The Industry

     Here we go! It is time to get serious about getting into the radio biz. I have been applying like a mad fool to every job that I find and to this date, I haven’t even had a “thanks for applying” e-mail. Nothing. Squat! So, this blog is going to document the journey (Don’t stop, believing!… Did you get the reference? No?) which is being thrown into overdrive right now! Click “read more” for ideas on how to stay on top of your future employers stack of resumes and the day one update!

Tip:

As I am sure you already know, radio and media in general is an incredibly competitive business. In order to get hired, we need to stand out. We need to make sure that our resumes and demos don’t get lost in the mountain of applications the station gets every day. Luckily there are a lot of ways to do this:

1) Cold Calling

• This is an easy but nerve-racking tactic. Now you can use the cold call technique to find out if the station will be hiring soon, find out who you should direct your cover letter too and one of the greatest ways is to call to ensure that the station received your application package. This keeps your name on the employers mind so that when they find your resume they will remember that you showed interest and did some foot work over the competition, therefore your package stays on top!

2) Cover Letter

• Yes that pesky part of any job application. The goal of the cover letter is to state why you would be perfect for the job. Now the basic unwritten template says that you need to show how much you know of the company, brag about yourself and say why you’re better then every one else and then leave your contact information, all on one page. The tricky part that I’m learning is that in order to make you sound ideal for any radio job you need to highlight the station’s job posting but how do you do that as well as all the basic information? Well you have to get creative. Format your letter in a way that is eye catching and different then the typical letter. Some ideas are doing a Top 10 list of why you’re so great with your contact information at the bottom and why you want to work for the station at the top. If you have a secret about the cover letter let me know, leave a comment!

3) Demo

• Most important part of production and announcer postings. Remember in the media you are selling yourself! Not in a creepy/illegal way but you know what I mean. You are a product and you need to think of your demo as a sample, like at Costco when they give you a small taste of their product and then you either want to buy it or not. Your demo = the Costco Taquito. So you want it to sound crisp, tight and fluid. You want to keep it around or under 3 minutes, if its more the employer won’t listen to it all and your best work might not be heard. With that said you want to keep your best stuff for your production demo to the front, use it as a hook, make them listen to your whole thing/buy the taquitos! For your production demo, if you have major market voices make sure that is definitely at the front, make sure to have a brief mashup of a couple songs to show that you can edit on beat, and a variety of commercial styles (hard sell, soft sell, multi-voice etc.). For an on-air demo. You want it to flow like your normal show. A show intro, a couple sweeps and bits, weather, example of a liner and then natural end of your show. The trick with this one is you want to have it cater to the stations audience if possible. If you are going for an oldies formatted station having bits from a Top 40 angle probably won’t work out. 

4) Creativity/Personal Branding

• Lastly you have to show creativity/personal branding. Again, in the biz we are a product and you have to market yourself as such and it could not be any easier with social networking! I have one of everything. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Youtube, Dailybooth, the works! Don’t just create an account, use it! If you have a following on any of these sites you will be that much more desirable to an employer as it is another product that you bring to the table. I for example started this blog in hopes of being hired… what are you doing to stay on top of that pile of resumes?!

Update:

For the past week and a bit I have been trying to contact this one station here in Victoria BC. The goal? To get a job obviously, but because they are so scarce at the moment I just want to meet with this woman I have talked with before and just see if I can come into the station and volunteer. Sometimes this is what it takes. If you can show your passion and your drive to be a part of the station they will likely hire you when there is a position available. And this goes for any business. What employer wouldn’t want to have some free labour for a little while, am I right? With this said, this woman is incredibly hard to get a hold of but she also has a lot on her plate as we gear up for rating season once again. I am also going to be continuing to look for postings (which, for any aspiring broadcaster you should be doing daily anyways to keep in the loop) more on how to do that in the next post.