1. Don’t get into radio because you “love
music”….
This would be
akin to becoming an auto mechanic because you love oil. Even if you’re working in a format where you
enjoy the music, there will come a time when you have played your favorite song
163,918 times…and it will no longer be your favorite song.
Remember, you’ve
been hired to communicate and entertain…not sit in the control room and listen
to music. In fact, if you’re doing your
job correctly and setting up for your next break, you’re NOT listening to the
song on the air (other than to tell when it’s winding down…and that’s what countdown
timers are for). Unless you’re doing a
Casey Kasem trivia style delivery you’ll probably do better at a format that’s
not your favorite music. You’ll pay less
attention to the music and more on your delivery.
2.
The
Morning Drive Team Are The Station Stars
The crew working
morning drive is going to be the center of attention at the station. If you’re working another shift…get over
it. They’re going to get the billboards
and promotional dollars. They’ll also
probably get preferential treatment (like not having to work a weekend
shift). The mentality for years has been
if you get people to listen in the morning they will stay with the station all
day. I’ve called BS on this since the
first iPod came out.
I’ve worked
morning drive, as well as every other shift.
I didn’t care for it at all…probably something to do with getting up at
3:30AM. I was a 7P-Midnight guy…always
enjoyed that shift because I had the station to myself pretty much.
If your delicate
ego is bruised because you’re not getting the attention the morning drive team
is…then work your way up to that slot.
This leads us to….
3.
You’ve
Got To Move To Move Up
If you’re hired
to do a certain slot at a station, you’re likely going to be there until
someone leaves. And even then, you’ll
always be the (fill in your shift here) guy.
Same thing with money. You might
get a bonus every now and then, but if you want a real raise, you have to move
to a better shift or larger market.
Some folks would
say that you can take on more responsibility at a station and earn more. Funny thing…I’ve had a lot of titles (PD, MD,
Production Director, etc…), and there was never any dollars tied to that. The only time I ever got a raise (other than
minimum wage increasing) was to go to a different station.
4. You Will Be Fired At Some Point
In 15 years of
radio I was fired three times. The first
time was my screw up. The second time
was a station buy-out (the entire staff was fired one week before Christmas,
and I had a 3 month old child at the time).
The last time, I was set up by another jock. No honor among thieves. Just expect it to happen. And if you don’t have parents to move home
to, you’d better have an emergency fund or some good friends that will let you
crash on their couch.
5.
The
Sales Staff Rules The Roost
They’re the ones
that are actually bringing money into the operation, so don’t bother getting
into an argument with them…you have almost no chance of winning. How much interaction you have with them
depends on your position and the station structure/process. Most stations I worked at had a dedicated
copywriter to script the commercials, so other than remote broadcasts I didn’t
have a lot of contact with the sales team.
But there was one
station that didn’t have a copywriter.
The on-air staff was responsible for writing and producing their own
spots. We all had clipboards with our
names on them in the production room.
The sales people would put a copy of the sales order and copy info on
the clipboard and expect you to turn it into a commercial.
Typically, they
would just put the newspaper ad from the client on the clipboard with a note to
“be creative”. And most times, we didn’t
get a start/stop date or even a length.
As I was on the air from 6PM-10PM at that station and did my production
after my shift, there was many a night a sales person was woken up just to
answer the question “is this a :30 or a :60”.
When I complained about this, I was chewed out by the station owner
because “I didn’t understand the pressure they were under”. Last time I checked, we were all under about
14 pounds per square inch at sea level, but apparently there’s an exemption if
you’re in sales.
6.
The
Chief Engineer Will Not Like You
Unless they were
former jocks, most Chief Engineers will view the air staff as idiots whose sole
purpose in life is to break their equipment and play bad music. Sometimes, it’s worse than that. I had one Chief corner me in front of the
General Manager and accused me of running drugs at the station because I
“looked” like a drug addict. I accused
him of selling counterfeit Preparation H because he was an a$$hole. Thankfully the G.M. blew him off because the
Sales Manager (who was the G.M.’s son)
liked me and thought I was good on the air.
That said, I have
to say that there have also been some wonderful Chiefs I got to work with. I always knew I wanted to work on the
technical side of the business, and I had some great mentors along the
way. I was a Chief for the last 8 years
I was in radio, and I was most successful in that position. I like to think that was because I had been
on the air, and understood how a malfunctioning piece of gear could negatively
impact a jock’s show.
7. 5% Of The People Will Make 95% Of The Money
When I got into
radio (at age 15), I wasn’t thinking about money. Later on (like when I got married), it
became a little more important. Radio is
a lot like the music industry that it’s tied to. For every millionaire in the business, there
are thousands of struggling players out there trying to get a break.
That’s not to say that you can’t make a
comfortable living doing afternoons at a medium market station. But I’m afraid the days of the real radio
superstars are long gone, thanks to satellite and Internet radio as well as the
proliferation of personal music devices.
I very seriously doubt we’ll ever see anymore Wolfman Jacks, Bill
Macks, Larry Lujacks, or John Records
Landeckers…at least in my lifetime.
Likewise, there will probably never be any more legendary stations to
work towards….no more WLS’s, KHJ’s, K-EARTH’s, KLIF’s, or WNBC’s.
8.
You
Will Never Completely Get It Out Of Your System
I started in
radio in 1975, and got out in 1991. I
returned to school full time for a couple of years and have a couple of degrees
to show for that. I went in medical
electronics after that, and have been working in R&D since 1996.
Twenty-five years later, I still miss radio. In
spite of the psychopath Program Directors and abusive business owners at remote
broadcasts I endured as a jock.
Regardless of having to drive to a remote transmitter site in snow and
ice at 3:00AM to reset a breaker as a Chief Engineer. In spite of making $6 an hour and all the
records I could steal for a large part of my career.
To this day, I
still wish it could have worked out. But
allow me to close with saying that I believe my life has turned out exactly the
way it was meant to. I met my wife
through radio (she called me up on the air…I still joke that she was the 3rd
caller and look what she won). We were
married in 1981 and have an amazing and successful son to show for it.
Ken Carver worked as a air personality,
Program Director, Music Director, and finally Chief Engineer for a number of
Texas radio stations from 1975 to 1991.
As an engineer, he constructed dozens of studios and several transmitter
sites, and was a nominee to the Texas Radio Hall Of Fame for his technical
work. He currently heads up an R&D
Hardware Technician Team for National Instruments in Austin, Tx during the
week. On the weekends, he gets his
performance therapy playing guitar and bass in area bands.
