Careers In Radio

Have you ever considered an exciting, rewarding career in radio?  There are several different aspects of the radio industry to consider.  Here are the positions that bring B107.5 and 100.1 The Hero to life!

Program Director:

Responsible for everything that goes over the air.  In a nut-shell, listen to the radio all day long, write down what you hear that is good and what is bad….then reacts to it.

The reaction could be moving a jock from the morning shift to the over-night shift or could be canceling a program altogether.  The reaction could also be to hire additional personnel.

The buck stops here, the PD is the boss.  If something goes wrong, it’s their fault.  If something goes right, it’s their doing.  Accordingly, the PD also passes said praise and critique down to the On-Air Staff.

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DJ:

Also known as “Disk Jockey”, “Jock”, “On-Air Talent”, or “Personality”, the Jocks are on the air, playing the music.  Your favorite morning host is a jock.  The person playing your favorite songs while you work is a jock.  Anyone who says “that was Matchbox 20, here is Linkin Park” is a jock.  They are the radio station’s direct link to the audience.  Everyone knows who Howard Stern is, but who are his producers?

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Producer:

The one behind the scenes, making sure everything happens, according to plan.  Producers line up callers, guests, commercials, contest winners and late breaking news, so the people on the air can focus on their show.

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Production Director:

In the radio industry, “production” includes all commercials, funny songs or sound effects used on the air.  Production Directors are responsible for coordinating all the elements: script, voice talent, background music and sound effects.

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Engineer:

These folks are key players in the radio business.  They are in charge of hooking up the electronics.  In early days of radio, the engineer would press buttons, start songs, change records and make sure things sounded right, while the Jock just talked.  Today, the engineers are in charge of maintaining the equipment, including the transmitter.  If something needs to be installed, rewired, fixed, adjusted or invented, call an engineer.  This is the only person on the radio station’s staff that requires a license.

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Operations Manager:

The link between the radio station and the Engineers.  Since on-site engineers become less and less necessary, the engineers may be contracted to work with several stations.  In that case, the OM takes over, being responsible for trouble shooting problems and making minor repairs and cleaning equipment.

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Sales Director:

The Sales Director is the person who sets the prices and makes the final decisions on what kind of advertising packages the radio station will offer.  He or she compiles monthly sales totals and sets goals for the upcoming months and years.  This person also analyzes data to suggest areas for improvement with overall sales revenue.  Visiting current and potential customers to sell advertising is a big part of this position.  This job requires a resilient and aggressive attitude towards sales.

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Sales Representative:

It is the main goal of sales representatives to sell airtime (advertising) to businesses in our listening audience.  This person’s sole source of income is based on how much they sell monthly.  The sales representatives are seldom in the office.  They are required to be in the field 90% of the time “selling the station.”

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Promotions/Creative Director:

The duties of the Promotions Director are widespread between the sales and programming departments.  The promotions person is usually a liaison between the two separate areas.  He or she invents and develops all station contest and sales promotions thereby encouraging the listeners to interact with the station. Promotions are the part of radio you actually see.  These are the people who are out and about in the community covering area events.  This person would also do research to find out what the community might suggest to make improvements.

Sometimes, the promotions director will develop a station newsletter to let advertisers know what’s new and exciting at the station.

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Traffic and Billing:

The people in the traffic department do all the scheduling and make sure the commercials run at the times they are supposed to run and the number of times in one day they are supposed to run.  It can be a very stressful job to make sure competing advertisers’ commercials don’t run in the same break.

The people in the billing department take all the information from the traffic department and after careful review that the commercials ran the appropriate amount of times, they prepare the bills for each advertiser.

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General Manager:

The General Manager is the Big Boss.  He or she has all the final say in everything that happens at the station.  They oversee all other departments.  The GM is often a top salesperson and is responsible for everything that happens at the station like format changes or advertising costs.  What happens on the air and in the sales department aren’t the only things to watch out for.  The General Manager also oversees care of the building, grounds and pays the bills.  They have the final say in new equipment purchases and sign the checks.

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News Director:

The station’s News Director has the important task of determining what IS and IS NOT news.  Like the program director, the news-buck stops here.  Another duty of the News Director is to coordinate reporter assignments and schedule which reporters attend which newsworthy events.

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News Anchor:

Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Katie Couric, Dianne Sawyer  are well-known TV News Anchors.  In radio, it’s the same thing.  The anchor is the person telling you what happened today in the news.

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Sports Director:

The Sports Director coordinates all activities related to the station’s coverage of sports.  This includes deciding which sports events, if any, will be aired by the station and obtaining the necessary broadcast rights.   If it’s a local game, the SD assigns personnel to cover the game, makes arrangements for broadcast facilities at the stadium or gym and makes certain the proper equipment is available.

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Play-by-Play Announcer:

Many consider this the “glory job” of a sports department.  The play-by-play person describes the action of a sporting event to listeners in an accurate and compelling way.  This requires both announcing skills and a working knowledge of the sport involved.  He/she often works with one or more other support people, including the “color analyst,” who adds insightful comments to the play-by-play, as well as statisticians and a “spotter.”

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Board Operator:

Back in the studio, the final member of the play-by-play team is at the controls. Sometimes called a “Board Op”, or “Technical Producer”, they communicate with the on-site team, make certain sponsors’ commercials play as scheduled, and generally coordinate all elements of the broadcast into a well-polished product.

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Webmaster:

Webmasters are becoming just as important as On-Air Jocks. A radio station’s website is just one more outlet to reach listeners. With the ability to stream audio, blog and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, webmasters provide an additional medium for a broadcasting company.