your first job

[gordontalk]

Some of you might have to go way back for this one, but how much were you paid for your first job in radio? I was paid $30 per shift, but it was a dream come true for me since I've wanted to be behind the mike since I was about 4 years old. I'm sure that some of you must have some interesting stories to tell about the beginnings of your careers.

 

[johnsummers]

Minimum wage, baby!! 1980.....WQTW, Latrobe, Pa., an AM daytimer on 1570. Top 40 AM in the shadow of Pittsburgh. We had "Memory Moments " at noon, followed by a 15 minute church service, then back to the rock and roll! Oh, Polka shows on the weekends. BTW, the PD who hired me there......Christie Banks, late of KZPS.....hmmmmm

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Minimum wage, baby!! 1980.....WQTW, Latrobe, Pa., an AM daytimer on 1570. Top 40 AM in the shadow of Pittsburgh. We had "Memory Moments " at noon, followed by a 15 minute church service, then back to the rock and roll! Oh, Polka shows on the weekends. BTW, the PD who hired me there......Christie Banks, late of KZPS.....hmmmmm

Minimum wage? Not even that for my first ``job'' at Vanderbilt's WRVU in Nashville where I did PM drive starting way back in 1971. In fact, I had to pay the bus fare on the MTA from Green Hills to the Vandy Campus. So my first job cost me about $5.00 a week, all in coins!

By the way, John, I tried hard after getting my FCC 3rd (with broadcast endorsement) to get a job in Pittsburgh. All of the stations were so heavily unionized at the time that a high school kid didn't have a chance. If I had a car, I might have had a shot in Little Washington or Canonsburg. But my search for employment was limited to wherever the Shannon-Drake line ran. That's among the reasons I moved from the 'Burgh to Nashville. It was a lot easier to work without AFTRA and NABET. But later on, when I worked at WSIX, I finally joined NABET -- the only union shop in middle Tennessee, IIRC.

 

[RadioP1]

About seven years ago, I made $6 an hour doing promotions for The Wolf.

 

[Robert Bass]

$6 / hour as a part-time board op, beginning in 1990. Had to take a second part-time gig in the early 90's at a local community college photo lab for a little extra income. (Well, OK I didn't really have to, but it was fun. And the lab supervisor was a real hot cutie ;D )

R

 

[ChuckTiller]

1972 - 920 KTLW in Texas City, 45 miles south of Houston. My Sunday shift was 6AM [sign on] till 1:00PM. I had a live show from 6AM-6:30AM. The rest was various church programs and public service programs. Some of those church programs were transcriptions. "....and now for the next 15 minutes, it's the Luthern Hour." I guess they had some special insight as to squeezing an hour into 15 minutes. Another transcription was a show called "Harvestime." It was a pentacostal program. That one was sponsored locally. You had to make sure you didn't screw that one up. The back-up was always cued up on the other Harris Intertype turntable. The one on the right required a nickle to be placed on the tone arm. I had 3 open top Viking cart machines. You put the cart in and pulled the lever back to bring up the wheel so it would be able to engage the capstain. There were 2 on the left and one on the right. The one on the right needed a #2 pencil slid under the cart. The board was a well used Gatesway with one VU meter in the middle.

At noon, I had a one hour show. I drove from Houston every Sunday for $1.15 an hour. Gas was 39 cents per gallon. Of course, it was always over way too soon. KTLW was non directional with 1KW (500 watts pre-sunrise) which covered all of southeast Texas as well as southwest Louisiana. I lived for that hour.

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

I worked at the very first Clear Channel station KEEZ-fm, IB San Antonio doing overnights,and while I was there the company bought WOAI_AM. If I only knew then.

 

[jefflaurence]

Celebrating 38 years in this biz! First job was running the Sunday morning religous tapes at WHLD in Niagara Falls, NY My Dad had to get up in the morning and drive me to work, because 16 year olds couldn't drive at night. Didn't need a ticket because the transmitter was half-way to Buffalo, and it had a transmitter operator. The studios was in a room in a hotel (The Parkway Motor Lodge) ALL they ran was religous tapes mostly in foreign languages beamed at Tornoto Canada.. EXCEPT during the summer months the tapes would be done at 4:45 (typical sign off in the winter) and they needed some "fill" music until local sunset (8:30 pm)..so the GM said I could bring records in from home and play them..and I did..and eventually got hired at one of the BIG stations with jingles in Buffalo! Then to Canada for a while, to Ithaca, NY, Syracuse, NY, Tampa Bay Florida and finally here to the mountains of NC www.autumnhillstudios.com where we do station imaging and retail TV audio for many nationally seen infomercials and spots.

2.10/hr for a LONG day sign-on to sign-off on Sundays only in 1969. WHLD had two BIG RCA 16in turntables..two clunky RCA cart machines, and two Ampex 601 reel decks..and an ALTEC "Birdcage" ribbon mic that made me sound bigger than 16!! what a great job!

TOP OF HOUR:

This is WHLD..Niagara Fals, NY USA..at 1270 on the dial..an Earl C. Hull radio station with studios in the beautiful Parkway Mortor Inn.."On the rapids"..it's 11am, and time for Memories of Lithuania, with your hosts George and Evelyn VanTuch..presented in Lithuanian by the Pekao Tradio Company of Toronto"

(sigh) wonder whatever happened to those two..

 

[davideduardo]

Some of you might have to go way back for this one, but how much were you paid for your first job in radio? I was paid $30 per shift, but it was a dream come true for me since I've wanted to be behind the mike since I was about 4 years old. I'm sure that some of you must have some interesting stories to tell about the beginnings of your careers.

$1.15 the hour, first for running the ethnic hours (Greek, Italian, Polish, etc) on WJMO in Cleveland, which was fortunately just a bicycle ride away. After that, cleaning and record filing and board op work at WCUY (FM) in Cleveland Heights. When the FCC forced the FM to broadcast more than Mon-Sat 5 PM to 11 PM, I got to do sign on to sign off on the FM on Sunday, 16 hours straight. Thoughtlessly, they had me announce, too.

 

[spinderella]

I was salaried doing extremely small market news at $9,600 a year in the mid 1980's. I put in about 60 hours a week anchoring, covering school board and commissioners court and doing the cop, fire and city hall beat. On weekends I spun records every now and again and made about $40 a game doing play-by-play. I chased tornadoes, fires and ambulances and loved every minute of it. I was poor but happy and the experience paid off. I'm still in the biz all these years later in major market doing what I love.

 

[317C50KW]

The college carrier current top 40, 1971. Qucikly afterwards, 1 hour a week on the university's 37kw fm, playing segue serenade "dinner" music. Only time I could open the mic was for the ID and the close of the show. This was pre-NPR. And those paid nothing. First commercial job was $2/hour part time but nearly 40 hours a week. Did everything from "roll God" on Sunday morning,
including a live southern gospel quartet to "midnight drive" for the coal miners who got off work at Midnight. The log was regularly running the full 18 minutes from 11 PM to 1 AM sign off. Music was bland MOR from never updated tapes provided by International Good Music, played back on a rarely cleaned or otherwise maintained Scully deck. Playing that stuff ruined my taste in music forever. Equipment was very vintage RCA. I watched the 1 KW AM transmitter blow a rectifier stack one Sunday morning! Station still exists today---WJPF, Herrin, Il. Their way cool art deco studio building is long gone though.

 

[grantchester]

I got the 3rd phone when I was 14, did some announcing at the local PBS-TV, and met a man who worked at KBAT-AM. He let me practice on the production equipment. Then the boss decided it should be made legitimate, so we formed an Explorer Scout troop. My senior year in high school, he promised to bring me in for "A dollar an hour and all the records you can eat".
Then came affirmative action. They hired John Quinones instead. (yes, that John Quinones). So, change of plans; went to Houston, attended Cougar High, worked at KUHF, and landed my first paid job at a commercial radio station. KLOL. Houston. Top 10 market. I was 17. It was Part-time, 3 dollars an hour. Then the ratings came out; K-101 was number one! Like a fool, I left for fulltime work in a smaller market. Got $500 a month. Radio was never that much fun again.
g

 

[uppendowndadial]

Early 70s, Corsicana. $115 a week. I could spend $10 a week in groceries and eat like a king.

 

[snoman]

KLGV in Longview. $800 a month, when the checks didn't bounce. Sometimes their checks would give Michael Jordan's passes a run for their money, not to be punny.

And, it was basically me working 12-14 hour days, with a restaurant job on the side to supplement my income. And, I loved just about every minute of it.

 

[Musicradio]

1560 KEGG Daingerfield, Texas....got my 3rd class license in 1977 and went fulltime after I graduated high school in 1978. Made a whopping $600 a month! It was probably a good thing I lived at home during the two years I was there.

When I worked weekends at KZPS in 1986, I got $10 an hour. Not too bad considering I was driving from Tyler....John Shomby gave me Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon. Working 7 days a week got old really fast though.....

 

[theshadow]

Some of you might have to go way back for this one, but how much were you paid for your first job in radio?

Circa 1985. Still going to high school in North Atlanta 'burbs. Got off on
work release. Worked afternoons and weekends for an ABC Talk Radio
station that eventually changed over to Contemporary Christian (heck
of a format change!). $3.25 an hour, but I was still living at home, and
the folks were paying for everything. In twenty some odd years, went
from $3.25 an hour to an equivalent in salary of about $20 an hour.
Guess that's not bad of a trend, considering pay in the media business
sucks! Still never made what I would have liked to have made, or
what I think I deserved with my experience. Penny pinching managers,
OM's, PD's, and news directors. Unfortunately, we deal with them all.

If I had been smart, I would have done sales. That's where all the fat cats
are. However, I am NOT a salesperson. And those on the programming side
know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. I like pushing buttons and playing
tunes. Not being a pushy salesperson and selling spots.

 

[fettman]

Speaking as someone who has never worked in radio myself, I gotta say that even if I have never heard you on the radio, I appreciate everything ya'll do. You're doing or you have done something I can only at this time dream of doing. I can tell from most of the replies on this topic that while I'm sure you would have liked better pay, it was doing what you loved that mattered.

Most of my perspective of what it's like in a radio studio is how they were portrayed on WKRP or in TV news stories and I know it is not a glamorous job by any means. But I still appreciate you all just the same.

Thanks,

Phillip Watson in Garland, TX

 

[snoman]

Speaking as someone who has never worked in radio myself, I gotta say that even if I have never heard you on the radio, I appreciate everything ya'll do. You're doing or you have done something I can only at this time dream of doing. I can tell from most of the replies on this topic that while I'm sure you would have liked better pay, it was doing what you loved that mattered.

Most of my perspective of what it's like in a radio studio is how they were portrayed on WKRP or in TV news stories and I know it is not a glamorous job by any means. But I still appreciate you all just the same.

Thanks,

Phillip Watson in Garland, TX

Thank you for your kind words. It's a job with tremendous valleys and few peaks. When you have a great book or you get your ego stroked by a listener, that's a great peak. But, the valleys are hell... long days, long weeks, some weeks 0 days off, ulcers from worrying about the numbers, show prep, production, music, taking care of your voice, low pay, little or no benefits... it's a lot to worry about. But, most of us (and the fact that we're here on the boards demonstrates this) LOVE radio are willing to put in the hard work, because of that.

 

[johnsummers]

Minimum wage? Not even that for my first ``job'' at Vanderbilt's WRVU in Nashville where I did PM drive starting way back in 1971. In fact, I had to pay the bus fare on the MTA from Green Hills to the Vandy Campus. So my first job cost me about $5.00 a week, all in coins!

By the way, John, I tried hard after getting my FCC 3rd (with broadcast endorsement) to get a job in Pittsburgh. All of the stations were so heavily unionized at the time that a high school kid didn't have a chance. If I had a car, I might have had a shot in Little Washington or Canonsburg. But my search for employment was limited to wherever the Shannon-Drake line ran. That's among the reasons I moved from the 'Burgh to Nashville. It was a lot easier to work without AFTRA and NABET. But later on, when I worked at WSIX, I finally joined NABET -- the only union shop in middle Tennessee, IIRC.

When I landed parttime at Pittsburgh top 40 B-94 in 1982, I HAD to join AFTRA, something I really didn't want to do. I will have to say, however, at that time, that union 'had your back', so to speak. Short turn around, holidays ( I once got TRIPLE TIME for working a major holiday!), talent fees......if a station tried to 'mess' with you, the union came down hard on them. Luckily, B-94 (then E-Z Communications) was always fair and treated me well during my three years there. My hourly rate then was $15.85 per,..... in 1982...... in Pittsburgh (!), no doubt due to the union contract. I thought I'd won the lottery (LOL). The other side is that they had a lot of stupid rules about jocks not being allowed to do "hands on" production...job security for production engineers etc.... I'm still not a big union guy, I guess, because I'm very well treated by my current employer in a non-union shop, But based on my past experience, I have no gripe with them, either.

 

[Robert Bass]

Hear ya there John... I wouldn't want to join a union either, even if my life depended on it.

R