How to Keep a Job as an On Air Radio Personality

In the commercial radio industry, it’s a dog eat dog world and a lot of on air personalities are wearing Milk Bone underwear. The volatile nature of management, corporate policy changes, ratings swings, the weather, you name it, can make your job as a radio host one of the least secure occupations on the planet. There are no guaranteed ways to avoid the ax without fail, but there are things you can do to hedge the bet--assuming you’ve been savvy enough to get one. Here’s how to keep a job as an on air radio personality.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• A job as an on air radio personality

1. First and foremost, always remember the golden rule, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” And in the case of broadcasting, that is almost always the general manager of the station. You might think the program director is your boss, but your PD is probably going to be too preoccupied with saving his or her job to be any real threat to you. So, if the general manager says, “Jump,” you smile and ask "How high?"
2. One thing that can help you keep your radio job is to make yourself indispensable to commercial clients. In radio, commercials are not played between songs. Songs are played between commercials. If you are great at voice overs or, even better, world-class as a copy writer, make sure that you get as many commercials as you can and make sure the clients know it’s you doing the work. The general manager might not like what you do on the air, but if it means pissing off a paying client, they’re going to think twice before showing you the door.
3. Forget about what your listeners like. Nobody in management ever cares what listeners think. Listen to what the sales people like. Because if the sales people who are selling the station to those paying clients like what you do, they’re going to make sure that the boss knows that you’re the reason they’re able to go out and sell, sell, sell. If they don’t dig you, you could be number one in the ratings with listeners today and greeting people at Wal-mart tomorrow.
4. If all else fails, there is one sure fire way to keep your job as an on air radio personality. Win the Powerball and buy your own station. Just make sure that you make yourself general manager, too, though, or you’ll be right back where we started.

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