This past weekend was the first weekend I have had after finishing a short course in Radio Presenting, and as usual, whenever I find myself free (not looking like I'm busy) I like to reflect at the week, month or year that was to find something rather mind bogglingly thought provoking from the “alleged busyness” I've had. So this past weekend was no different.

I have noticed that graduating from varsity/college with your lousy “vocational” work experience, a good attitude, a will to learn, and of course some good communications skills to help you sweet talk your way out of a job interview and straight into your first job, are all you need. If you are an ‘A' student (and black) that's even better because half the job is done, all you need to do is pitch for that interview and tell them how good your institution is, how easily trainable you are (evident from your good results of course) and voila! you've got yourself a job. Obviously this varies from situation to situation but the point of the matter is that you go there and brag about your degree(s), experiences (if any) and how all of these will be beneficial to your prospective employer. If your employer to be, hopefully, likes what they hear you are as good as hired.

Whereas broadcasting on the other hand, especially radio, doesn't work that way.


Your lovely degree (s), experiences (work) will not get you in, though they will definitely help you stay in and remain relevant to your listener, BUT THEY WILL NOT GET YOU IN. Here it only boils down to one thing and one thing only, “personality”! But you might think to yourself and say, duh!

To a person who's been in corporate for all their working life and is in a stage where they are under the illusion that they have mastered the art of job interviews, this can be very shocking and rather damaging to one's ego.

I remember the first class we had and Chris Jordan (that dude who used to be on 94.7 Highveld Stereo) was the lecturer. He asked the simple question: “why do you want to be on radio?” we came with all sorts of “brilliant responses” like: “I am a journalist and want to broaden my journalistic skills”, “I have passion for wealth creation and feel the info needs to be shared”, “I want to be famous”, “I am a business owner and want to talk about business on radio”, “just here to check out what do radio jocks really do”, “I talk a lot and love music so I feel radio is the place to be”, and so on and so forth. But the killer was when Chris asked the question: what if there are four of you with the same things, why should the station give the job to you?? (Now he was looking for that unique thing that sets one apart from the rest…personality).

I don't know about you, but after that day I realized I don't really know the person that I am, and I needed to find me first, to be able to go out there and convince any radio station to put me on air. Being from a corporate background (not that I blame my background), I did not know how to brag about me the person but could brag about all my IT qualifications with ease (very disappointing if you ask me).


What is this “thing” about you that:

When you speak, people listen;
When you simply leaving your life people are drawn towards you and want to be associated with you;
Inspires people to do great things for themselves;
Defines your reason for living;
If you think its easier to break into broadcasting and tougher to break into corporate please share you secrets (because I want to be on radio, talk radio to be precise) and will share mine with regards to corporate.

Forum created by Vincent Maseko

[1 Aug 2008 15:20]

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