It's a sad fact that this major market cannot pay employees living wages. Salesmen and a few of the programmers are the only ones making enough to afford an "average" lifestyle, such as a house, car, etc. while jocks, production and promotions staffers must either have a spouse with a superior salary, or are living at home with parents or family.
I can say that salaries here in Market 1 are dropping too, so I can only imagine where the pay level's at in Nassau/ Suffolk. (It probably doesn't help that almost none of these stations are unionized, not that the union's helping all that much anymore.) Without revealing their identities, I can tell you that my friends and acquaintances are all multi-tasking, handling multiple responsibilities, with some making less than 35K. Most starting salaries run between 16-23K, while many experienced personalities, who have families, are making under 40K. Part-time jocks are making $8-$9 an hour. Worst of all, with the economy sinking, many of the remotes that once made a low salary liveable have gone away, from retail to the nightclubs, so that padding is also fading from the picture.
A decent house on the Island runs 250-300K, so there's almost no way those in the business are making a living solely off one salary, with one job, and are able to thrive on the island. What happens next is that those who choose to work in radio, much as many young 20-somethings and 30-somethings from several fields have been doing, are forced to leave for jobs down south and outside the tri-state area. At the same time, the young talent that is still interested in radio is frightened off by the shrinking rates, thereby leaving a talent pool that is often lacking. Whereas once overnight jocks were somewhat experienced, hoping to earn better dayparted shifts, you now have voicetracking on the overnights, with subs who have little to no experience now learning while filling in during more vital hours.
Meanwhile, superior signals boom in from New York City, CT, upstate and even NJ along the south shore, giving listeners other choices beside local ones. Long Island is also a very technologically-savvy area, so all the other media, like iPods, satellite, HD radio, etc. all come into play (ironically both Howard Stern and O&A count the Island as a major territory, being they are from there, so satellite does very nicely.) Although I can't officially speak for other markets, I feel confident in declaring that Market #18 is one of the worst markets to work in anywhere in the nation.
However, if you do succeed at WBLI, WBAB or WALK, at least you know you're talking to hundreds of thousands of people, if that's any solace. ;D
