I found the future stars of the radio biz and they attend Crestview Middle School. Career Day 2022 at Crestview saw careers in Broadcasting, Cosmetology, Farming, Law Enforcement and Military among those represented at the event. Five different small groups of students visited my table today and I was generally impressed. Most have a grasp on what a Radio DJ does these days, and that is, way more than just talk on the radio. They realized we in the business fill our day with way more than spinning the tunes. We keep our stations running. We produce content for air including commercials, news, sports and other programming. We do things for the community like raise money for charities. We plan contests in order for out listeners to win cool stuff. That and more makes up todays radio job.
When asked "Why are you interested in become a Radio DJ?" the response was "It sounded fun". A few said "I like music". Others just shrugged their shoulders.
Some were interested in "How much do you make?". I told them if they want to be on the air and make money they should become radio sales people. Many I've worked with through the years have done both, even if its just voicing a commercial.
Some of the students seemed a little shy so I encouraged them to choose a class that involved them public speaking. It worked for me!
A few of the students seemed interested in the more technical side of the radio business. I suggested they might fit nicely in our business as I.T. Specialists or Sound or Equipment Engineers.
In addition to a public speaking class I suggested they take a foreign language class, maybe more than one language. This could help them learn to pronounce different types of names they may encounter in news, sports or public interest stories they'll read on air. If they have a chance to get in front of a camera that never hurts to help prepare themselves for appearing in something as simple as Social Media Videos. We talked about a lot of things including records, tapes and cd's and how we use none of those media any longer. We talked about how our phones are our main tool for nearly everything we do. And parents, since most of you were born after my career started, you may have to explain to them or have them ask their grandparents "What is an 8-track tape?" Maybe you can... (ka-chunk)...show them one...(Ka-chunk)...from your their own...(Ka-chunk) collection!