On-the-Air Radio Job Opportunities

Your voice is your means of communication and you are live and generally exposed for a few hours each day. This is what it takes to be a radio DJ or presenter for a radio show. While some radio newsreaders are pre-recorded, many are live and live radio DJs need to be poised, ready, easy to listen to, and sometimes fun. You have to communicate with your voice alone, which requires some training and moxy.

Radio Personality Job Description

A radio DJ is the life and soul of radio. You are the voice that everyone hears when they tune in to your AM or FM radio or satellite radio station or radio program.

The radio presenter or newsreader is also an important part of live radio broadcast and you can get a radio job reading the news, reading the weather report, traffic report, sports news, and more as well as being the main radio DJ for the show. You may be required to work some strange hours depending on when your show is aired.
Can you handle getting to work by 4:00am every day?

Job Training

You may need to get some kind of formal voice training to become a radio DJ or radio presenter. You will train to be a voice artist and you could also start out your career doing radio commercials or recording the radio show intros. Radio presenters and newscasters are given a professional course which trains you in the correct way to read the news for radio and how to present various segments of a show. The radio DJ will also have to take this course as they might have to read the news or present on occasion as well.

How To Get On The Air

To become a radio DJ or radio presenter, aside from having the correct training, you must have a good voice that is interesting and confident that people can relate to and like. You could start off as a voice artist for a radio or freelance, but eventually, you can apply for a radio DJ position if you feel that you are ready. Most of the time, a large radio station will start you off as a radio newsreader to get you used to being live on air and see how you do. After you have been doing this for a while, you can get promoted to longer period of time on a live radio broadcast as a radio presenter, and then eventually work your way up to being a DJ. Sometimes, even a sound engineer can become a radio DJ if they work really hard and complete the training. If you want a radio job as a DJ or presenter, you should consider working in any job you can find initially. The radio DJ must also be very familiar with popular music and have a good general knowledge so that each live radio show is interesting and current.

Radio Salaries

There are many well known radio personalities that earn a great deal of money, but most of the ordinary radio DJ, newsreader, and radio presenter earnings, range from $7,500 to $105,000. It all depends on which radio station you work for and whether you are a radio DJ, announcer, presenter, weather reader, or newscaster.