Karaoke Forums

I've always wanted to be a radio DJ.. but 'real life' somehow always managed to get in the way.. but it was one of the contributing factors to me entering the DJ/KJ biz when the band thing just became too much hassle.

I've been kicking around the idea of seriously pursuing it and cutting my KJ work back to just 1 night a week.. or maybe just retire from being a KJ all together.

Just wondered if anyone here had ever done any on air radio work.

yep.... it ain't what you think it is.... It's a "glamour job" that doesn't pay very much unless you are a personality. That's why Radio DJ's are always changing stations. It's about ratings and money...

In exchange for being "on the radio" with weird late-night groupies, you really don't get paid very much...


Remember the show WKRP in Cincinnati? It's more a documentary than a comedy.

Haha.. funny you mention the show WKRP in Cincinnati.. that was my first real inspiration.. .. I wanted to be Johnny Fever.

My favorite episode was when they dropped live turkeys out of a helicopter for a thanksgiving promotion.

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." - Les Nessman

I'm scraping in a buck fifty a night x 3 nights, plus what I can pick up doing private parties.. if I could score a radio job making next to nothing and could keep two of my regular weekly gigs plus the occasional party, i'd be tickled.

Agreed with c.staley, it ain't a glamor job. Either you're working weird hours in the studio or they're sending you out on promos and working weird hours there. You do get to meet some pretty cool people and it's kinda of fun to be a "local" celebrity if you turn out to be any good at it.

Like a lot of trades, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Internships, late night "engineer" gigs, etc are about the only way to really get started unless you catch a lucky break. Lots of politics to deal with too so bear that in mind as well.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

In the early 70's I worked for the CBC - our national radio network. Back then we were called Announcer-Operators, and got to do everything from on-air jock, to gathering/writing news, to hosting talk-shows, and everything in between. Unlike our private-sector counterparts, we were fairly well paid.

After a little more than five years, I was offered a firefighter's job, also with our federal government... and I took it.

Over the years, I've seen several of my contemporaries go on to national network, very well paid positions both in radio and TV, and although I eventually retired as a an OK-paid fire chief, I often wonder "what if?"

Just last year, a new FM radio station opened in our little town... and I was approached about perhaps doing some part-time on-air and commercial voice-overs... It was tempting, but I really didn't want to work for what would have worked out to something like $10/hour.

I agree with others who've posted in this thread.... unless you are a "personality" in a relatively major market... the compensation in commercial radio sucks.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

There's a girl here in my office that works on the #1 Country station here in the Tampa Bay area. She works five nights a week, 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., and is compensated to the tune of around $18,000, which is why she doesn't quit her day job!

You never make any real money as an on-air personality until you are the highest rated in your city, or get the big bucks with a syndicated show. Most of the guys with syndicated shows were in the business for 15-20+ years before they made any real money.

Sean Hannity always talks about how his pay topped out at around 30K for his first 20+ as a pretty popular regional radio host in California and Geogia before he finally started making some cash as a syndicated host in the late 90s. He says that most of the time during those first 20 years, he almost always worked a second job and still could barely feed his family. Talk radio is probably a little bit easier to make it than as a music radio DJ, if you have the talent. The guys who make money as music DJs in today's radio environment are the morning and drive-time "shock jock" DJs.

So, don't try to get into radio thinking you are going to make any money.

Your typical entry level radio job is a show in the middle of the night (think 2-6 a.m.) a few nights a week, then 2-3 days a week selling ad time for the station, and being compenstated to the tune of about $11-12 an hour. Also, did you know that most of the day time DJs at the big channels don't even pick their own music to play? That part is automated, and the music is picked by the station's producer based on the advertisers' demographics.

If that's what you have in mind, go for it!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Ok, so the system ATE my last post, I'll redo it!

I had a radio DJ rent a room from me in the mid 90's. He got paid twice a month, worked full time and was always broke within 2 days of getting paid. He started pillfering food from me to the point I locked it up. He washed his clothes with a bar of soap. His car was a clunker which he blew up by not putting oil in it. He owned no winter coat, he once gave a couple of us Hawkeye football tickets and we had to loan him a coat, it was about 10 degrees or colder and he was going to go with a sweater.

He introduced me to one of the quad cities most famous DJs at the time, that guy was just as broke.

The perks? He nailed a couple of hot chicks. He was nothing to look at, quite pudgy actually but he was "famous". He got a few free tickets here and there to sporting events.

Dwyer and Michaels from the Quad Cities are the exception. Those guys are pulling in around 6 figures I think. I know they were at $75,000 annually apiece when one station stole them from another. They got in a big lawsuit and couldn't broadcast for 18 months if memory serves me correctly.

Personally, I wouldn't do it.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I spent 17 years on the air as a former Morning Guy & PD. I lived in seven different states during those 17 years, once moving the wife three times in two years. I escaped 14 years ago to work for a vendor to the broadcast industry. The best career move I ever made was getting out of the radio business.

Radio today is FAR removed from what it once was when I started and isn't even a "glamour job" anymore. It's serious corporate business. Except in the major markets the entry level and overnight jobs are non-existent. Automation & Voice Tracking have eliminated the vast majority of those. That guy on the radio at 2am when you are driving home from your gig isn't even there, he pre-recorded that bit (Voicetracked in radio parlance) earlier in the afternoon.

Why have five full staff's for your five station cluster when you can have ONE staff that voicetracks all five stations, changing names and shifts. (IE: Johnny Rocker from 7pm-Midnight on the active rocker is also "Cowboy Leroy" on the overnight weekend shift at the classic country station.) You get very little crossover between the stations and nobody notices, or cares. One less body = big savings for the company. Do that times the number of stations and you see why radio jobs have been and are shrinking every year. And that is even if there is a staff at all. The "Jack" format that was all the rage not long ago had NO staff, just an automation system. It was a radio station in a computer rack.

The best on-air job at a radio station is the morning show host. He/she will be the highest paid and have the most status in the building. But there are only a dozen of these jobs in every city. Not a big marketplace. Unlike every other job you have ever had, your worth and productivity as an employee are not related to the work you actually do. You are judged on ratings. Ratings are a shadowy, psuedo-science and whether or not you get to keep your job has more to do with marketing, luck & random chance than what you actually do as an employee. It is very stressful to know that you can work your a$$ off and if 500 random strangers don't listen to you, you get fired anyway.

Outside of drive time, radio today is highly regimented & formatted. In all but the smallest towns you will be told exactly what to say and how to say it. Your music is highly researched and pre-programmed. There are no requests from callers or songs chosen by you. Frankly, it's pretty boring. If you DO get a fulltime position, you will spend EVERY weekend doing something for the station. It is a seven day a week job. There is always a remote at some car dealer or a concert or fund raiser you have to work.

It is a young mans profession. There will always be 24 year old kids who are willing to work for half your salary in order to work for $18,000, t-shirts, concert tickets and a tab at the local bar. Don't get me wrong. When you are single & 25, it's the BEST job in the world! Not so much when you are 35, 45, etc, and your friends are all making 3-4x your salary. But hey! You are on the radio! You are famous!

I look back on my radio days with very fond memories, but I wouldn't go back for anything.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

At my small college, I worked in the Sports Information office, compiling statistics and doing little stories and press releases for all the teams. I was assigned to help the local radio station's broadcast team for basketball, to supply updated stats and info.
But the play-by-play guy was a raging drunk, and the "color" man didn't know anything about basketball, he was there only to sell ads. Five games in, the drunk was fired, so they had the other guy try play-by-play. He would just give me a mike and I'd do most of the game!
I did this for two years; the station loved me because they didn't have to pay me, . I enjoyed it, and I don't think anyone was listening anyway!

Just a few more details, when I say locked it up, I mean I locked it up! I started keeping my fridge food in a 48 quart cooler in the basement and bought a padlock. This was after I addressed the issue with him twice nicely.
I finally asked him to find somewhere else to live. Next place he lived was in a mobile trailer that you hitch to a back of the truck. It was so small that my living room was 4 times as big. But he lived there for free before he moved on. He started sleeping weird hours even though he worked pretty easy hours, he went in at 7 and got off at 4 but would come home and sleep the whole night. I figured it out one night after I went to bed and the phone rang. I came downstairs, there he was in the kitchen eating my pop tarts, no not those ones, the nice ones that you squeeze the jelly on. He tried to hide it but the smell gave him away. I felt sorry for him but he wasn't one of my kids so I booted him. What a character!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]