While sorting thru messages on this NG, I found a really old message
from a college student asking how to get his Big Radio Break. While
the original post is years in the past, his questions hit a nerve with
me, and I would like to offer my own experience for all who may follow.


I always loved radio, from the time I was a little squirt listening to
the old WZGC/Z-93 of the 1970s. I was still very young when I decided
that radio was the career for me. I even put together a makeshift
studio in my bedroom and practiced, practiced, practiced!

When I graduated from high school I enrolled in a community college
that had a very specific Radio and television Broadcasting degree
program. I wound up on the air at the college's radio station within
the first few months, and a buddy of mine and I ended up running the
station shortly thereafter.

We flipped the format to mainstream CHR and sounded as good as the
big-boy stations downtown. Our demo tapes always sounded unbelievably
smooth, and program directors admired us for taking on a commercial
bent when most college station were just screwing around with obscure
college music and not really trying.

I really thought I was going all...the...way...to...the...top!

Boy did I have absolutely NO EFFIN' IDEA how frustrating the radio
business would be. It started when others at the college station
started landing paying jobs without finishing their degrees. Not that
I was mad at the people that got the breaks, because I sure would have
taken one too if I had gotten one. I was mad at the managers and
programmers that held all the cards and made those decisions. It
really wasn't fair, since I worked hard and helped run (and program)
the freakin' station that started many of those careers. If our
station hadn't insisted on structure and professionalism (which shined
thru on those demo tapes) they wouldn't have gotten those jobs.

I did an internship at one of those big-boy stations for three months
(helping a young Ryan Seacrest, who was only 16 and on the air already)
and was told by the program director that when I finished my degree
(which was about five months away) that I should come back and see him
about joining as his assistant PD. I was excited and kept in touch
with him, until he was canned two months later. When I called other
contacts at the station, I was persona-non-grata. "Don't call us,
we'll call you."

I continued to work on the air and program at the college station, all
the while compiling and mailing tapes and resumes to any and every
station in the area. I finished my degree and took a joe job while I
continued my search and my college radio career, although I was no
longer a college student.

After another four months or so, I got a call back from another one of
the big-boy stations about one of my tape and resume packages.
FINALLY!! They said they'd like me to drive the station van and assist
the DJs at live remotes, parties, station functions and such. I was
cool with that, it sounded like the elusive "start in radio" I had
wanted. So I asked THE question..."How much does it pay?" And the guy
laughs...LAUGHS!!! And he says, "It doesn't pay anything. It's an
internship." Oh, man, I came unglued! I cussed and spit and yelled
"I'M NOT WORKING FOR FREE!" Man, I'd done three years for free at the
college station and a major-market internship too. I yelled, "MY DAYS
OF WORKING FOR FREE ARE OVER!!" and hung up on him. What a prick!! And
I don't regret it a bit.

Then there was the icing-on-the-cake incident several years later where
one of my old college radio cronies was programming a station and he
asked me if I'd be interested in overnights. HELL YEAH!! So I went
over and filled out the paperwork and met the station manager. I was
unemployed at the time and I turned down a couple of offers for
joe-jobs that paid more than this overnight shift did. But it was my
"Big Radio Break!" Except that the station manager went and hired a
buddy of his for the shift instead and left me out in the cold. AGAIN.
And for the last time.

So, in my experience, there are no "Big Breaks" in radio, and working
for free gets you nowhere either. So "volunteer" all you want but be
prepared to become a career volunteer.

And watch out for the general managers of this world. They are usually
lying snakes.