Ian Devlin, Student Radio Association

Hello!

Jay has asked me to contribute to this blog and to give my thoughts about how to get a job in radio.

About me: I'm Ian, the new Development Officer of the Student Radio Association (SRA). My job is to assist stations who are members of the SRA to make themselves better, through various means and media. Before that, I was the Head of Engineering for BurnFM.com between 2005-7 and part my job included studio training.

I intend on covering all possible areas of work that you can get in the radio industry: it's not just limited to presenting. Every month, I'll cover a different area of the radio industry or provide more info as I find new information.

For this first post, I'll cover the possible routes you can take to get experience presenting radio shows.

Presenting a radio show is probably the most visible job you can get in the industry: after all, listeners will hear you voice on a regular basis. However, this makes it the most difficult job to get as competition is incredibly fierce. You won't be able to walk into a presenting job on Radio 1 without experience and can demonstrate your ability and suitability for the station.

There are three easy ways to get experience of presenting radio shows:
Student Radio
Community Radio
Hospital Radio

It shouldn't be too difficult to get air-time through any of these 3 routes, though don't expect to be paid: if anything, you may have to pay a fee to become a member of the station.
Each of these routes has an organisational body: the Student Radio Association, the Community Media Association and the Hospital Broadcasting Association. The websites are the easiest way to find your nearest station.

Student Radio offers the highest flexibility in the entire industry, in that you will gain the maximum amount of freedom to try innovative ideas for features. It is also the best of the three options for specialist music and speech based programming. However, most university radio stations won't allow non-students of the university in which they are based to present: some will, including Loughborough and Birmingham City universities, but the majority usually restrict membership to registered students, mainly for legal reasons.

Most student radio stations operate as a student society or group within a Student Union and most are operated by students in their free time and not as part of a degree. However, degrees in radio are available from some universities: this UCAS search for courses starting in 2009 is a good starting point if you're interested in studying for a degree in radio, which may provide guaranteed presenting time. Degrees in radio are also a good option if you want a non-presenting job.

Community Radio, as the name implies, is about serving a specific group of people: this can be based on a specific area of a city, or a specific ethnic group. While shows on Community Radio will be rewarding and arguably make a better CV addition, shows have to relate directly to the target audience, so you will be more restricted in terms of what you can say than on Student Radio.

The previous paragraph also applies to Hospital Radio, though the target audience is obviously different.

All three options are a good place to start gaining presenting experience and are relatively easy to get involved with. Student Radio stations usually target students during freshers weeks and should provide training and support for new presenters. In the case of Community and Hospital stations, I recommend contacting the Programme Controller or Station Manager directly. Which brings me onto an important point.

Always research the station you're contacting! People prefer to find emails or letters addressed to them by name, rather than their position. It shows that you've found out about the station and have dedicated the time to finding the right people. The personal approach also suggests that you're not sending out the same email or letter to everyone: even just by changing the name on each email you send will make a big difference to the person receiving the email.
By this point you may have noticed that I haven't said anything about what content you should use for a radio show, partly as different people prefer different styles. I'll cover content in a future post but as a starting point, Rad10 has five good articles about what to do when preparing for a show and things to avoid, which should get you started. Content is important and it helps to have thought about it before approaching a station, as you will have a better chance of being awarded a show if you can offer something unique to the station and demand for shows exceeds availability.

Note that there are other options to consider for gaining presenting experience: the British Forces Broadcasting Service is a possible option, as are in-store radio stations (e.g. B&Q Radio). Finally, Media UK is a good place to visit if you're considering working in the radio insdustry. It has lists of radio stations and jobs, both paid and voluntary.
Assuming you're already involved in radio at a voluntary level, how do you progress to a paid job in the industry?

Unfortunately, this has become more difficult in recent months since OFCOM allowed commercial stations to "network" certain stations overnight: essentially employing one person to present a show that is broadcast on multiple stations. That doesn't mean it's impossible to get a job, just a bit harder than it was.

All of the above in this post applies when contacting a commercial or BBC station but you'll need a good demo to have a chance of impressing potential employees... I'll explain how to make a killer demo next month.