... no, let me rephrase that ... the EASIST thing to get people to buy is Y-O-U. When you PARTICIPATE in the community through your radio station and through YOUR TIME on the air ... it takes not 2 months for people to know who YOU are. Go volunteer at your local Main Street Association. Find out who's who at your Chamber of Commerce. GO VISIT SPONSORS WHO ARE ON THE AIR. Ask them, very plainly, "What can I do for you to help grow your business?" PERIOD.

Go out with every salesperson on the staff. Share a commission with them and they with you. Most of all ... get people to BUY YOU.

(It used to be called, "selling yourself," but I don't use the word "sell.")

Hear a spot that sounds a bit mundane on the air and you know YOU could make it better? Go visit the client. Tell them your ideas on how you'd like to OFFER YOUR SERVICES. Then, ask if there is anything they'd like different in their radio message. When they tell you ... go to the rep and let them know ... because there's money sitting on the table for both of you.

Do SPEC SPOTS featuring YOU. Just do it. No excuses. Just DO IT. People are buying YOU. Just DO IT.

If you do nothing else, go to the GM/Sales Manager with a proposal in writing. A simple one. "I want to own the 3 or 4 hours of the morning program. To do that, I want to be involved in advertising. I would like my salary PLUS commission ... and probably a higher one, in fact, than is being paid now. (It won't cost the station a dime ... it comes out over the cost of the ad buy.)

Focus on only that daypart. Start by looking for four new sponsors. Four sponsors three times a day ... preferably in YOUR shift. (Learn about frequency and repetition.) Get a "deal" on packaging them at a good rate that will allow advertisers to do these spots at least three times a week (9 spots a week ... that's nothing.)

Produce spots WITH THEM. Be part of their ads.

You will be so busy ... and you'll make good money doing it. If you made, say 20% of a $10 spot (on collections) ... you'd make another $24 a day x 5 ... roughly $125 more a week. If you shared a commission for production ... you'd make about the same at a kick in the spot rate. "But I can do that for free," a sponsor will say. "Yes, but you can't do it with ME ... and at $2 a shot ... I'm the best advertising you can BUY." So now, you've made $250 a week more and only called on 4 clients....getting people to buy YOU.

Does it work? Yes.

Take it a step at a time, an hour at a time. Stay focused and be part of the entire process ... not a "time salesman."

And forget the labels. "Account Executive." (As I was told once by a client ... "I'm the only 'executive' here ... and keep that in mind." "Ad rep" is so boring. "Consultant" is another word for people between jobs. You're just YOU.

You're not even at a client's to "talk about W or K radio." You have the hard part. Your job is to LISTEN to the client ... that's it. Don't worry about anything but listening ... and they'll tell you what it takes to get them to BUY you. Honest.

And, yes, I am available to help anyone here because "Buying" is where it really is. Send me a message and I'll get back to you ... especially the guy wondering if there's life "after radio."

Son ... take it a step at a time. It's life. And it's good. You can only make it better.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Good advice! ;)
 
Thank you very much.

A "jock" confident of himself, convincing businesses in his community who he buys from to buy from him ... instead of merely pushing buttons and knowing that 98 percent of the audience doesn't give a rip what he does in the studio ... they just want to be entertained and informed.

So why not make money doing it ... making a real living ... and not just a "job?"

I remember days when Franklin Hobbs of "Hobb's Place" used to get buyers on his all night show on WCCO in Minneapolis. All night ... and he made $80,000 a year doing so with a handful of sponsors.
 
Okay, my swing of the bat: in radio for over twenty years, also left it FT when the deregs went into place in '96. Been doing it parttime along with occassional VO work, but primarily I'm in IT management.

So you've been in radio your whole life, and you think you have no marketable skills, because all you've heard is management tell you how worthless you are? You are so wrong.

You have communication skills that no one else in the corporate world has. You are comfortable taking on situations without fully knowing all of the parameters and making the end result look completely professional. You are brimming with years of self-confidence. You know how to listen to other people. You can stand up in front of a room full of people without being nervous. You're expert at giving presentations. You have an finely honed sense of timing and organization. "Prep time" is not an unknown phrase to you. Neither are "producing results" or "hard work". You probably have writing skills. You understand how media works and can be utilized to strengthen a business. You have confidence in yourself.

You can take these skills anywhere you want. Do you want Sales? Go for it? Don't want Sales? Find something you like to do. The business world needs your skills. You're only limited by your imagination.

And yes, like so many others I read the websites and dream of returning to radio FT, but I love my family more. They stood by me in the lean years, and I owe them much.

My running joke is that, as long as I'm dreaming of returning to the field, I will demand a three year, no cut, six figure contract that will include weekly visits from the Easter Bunny.

Good luck!
 
I couldn't help but jump into this thread. 27 years ago, after graduating college and working in radio for 5 years, I had programmed 2 stations and worked in a large market. After being fired from a PD job, frustrated, I found a job in a nearby smaller town. I was so broke I had to take out a loan from a rip-off loan company just to pay an apartment deposit and buy a set of tires for my $300 car. My new station had a series of past employees who did mobile DJ work, so people were still calling the station for jocks for their weddings and parties. I owned a primitive (even for the time) PA system and grabbed the ball, playing private parties and soon, a weekly bar gig the paid a whopping $60! (probably $200 in today's money). Guess what? I was NEVER again broke, quickly upgraded my equipment and within a couple of years developed a DJ business that earned me more than my radio job paid. That plan continues to this day. And you know what? While mobile DJing is hard work, it is also fun and challenging! And even in our lower-price somewhat rural area, $500 to $800 for an evening's work playing a wedding reception, added to even a small radio salary, adds up to a not huge but certainly respectable living. And here's the best part. Build up that DJ business, and even if the radio job goes away, you've got an income that continues while you shift gears to another full time career. Or you can take the DJ business full-time. Many guys do it. Its an art form unto itself, but one that is not difficult to learn if you have a broad knowledge of music and some people skills. Best of all NOTHING beats the satisfaction of being your own boss!
 
I'm game. Age 53. Radio '75-current. Pro off and on til 99. Now am fully engaged in many music related activities. SweetTea has it right on the money. You have skills that transcend what 99% of college grads come into the workforce with. Radio may not be something you do for a living, but it's really not WHY most of of got into radio to begin with. For some of us, like me, we got into it in the 70s because we wanted to share music with people -- for others it was about being a personality, like a musician, or an actor. Which guy are you? Music junkie or personality junkie? For me, my desire to break the rules of music programming lead me into public radio, and other "volunteer" oriented events, like local community concerts, etc. From that has evolved a career helping independent musicians do a large number of things. My experience in radio, media, records, etc has allowed me to speak to groups of high school and college students about the industry from a first person perspective. My ability to emcee has provided me with many wonderful opportunities to speak in front of large crowds. My ability to write effectively has provided me with many publishing opportunities in regional music publications.

I had a father-in-law who said to me; "do what you love most and it will pay off at some point down the road." What that payoff is may be different for each of us. My kids are grown and gone. My lady and I live within our means. I get to live my dream.

Life after radio? Whatever we make it.
 
amfmxm said:
Very interesting, in all sorts of ways. You wound up as The Boss, but not in the industry you "really loved." Why not?
Click to expand...

Actually, I did consider myself "the Boss" in the industry I loved. I not only was successful on-air in Major market radio, but was also extremely successfull in mid and major market programming. I think you might wonder why I did not move into sales when cluster ownership started to kill off the creative side of radio? I did sales for a short while, but simply did not enjoy it (even though I made a ton of cash). PROGRAMMING and PERFORMING...to gain rating others could sell is what I lived for. And when cluster ownership made that no longer a valuable profession, that is when I started to ease out of the industry.
If you cannot enjoy what you do, then there is no reason to keep on doing it. Sure, I could have stayed in sales and station management and made a big pile of money, but life it too short not to enjoy what you are doing. So I found another area I could enjoy and made a pile of cash doing that instead.
And would i go back on the air? Not unless the situation changed where it would be fun again, where you could be creative and have a real goal (beating the pants off the competition in the ratings). But I doubt we will ever see that environment come back, not unless the FCC breaks up the ownership monopolys...and that ain't gonna happen in my lifetime.
 
One of the best threads I've stumbled into! Great advice in words I can understand,
echoing the words of other great minds from Norman Vincent Peale to Dr. Joseph Murphy.

Me too. I've dedicated myself to my craft, but find myself in a marketplace where it
seems little valued. I dropped the ball and became just a little bitter. Then it grew.
And got me nowhere.

Lessee-- I got into this biz through thinking positive. Making no progress thinking
negative. Ah! Of course! I remember now. And I'm back on track. Remembering
the wisdom found in the words of Swami Johnny Mercer:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene

I vote no on pandemonium.
 
If you've had success on the air you will have success in sales.

You were selling the station, it's advertisers and yourself everyday.
Now, go join the department who drives the most expensive cars and show them how it's done!
 
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