What should you be making in a mkt. this size?

[hardcore84]

What is a realistic salary to expect in a market this size for all different dayparts?

Mornings?
Middays?
Afternoons?
Nights?

 

[michaelhagerty]

About 25 years ago, someone wrote a piece for one of the trades (maybe R&R) that suggested a fair yearly compensation for air talent was seven weeks worth of the estimated gross spot revenue from their show. The station would then keep 45 weeks worth.

So let's pretend we're talking about a station where morning drive sells for $400 per minute, middays $200, afternoons $300 and evenings $100. Estimate the spotload at 14 minutes per hour. And to keep it even, let's assume all are four-hour airshifts.

Morning drive would be $784,000.

Middays: $392,000.

Afternoons: $588,000.

Evenings: $196,000.

The station's share would be $5,040,000 for mornings, $2,520,000 for middays, $3,780,000 for afternoons and $1,260,000 for nights...from gross spot sales of $14.5 million.

Is anybody in the Valley doing this? I don't think so. But are they in other markets? Yes, quietly. Take a station that's billing in the $30 million range in New York or L.A. and figure a third of that gross comes from morning drive. Seven weeks worth of that comes out to $1,346,153.

Is Ryan Seacrest making $1.3 million from KIIS-FM alone? Probably. Imus on WFAN, factoring out the syndication and MSNBC money? Possibly.

Even if you slashed either the spot rate or the weeks of compensation to a fourth of what's above, you'd have some $100,000 midday jocks and $50,000 night talents in this market. And if there are any at all right now, they're certainly the exception.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[cardiod]

taking into account the quality of radio here in the valley we're all making Waaaay too much, whatever it is! ;D

 

[lotsofradio]

Great info Michael! Thanks.

And, here is my first post on radio-info.com...

My followup question in this thread would be:

Is there anybody on the air here in PHX (now or in the past) entertaining enough to be worth anywhere close to those dollars?

@620, I can not think of anyone...they are either too old with nothing new to say or too vanilla to keep my interest.

@550, certainly they should be paying us for the untalent in morning drive. Mid mornings, I would say perhaps he is worth some decent money...I usually get a few good laughs ever day. Afternoon drive, YES, YES, YES. Evenings, none of the part-timers are worth much in my book.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Ford]

I heard a different formula awhile back from an agent. It only applied to morning shows (and was really a jumpin-off point for negotiations), but the math went something like your morning show budget = 10% of the station's yearly billing. So if a station bills 10 mil, the $$t for the morning show (all players included) should be an even million.

As for Michael's numbers above, the only ones I'm sure are making anywhere near that (and again, as a show, not as individuals) would be Dave Pratt, Tim & Willy, and probably Beth & Bill.

I highly doubt there's a mid-day show making anywhere near a hundred grand, though a couple afternoon shows might be pulling down that much when you factor in remotes and endorsements. 50k for nights? That'd be a hard sell nowadays. I wonder how Free FM talked corporate into paying for what amounts to a morning show at night.

 

[airchic]

I know you are referring to talk show hosts, but...
News folks here are paid about $29K to the mid-30's, with a couple of long-timers getting more. Part-timers get $10 - $11 per hour, though one service pays $15/hr. Not that I think that's what one SHOULD be making, per your question...but that's what it is. A new post says KTAR is planning to spend 7 figures to market their new and improved selves...Will any of that $ trickle down to staff? :-\