I would love to give radio a shot. Any hints?

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Hello everyone,

I'm slowly starting to accept my Aspergers and am doing everything to turn my victim-thinking into assets everyday. Given that I love music and am around music all day everyday and have even gotten in trouble at work due to music (having DJ and MIDI keyboard out at my previous job), I think it is time to turn my direction toward a career in music. It sucks that it pays lower and will put me into poverty, but it's something that I need to accept as part of my Aspergers to make it an asset as opposed to a liability.

So my quick question is, what are some suggestions to land a full-time job at a radio station. It doesn't even have to be on air (even though I have done it at my old alma mater at San Jose State University). Basically I am sorta-kinda desperate for anything in music and have been pulling hairs on trying to stick to a job as well as get my career started as my sister and brother-in-law have been pestering me to do so.

Sounds pretty cool :U

I think the first step would be to find an internship at radio stations and build up a radio network
Although it probably sounds easier being said than done as I want to work in the area of acting and comedy and struggle with the same thing lol

Is there anyone that is currently in radio that can really help me out? Also, not sure if I can do an internship since there are laws that internships are only for folks that are still in college. That doesn't really apply for me given that I am no longer a college student.

Patience and good brevity. My attention is elsewhere if I hear monologues and not some good music.

okay... not useful but okay...

Ok... I'll try to keep this short if I can...

I'm a career musician. I'm married, so having two incomes helps. But even if I was single with no kids, I could at the very least pay rent with what I make from my main gig, which is part-time lead instrumentalist at my church. I also teach part-time at a local Catholic school, a job I landed in part due to connections I already had with the faculty there and am currently working to have my teaching license reinstated. Officially I'm employed by the non-credit division of a local community college, but I'm about to quit that gig because it's going nowhere. I play in a band and am VERY well-paid (some months my part-time salary almost gets doubled). I play solo gigs besides that and have doubled my fees since I got started. I compose music (I have a master's degree in music, btw) and even appeared on a reality TV series (TruTV) as a co-writer with one of the main cast members. I post my work to YouTube when I can, although last year was rough and I wasn't able to keep up production. I'm working towards breaking into TV and film music, but it's proving to be a long and difficult path. I also do volunteer work and go outside the box looking for paid work, and am even dallying in artist development with my own children. In the past 2 months I've done 3 charity fundraisers, bought tickets to a 4th AND voluntarily served food to other attendees. I've updated/upgraded my gear, saving money for another sample library, and saving money to take an online college course to help me stay informed, i.e. I'm constantly reinvesting in my craft.

At the bare minimum I'm doing slightly better than breaking even, and I'm not even what most people consider successful. If making it in music is what you want, you need to prepare for the reality of living a brutal, unfulfilling life. I've gotten fired, too, and I actually WAS doing my job. I've been homeless, living out of a car and a motel room praying that I could make it just "one more week," "just one more paycheck," "just one more gig," "just one more piano lesson." I'm almost 40 and certain people STILL treat me like some stupid teenager. I've been over my head in medical bills or trying to pay off GuitarCenter, never once considering the bottom could drop out of my career. Reinventing myself wasn't even a blip on my radar, but now I'm doing it every day.

If you're a DJ, you need to be in the bars/clubs no less than 3 nights a week, no less than $300 for 4 hours plus tips. When you aren't working, you need to be downloading stems, loops, and remixing. When you're done with that, you need to produce your own tracks, maybe even find a female vocalist you can collaborate with. And when you're wrapping it up at the end of the day, work up some original chillout/downtempo/lounge to transition between contrasting songs in a set.

Set aside enough cash from gigs to self-fund EP and album releases of your remixes and original work, set up a merchandise booth at the club so you can get your fans to promote you after the gig is over. Then shop out your original work to music libraries for possible licensing opportunities. Oh, and register your work with BMI or ASCAP so you can start earning royalties just in case you happen to get air time somewhere.

If you want a radio gig, that's fine, but I don't believe it will really help your career. Radio is NOT about music, so don't let anyone fool you into thinking that it is. It's about advertising and sales, and you don't strike me as the kind of person who can survive working on commission. My first job EVER was audio engineer for a small mom-and-pop radio station. I played ads during sporting event breaks, supervised religious programming on Sundays, did weather forecasts, recorded a few ads and several public service announcements. And I did all that working minimum wage, part-time hours. My music production setup was extremely limited, but I did manage to get some of my own music on the air in the form of minute-long background images.

These days, the prospect of getting that kind of work is pretty dim since most local stations are owned and operated by big networks like IHeartRadio. Advertisers tend to be tight-knit collaborators, so breaking in to established communities without interning will be a challenge. Your best bet will always be to work independently to gain experience and become a star in your own right before taking on an on-air personality job. Seriously, you have a better chance of that than getting so much as a janitorial gig (nothing wrong with that, either) at a radio station without star power or some kind of connection to the advertising industry.

Best stick with DJing and producing. Either way, it's fame or famine out there. Work hard and start immediately--don't wait. If you need help getting started in music, let me know and I'll do what I can to coach you through the worst of it.

As a person that has done radio for a semester, I kind of have an idea of what it's like and such. I'm just pursuing a job/career in radio just to have something to fall back on since I fully understand that being a musician/DJ is a b***h. I really do want music to work out somehow and am taking the liberties of learning how to produce music simply because I love music.

My sister and brother-in-law are trying to steer me toward a career in health care but I think with my Aspergers, I really need to be around music 24/7.

Ok, but keep in mind many musicians who go into radio are already successful musicians. Lead singers and DJs know how to work the crowds and therefore make great on-air personalities. Everyone else is typically communications majors in college who got started as interns whose primary job was making a killer pot of coffee for the big boys and girls. Musicians are the exception rather than the rule.

I can tell you from experience that a "fallback" in music is career suicide. I put in my 5 years teaching music in impoverished communities and learning the hard way how minority politics works. I got my "big break" in my last two years as a full-time teacher, bought a McMansion in an exclusive development, helped start a rock band, played a few bars, drank a lot of beer. Next thing I know, I've got an entitled booster club president waging an all-out war on me, which I figure I can just wait out. Then my boss shows up for "the talk." The "fallback" is gone, the house is gone, and I'm on the street with two kids, and I'm too old to do anything else.

Before Cortes conquered Tenochtitlan, he burned his ships. If I had it to do over again, I'd have stuck with making music the way I did it in high school instead of trying to fit in with some university professor's overinflated, self-righteous notions of "artistic integrity." Modernist music has close associations with horrror genres for a reason! And the last 4 years have seen me struggling to play catch-up.

I probably have more stories of what NOT to do, to be honest, but that can also be a positive thing for someone else who wants to make it in this business. I'm a good improvisor, well-versed in classical music, plenty of hands-on experience with contemporary Christian praise and worship music, played in classic rock bands, currently with a well-established local horn band, and have a part-time gig as a music educator that leaves me plenty of time for composing music people might actually listen to. I'm well-positioned for writing choir arrangements and am only holding off on that until I'm able to produce top-quality choir demos (people, like music execs, dislike the unfamiliar, even if it's one of their own. They are more compliant when presented with a product that has the illusion of viability, and technology is constantly breaking down those barriers. The usual Catch-22s of having to already be successful to get musical arrangements to consumers are no longer valid).

But as big a screwup as I've been, the one thing I got right was embracing a wide musical field and "burning the ships," leaving myself open to flexibility within that area and working my tail off. The way I landed this party band gig was impressing the heck out of the lead singers wife during a TV appearance. They fired their keyboard player just to get me on board. So I suppose the patience and all the thankless work I put in paid off.

Like me, you've arrived very late to the game. If you just need a min wager and a friend's couch or floor to sleep on, I respect that. But that's only so you can have plenty of time to work on DJ sets and producing. You should be getting your rent money in a single weekend. Within 6 months you should have your own PA and cheap lighting, playing every bar/club you can, coffee shops, and private parties (fundraisers, wedding receptions, and anything else that comes your way). Invest in karaoke, too. I know band leaders who side hustle as DJs and make a killing hosting karaoke parties.

And if you still want to do radio, building your live persona by working the crowds translates well to on-air presence. You can land those gigs just as easily through experience as you can starting at the ground floor--but it still takes a lot of work.

Leave yourself a fallback, and that's exactly what you'll do: fall back. If you're serious about music, you gotta commit.

Burn the ships. There's no going back.

Radio and music are entirely two different beasts.

The PP explaining how you have to work as a DJ is spot on.

I have many friends in the radio busines that are talent. Talent is a dime a dozen. The ones on the music radio were really popular club DJs before ever getting the gig. The reason being on Friday-Sunday you are working venues for the station. That blows because you have to get there early to set up for the remote, and if you are lucky the station will send a audio/tech guy. It's a long night being fun and entertaining to a bunch of drunks.

My area is a top 10 market. Morning radio is all about personality and very little playing music. It would be you and 4 other mutants you have to banter with for 3-4 hours. Much of the evening music now is all syndication with no local talent.

The receptionist has more job security than the talent. Radio flip formats all the time in my area. Urban goes to Country. Country goes to top 40. That talent is gone, unless he/she can work sales, create bumpers, weather/traffic/sports etc.

Sales is absolutely EVERYTHING in my market. Sales drives the talent. If your ratings drop, spots sold drops, your ass is gone.

How to get in? Work for free for a year as a gopher. Learn the board ops. Learn how to set up for remotes. Make yourself invaluable to sales and talent. It is usully who you know to get in. I don't know anyone working radio who was unkown by anyone at the station, and was hired.

My one friend (20 at the time) was an utter pest at one radio station's remotes. The talent took a shine to him, and somehow got him in as a gopher with no experience. He busted his ass for two years before getting hired for on air talent. (side kick to the talent. Paid much less). When the station flip, he was able to stay on doing PR, remotes and sales.

Problem is you stalking remotes at your age would come across as creepy, unless you have an angle. (Like Stern's side kicks).

Another way, which is easier, is do you know sports? My sport stations are always willing to throw on a sports print writer, local entertaining sports geek for the weekend gigs. I know you want music, but learning board ops and other stuff would get your foot into the door at other places.

Radio in a nutshell is selling spots with your talents unique personality. Any kid who has done a year in high school radio can run a board. College radio is overkill. Unless you have a degree in marketing. No one cares you did radio in college. You'd get more experience working at a tiny radio station with a crap signal. What do you bring personality wise that can draw in the 18-30 crowd demographic?

Music radio is for the 20 somethings living off of cheap Ramen and tuna fish, with 5 room mates in a 400 Sq ft apartment. Fun, edgey, young, willing to work insane hours for s**t pay. (or for free).

The talent who plays music like adult contemporary always have s**t tons of years in the business. They've worked all over. Everyone knows them.

You can always send in promos/resume audios to teeny tiny stations with low siginals. You might be firing up Christian Rock, but it's a start.

I think being a working actor is easier than getting into radio.

Good luck!

Isn't sales more important than ratings? Would a business minded station allow a kick butt sales guy to go on the air just because he sold more spots than anyone in the history of the company? And continues to do so despite his kinda lame show?

We're not talking about a big, nationally syndicated show on a network station. We're talking local operation with just enough wattage to cover the tri-county area. In those cases, your owner, station manager, program director, and sales director are all the same guy, which means he's also your sportscaster doing remotes AND the morning show host--and the co-host is his dog, and his producer/call screener is, um...completely imaginary.

In a slightly better situation where you'd reasonably expect to get work, the kind of person who is a killer on-air personality is often a killer salesman. My other boss (lead singer in my band) has his own morning radio show. After putting in his 4 hours plus show prep, he hits the road to meet with clients. It's ALL about selling the product and attracting listeners. Small markets don't really have to worry about ratings, but your content still has to be compelling. Prize drawings, guest interviews, call-ins, news, weather... If you can sell your listeners, you can sell your clients and vice versa. If you can't represent your station well with clients, you're likely not going to rep the station well on-air, either. College communications majors are trained to do this. So are car salesmen. If I were a General Manager, I'd hire a car salesman in a heartbeat.

Music has little to do with it. Nowadays that's all streamed from a network. In fact, you might have a nationally syndicated morning show like John Boy and Billy on two different stations, two different formats, two different markets. One is album oriented rock, the other is country. During breaks, one is getting the Led out while the other is playing Toby Keith. Both are having cues played off an automated server, and there may or may not even be personnel present at the station. One market is Jackson, the other is Little Rock, and the "morning crew" is broadcasting from somewhere in North Carolina.

In my brief broadcast career, my main responsibility was religious programming, which involved putting out the occasional fire when someone at the church couldn't figure out the phone line. I also worked the board for sporting events. But when things got slow, my job was to feed the dog and water the plants at his personal residence when he went on vacation. The evening request show was really nice, the DJ was all about love advice. But...she was hundreds of miles away on the other end of the network.

Radio networks, major record labels--doesn't matter. You don't get those gigs unless you already have some major standing in the industry. Getting into the old boys club is a combination of talent, experience, and connections. Your best bet is if you have a family connection to the industry, which I'm working on with my own children. Otherwise, you get in at the bottom floor making coffee, walking/feeding dogs, and watering plants. Be patient, network, and sell the heck out of your market.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Kinda frozen and am not sure what to do at this point. I mean I seriously need a full-time job/career to keep s**t going money-wibe onse while being able to DJ and do my thing. I know I'm starting late but I seriously don't care as DJing and learning production gets me less lost in the "career-seeking" process. I'm grasping hairs here because my family is pushing me to get a career like ASAP and all I can think of is something in music and at this point, anyway to stay around music and not be broke. Mind you, I am broke as f**k right now and need to get my s**t together. At least that will raise my self-esteem better with all this BS going on in my life.

Seriously, what other jobs are there that I can work that is in music where I can continue to DJ and such. I'm currently DJing for a crew but I know that with how they are doing promotions (not so much to be honest), it's a ship that is going to sink very fast for me. I'm impatient and I need answers ASAP.

I'm giving very serious thought to doing this:
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/dea ... production

I want to do both that one and the one with Hans Zimmer. I'm already about to take a for-credit class with Ben Newhouse (the Disney DVD guy). If you're broke, that won't help much, but surely you can scrounge up $90 for the Deadmau5 masterclass.

Music licensing is an impressively lucrative business. I've got some work I want to finish up, a fusion of ambient and symphonic music, but my real gift is in horror and sound design--ironic since I'm adamant about my faith and active in church. Prior to getting into worship music, I was really on fire for modernist music. I still have a taste for postmodern art and music. I've been a HUGE fan of Krautrock, New Age and spacemusic since my early teens. So I'm thinking of going back to sound design rather than what we conventionally think of as "music."

Speaking of which, I'll be glad to get you started with sound design. I learned it with Reason and Absynth. I used to work on my Synclavier before electrical problems forced me to shut it down. The plugin just came out last year, and I love, love, LOVE it. Reason is deprecated with the latest OSX on Mac and I'm in no hurry to upgrade. But for sound design these days, you need only know two names: Logic Pro X, and Alchemy. Alchemy is slow going, but I'm already in love. Once I get these current projects out of the way, I'm going all Alchemy, MAYBE Sculpture, and maybe even Reaktor. My dream rig includes Max/MSP and Kyma, but a fully loaded Mac Pro with VSL takes priority once I start getting real money.

Just some things to think about.

You live and die by the monthly demographic rating. There are horrible, lame shows in my area, BUT they ping the certain demographic and the station can bill up the ass for spots. My one friend works early AM. Once the show wraps up, now he's gotten do meet and greets with clients. That's selling ad spots. Sometimes he has to do an all day fund raiser for (insert charity here). If you are a big enough personality, you can get other businesses in on the deal. I wash your back and you'll wash mine.

Remember talent truly is a dime a dozen. You are told what to play by the station. Sometimes your producers can work in a little of what you want to do. Local radio isn't NPR with 10 minutes interviews on weighty subjects. It's you being whatever the demographic wants. Knowledgeable? Witty? Fun? Controversial? Easy going? You have to do that for a short amount of time before commericals, weather, traffic and sometimes news. If the show takes local callers, that's stand up comedian work because you need killer time management skills.

A local talent on the dinosaur rock station thought he was bullet proof. Been there for zillion years. Huge name recognition. Big contract. Got pissy with management during contact time, and they let him go. Replaced him with two 20 somethings, the listeners did a shrug and billables shot up. Mind you, old guy's ratings were decent.

All Clear Channel and Disney cares about is how much money your bring in. If lame shows rake in the bucks, so be it.

One last thing, radio is fun. If you are an adrenaline junky there is no better job. It is a time sink job, and I don't know how people do it with families. I did sales for two years and loved, before I moved on to something less crazy.

My station manager love people who could really sell on vending/beverage routes as their previous job. Cold calling and closing deals for those type of routes is incredibly hard. Getting an guy to switch from Coke to Pepsi products is some black magic s**t.

A good sales person (straight commission) could make more than the station manager. I know one guy at my station did.

If there is a college nearby, see if they will let you DJ. You may not need to be a student to do this with each school. I was a DJ while in college. If your voice is good and you're a good "on air" personality, anything is possible. Having a "gimmick" that sets you apart helps too.

Thanks for the advice and the heads up. I messaged you, lets talk a bit more via PM or something.