This is a record of the ups and the downs; the struggles and the achievements; the laughter and the frustration and what it takes to break into The Industry...the radio industry that is.
Project: Radio Roadtrip?!
So the name hasn’t been decided yet, but it’s definitely happening. My friend Gabrielle and myself are packing up the car and booking it 4,472 km one way all the way to Toronto (at least). The goal? To make a radio documentary about what it takes for two radio grads to break into the industry… the runner up goal- to get a full time job.
This whole idea spawned from the fact that both Gabrielle and I are having a hard time finding full time jobs in radio, competing with the hundreds of other people applying for the same jobs. It is frustrating, but at the same time, exactly what I was told all about prior to graduating. This project is how we are going to separate ourselves from the competition and there are 3 main stages to this project:
- Documentary
- Website/Social Media
- Adventure
Throughout the 20 days that we have mapped out we are going to bring all the equipment we need to make a documentary. As we travel from province to province the idea is to meet up with as many different people from as many different stations to interview them for this doc, and help us get our foot in the door at the same time.
Then we got thinking of “what the hell are we going to do with ourselves for 12+ hours in the car at a time?”. This prompted the website/social media spin. These days EVERY radio station (or at least the ones worth working at) are putting a big spin on social media. Facebook, twitter, foursquare… the list goes on and on. So we want to be able to showcase our talents. As we drive we are going to vlog (video blog), blog, tweet and anything else we can, to promote our trip, to entice people to follow our journey and hopefully get some interviews for the documentary.
Lastly and probably the most exciting part is just the adventure. Even if we don’t get a single call (which, we decided isn’t going to happen), we are traveling across the country! We are fulfilling the requirements of graduation… a post-grad road trip! It’s going to be a ton of fun.
Now that you know the idea… we need your help.
If you are working in the radio industry in Canada and want to participate in this project, let me know and we will try our best to stop by and meet up with you. Or, if you just have some contacts of people you think would be interested that is just as valuable.
If you aren’t working in the radio biz, then I hope this interests you enough to follow along with us on our trip. We will post the website and all the links as they are made, but there is something you can help us out with right now! We NEED a name for this project! So if you can think of a snappy/clever name leave it in the comments.
Like I said before, we are also going to be vlogging as we go and we already put up our first video…
If you have any suggestions, feedback, comments or whatever, send me an email to mitch@theradioindustry.com and I will 100%, get back to you!
8,944 km in 20 days! Yup, it’s going to be a good time!
Mitch
