Is getting into radio as hard as it seems?

russelljames

Hi there. I hopefully will one day work full time in a radio station hopefully presenting. I have some experience that I gained in Transition Year including RTE 2FM's TY radio project. This summer I was hoping to get some sort of radio job, in hospital, community or local radio just so I could start gaining some of the experience needed in presenting. However, when I got in contact with various stations, replies were either negitive or non-existant.
The difference between what is on the air now and what I want to do on radio is that I hate the idea of "5 songs in a row, no dj's no jingles no ads". I want to return to the days of filling the gaps between songs moreso than introducing songs.

Anyone got any tips or can help me in anyway to get into radio please WB or PM me. I would really appriciate it

djsupreme

Radio is unfortunately still a very difficult industry to get into. It's quite a small industry here in Ireland, so there isn't many opportunities. However, it is expanding with the new regionals and new Dublin stations.

The reality is - to get into a half decent station - you need some kind of experience. You're spot on to try and get some work in community, college or hospital stations. I am surprised that you didn't receive any positive responses from these stations as I would have thought they would always be looking for volunteers.

I think it's great that you have a strong idea of what you want to do in radio. However, I would be careful with it. The sad reality is that the majority of legal stations in Ireland are tightly formatted - and are looking for people who can work with that format e.g. 10 hits in a row. The debate has been had many times on this site as to whether that kind of radio is fun to work with anymore. Ur best bet if you do get in the door is to work the format well, then slowly introduce more of what you want into your radio persona. Or else you'll have a pissed off PD!!

MaltHouse Mouse

russelljames wrote: »

I hate the idea of "5 songs in a row, no dj's no jingles no ads". I want to return to the days of filling the gaps between songs moreso than introducing songs

And maybe one day when you run your own radio station, that might happen. Formats are there to be followed and it is not up to the presenter to pick and choose what they want to do.

It's not one set of rules for one and a different set for everyone else. If you can't stick to format and schedule, then I can't see your attitude getting you very far within the industry. God know's it's hard enough to get into without people trying to break it having high opinions of themselves and thinking they know what way is best for a station to be run. That is the job of the PD, not the presenter.

Maybe try newstalk if it is a talk based format you are after.

pixbyjohn

Look at these links, courses for you to consider

http://www.dlcfe.ie/07RB6.html

http://www.dlcfe.ie/07Home.html

The Muppet

russelljames wrote: »

Hi there. I hopefully will one day work full time in a radio station hopefully presenting. I have some experience that I gained in Transition Year including RTE 2FM's TY radio project. This summer I was hoping to get some sort of radio job, in hospital, community or local radio just so I could start gaining some of the experience needed in presenting. However, when I got in contact with various stations, replies were either negitive or non-existant.
The difference between what is on the air now and what I want to do on radio is that I hate the idea of "5 songs in a row, no dj's no jingles no ads". I want to return to the days of filling the gaps between songs moreso than introducing songs.

Anyone got any tips or can help me in anyway to get into radio please WB or PM me. I would really appriciate it

What stations have you applied to? When you say Job do you mean paid employment? It's difficult but not impossible to ge a break on the community/hospital stations anything more than that needs experience.


Not every station operates by strict Playlist and format (they would have a broader format than commercial stations) but even the small ones would have a policy of the type of music and presenter that they would put on air. If you want a totally free hand you may find it extremly difficult to get that first foot on the ladder.


I see you're in north County Dublin, NEAR FM would be you local community station and the Mater Hospital and St. Ita's Portrane would be your nearest Hospital Stations.

GrahamThomas

Russell,
I'm currently studying Radio Production in college, so like yourself I'm trying to get as much hands on experience as possible.

Firstly, if you're interested in presenting have you put together a short demo, consisting of a brief sample of your presenting style?

Secondly, be persistent. Get back in touch with the various local & community stations to see if there is anything you can do to help, even if its just answering the phone. You can make contacts and build up a reputation around the station, so when a presenting gig comes along it'll give you a definite advantage!

Thirdly, consider doing a radio course. Ballyfermot (http://www.bcfe.ie) and Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education (http://www.dlcfe.ie/) would be worth checking out.

Best of luck!

russelljames

Thanks everyone for your responses. I appriciate it all

Stations I've applied to are basically all the Dublin stations that are somewhat in the North County. In my emails I said paid and unpaid. After doing work experience in the industry, I sorta got the attitude that I'd be happy to do it for free cos I just love it.

I say if I got offered a job in a station, and they had a strict format of "you must play a min of 7 songs an hour" I wouldn't turn it down, it is experience afterall. Its just a major gripe of mine that if people want music, they have iPods. I feel, as prolly many radio anoraks (and others) feel too, that it is a type of art form just like photography, singing, film and design. I agree with you djsupreme when you say "Ur best bet if you do get in the door is to work the format well, then slowly introduce more of what you want into your radio persona. Or else you'll have a pissed off PD!!"

Thanks for the details of those courses, I'll defo keep them in mind .

I suppose persistance will get me somewhere. I am trying constantly to make a decent demo, however I am too critical of myself, and am never sure of what excatly they would want on it. Any tips?

Thanks again everyone

Big Balls

I think you're pretty funny OP.

There's nothing wrong with being ambitious but I think it's hilarious that you haven't had a sniff from a station yet you're on here preaching that you won't do formats, stations that do stuff like playing 5 hits in a row ie. PLAYING MUSIC, funny that, a music radio station playing music!, do not interest you (almost in a snobbish way I might add).

So my advice would be lose the attitude because if you do manage to get in anywhere on work experience and express your views to staff, you'll get the same reaction as I'm giving you except they won't say it to you, you just won't get any work.

Start at the bottom, work hard, appreciate that at the moment you know very little about radio and when you have gained some experience you'll have the right to say x, y and z doesn't appeal to me, I'd like to work in this type of radio.

Good luck!

The Muppet

Big Balls wrote: »

So my advice would be lose the attitude because if you do manage to get in anywhere on work experience and express your views to staff, you'll get the same reaction as I'm giving you except they won't say it to you, you just won't get any work.

Yeah , DJs with ego and attitude never make it big.

russelljames wrote: »

Stations I've applied to are basically all the Dublin stations that are somewhat in the North County. In my emails I said paid and unpaid.

E mail is not the best way to go about it, it may never be seen by the appropriate person. Do a bit of research and find out the name of the appropriate person in the relevant stations and write to them.

Big Balls

The Muppet wrote: »

Yeah , DJs with ego and attitude never make it big.

They're usually not at that stage during work ex.

Plenty of DJs out there that are just normal people doing a job they love too.

Big Tone

Doesn't it strike you as being a bit odd that RTE never advertise looking for radio presenters?

You'll hear them running ads aplenty "looking for an exciting career with Ireland's public service broadcaster...we are looking for an accountant....a sound engineer...an assistant of some kind....but never a radio presenter!

Any thats my 2 cents thrown in for what its worth....

djsupreme

russelljames wrote: »

Its just a major gripe of mine that if people want music, they have iPods. I feel, as prolly many radio anoraks (and others) feel too, that it is a type of art form just like photography, singing, film and design. I agree with you djsupreme when you say "Ur best bet if you do get in the door is to work the format well, then slowly introduce more of what you want into your radio persona. Or else you'll have a pissed off PD!!"

I'm only telling you what I have seen and learned from 12 years working full time in various legal stations. If you look at people who are "personality" jocks on music stations - think of Rick O'Shea and Ray Foley - they all started as hot jocks working within a format.

I can also tell you that over the years, we've had many people into the station on work experience and doing part time work. I can assure you that any of them with an attitude of how the station should be run never stayed with us for long.

Dudess

Big Tone wrote: »

Doesn't it strike you as being a bit odd that RTE never advertise looking for radio presenters?

No, not at all. It makes more sense to me that they'd head-hunt known quantities. Presenting on RTE is pretty high-profile, and employing someone to do that job is quite a big investment - these people are selling the stations to advertisers and sponsors, radio's only source of revenue. What would be the point, for example, of RTE putting up an ad saying "Presenter needed for drive-time current affairs show" when they can just approach Matt Cooper or George Hook directly?

And for the smaller gigs (like filling in, weekend slots etc) they've probably got such mountains of demos sent in unsolicited, they've enough to choose from.

They do listen to demos. I sent one to John Clarke and six weeks later I got an emailed response from him.

lampydoo

As somebody who is active in the industry the advise I can give you is this...

Try to gain as much experience in all aspects of the business as you can, this was alot easier a few years ago with the amount of pirate stations that were on air. Your best idea would be to join a community station like NEAR FM and learn the basics there.

Always listen to what other people are doing from Dublin stations to the likes of BBC Radio 1, Z100 and KIIS-FM, you will pick up things you like and can put them into practice in your own style.

Put together a 3 minute (max!) demo to send out to Programme Directors, the demo should be well produced and should instantly show your skills. Programme Directors are busy people, they don't want to be skipping through minutes of songs to find you.

I was told this many years ago and have always stuck by it... persistence pays! No matter how many knock backs you get continue to update your demo and send it out again. Ask the Programme Director in your letter to even give you some pointers on what you could work on, some won't some will.

As for what you have been saying about formats, I can understand where your coming from where if you want to hear 10 hits in a row or whatever go off and buy an iPod but thats not going to happen. People listen to the radio for a mixture of things, yes music is the main reason, there's also news and current affairs, light gossip and entertainment news. Although I believe with the rise in new outputs (iPod, WI-FI etc.) presenters must change to bring in more personality as this will win hands down over an iPod.

Anyway... Best of luck!

Dudess

Yeah, just be prepared to put in the work for nothing or next to nothing. I got a researcher gig in RedFM Cork after doing media production in Cork's equivalent of Ballyfermot and doing lots and lots of volunteering with community radio. That landed me an offer of a show at Phantom FM, which I couldn't take (long story) but I still got it.

The Muppet

Big Balls wrote: »

They're usually not at that stage during work ex.

Plenty of DJs out there that are just normal people doing a job they love too.

I would argue that ego/attitude is the part of successful presenters persona that makes them different than those without. Those with individuality are more likely to stand out and succeed. As is said above this personality driven shows is the direction radio is moving.

The op didn't make any claims about his ability, he did display a keenness to move away from the wall to wall music format playing the same couple of hundred songs over and over again that passes for commercial radio today.

Big Balls

Muppet if you're that age and you want to work in radio, you want to work in radio. There's no desire to be Pat Kenny's next producer, there's the desire to see what a real radio studio looks like.

If you fail to have that bug then you won't get very far as you won't have the tolerance to slug it out on your way to actually getting somewhere in radio.

Take it from someone who's been there.

The Muppet

Big Balls wrote: »

Muppet if you're that age and you want to work in radio, you want to work in radio. There's no desire to be Pat Kenny's next producer, there's the desire to see what a real radio studio looks like.

I don't agree as that notion totally discounts the individuals ambition.

Big Balls wrote: »

If you fail to have that bug then you won't get very far as you won't have the tolerance to slug it out on your way to actually getting somewhere in radio.

Take it from someone who's been there.

I agree with that but the ops expressed wish to be different does not mean he lacks the bug.

tbh

yeah, and lets not forget - the guys just out of school. When I left school my plan was to smash capitalism!

Dudess

I don't think it's that difficult for a person with the required talent to get presenting work in radio - if you're prepared to live on peanuts and work for a small station, and that includes possibly moving to Kerry or Athlone or whatever. No guarantees you'll get anything in Dublin.

Don't expect to get an on-air gig at RTE or Today FM with a diploma from Ballyer and a few years' community radio experience. There are others with far more experience than you. That said, I wouldn't say it's an impossibility, but it would be exceedingly rare. I'm thinking of the current crop of 20-something DJs on national stations - Ray Foley was in Spin and Limerick's 95FM and others before Today FM, Jenny Green was in 104 for years, Nikki Hayes was in Spin and East Coast before that.

tbh

remember OP, all of these obstacles are there so that you can prove how much you want the job.