How can I become a Radio Broadcaster?

Radio broadcasters present news, sports, gossip, music and currents events over the airways
to an audience. They may also interview guests and promote local events and festivals. Radio
stations often focus their content on a certain subject or area. For example, some stations will
play rock or country music, while others will broadcast sporting events or news shows.
In addition to working on the radio, broadcasters may also make promotional appearances.
Some of these workers are self-employed, which allows them to set their schedules and
possibly work from home. However, the radio industry can be stressful, with plenty of deadlines.
Many radio stations run 24 hours a day, which might require some late hours.

Career Requirements
Requirements for this career vary by employer; however, applicants can anticipate they'll be
expected to possess strong speaking, research, reading, and writing skills. Radio broadcasters
are skilled in interviewing and moderating guests and providing commentary alongside callers
and news stories. They perform technical skills on broadcast automation systems, control and
mixer boards, and CD players. Radio broadcasters generally work flexible schedules.

Degree
Bachelor's degree
Level
Journalism, communications or broadcast communication may include
Degree
courses in speech, news reporting, broadcast writing, sound production and
Field
interpersonal communication
Key Skills Speaking, research, reading, and writing
Salary
£33,220/year
(May 2019)
Steps to Be a Radio Broadcaster- training needs and
opportunities
Radio broadcasters generally have a combination of education and experience.

Step 1: Complete Training

To start off training to be a radio broadcaster, you will need some sort of good
portfolio to ensure you have the experience to go all the way in this industry. As a
radio broadcaster, you can work up to 45-47 hours per week and these shifts may
need you to work evenings and weekends. You can get into radio presenting
through college courses, voluntary work, applying directly, or through specialist
training courses. To be successful in being a radio broadcaster, you will have so
many responsibilities such as research the topics and background information for
items to be featured on the programme, a big one really and that’s to plan and
rehearse shows, playing music and know when it’s the right time to start playing
the music. What to expect as being a radio broadcaster is working conditions
vary, depending on the broadcast medium of the programme. For example,
conditions for a presenter on a small local radio station with a show in the middle
of the night will be vastly different from those for a high profile celebrity with a
prime-time television show. You’ll have a public image to maintain and as a result,
must be prepared for some loss of privacy. Much of the national broadcast
industry is centred in London and MediaCityUK in Salford. Most presenters,
particularly those on national radio and television, employ an agent to negotiate
working terms and conditions on their behalf. You don’t need a degree to become
a radio presenter as employers tend to look more for experience and particular
skills. However, some degree, HND and foundation degree subjects may be useful
and could provide you with relevant knowledge that can be used in the job. They
include, broadcast, radio, television or media production, Drama and performing
arts, journalism and media or communications skills.

Step 2: Gain Work Experience

There is a whole deal of work experience that I can get in and around Radio
broadcasting in Warrington. We have three different types of radio stations here in
Warrington that are open to listen too. You have the main source of a radio station
in Warrington Radio that re-named not too long ago from ‘Wire FM’. Getting work
experience with Warrington Radio could open up to so many opportunities and
put you in a good place when applying for jobs in the future. They discuss
different topics such as Politics, Sport, Nature and Events to broaden your
interests and to keep everyone listening. They also commentate every Warrington
Wolves home game and a couple of away games so that could possibly get my
work experience up from doing that. They also have Reports and score updates
from all Warrington Town FC games with interviews, scores, pre-match and
post-match reports and much more. They also play locally produced music and
interview local bands to get the locals used to our own bands and support them.
We also have Lymm Radio that we can get work experience from and we are
actually doing a task for them when we have completed all of our Film tasks about
something that we take interest in and put in a portfolio when completed. They
also broadcast for 24 hours a day and they have around 40 volunteers that roter
all the shifts. When the Government announced nationwide lock-down measures
on 23rd March 2020, Lymm Radio had the idea to create a radio streaming service
to keep their fellow neighbours entertained, supported and informed through the
uncertain times that lay ahead. They had originally planned to run the service for
three months, but the response from they’re listeners was overwhelming, leading
us to develop a full scale radio station for Lymm and South Warrington.

We also have the hospital radio station dedicated for anyone in the hospital so we
could help out there to gain more experience and what it’s like being in and
around our radio knowledge for when we go on and find a job in the future. At
Warrington Hospital patients on the wards are able to listen to the hospital radio
station brought to them by Hospedia. All you need to do is, on arrival at the ward,
simply pick up the 'phone, press the operator button and register for free. Radio
General is on the air 24 hours a day with music to cater for all tastes. Programmes
include your music requests, live commentaries of the Warrington Wolves rugby
league matches as well as programmes of local interest. Concerts are also
broadcast live from the Parr Hall and events from around the town are relayed
over the air. On Sundays, the Church of England service is broadcast live from the
hospital chapel.

Step 3: Begin Entry-Level Work

Broadcast Media Internship at

Leading Broadcast PR Agency

Are you a recent graduate with at least a 2:1 or higher in Journalism, English, Media, Marketing or
Public Relations with a desire to fast-track your career?

The Relations Group media and client teams are so busy right now and are looking to recruit a few
enthusiastic and creative Interns to join our team!

Our paid Internship allows you to dip your toes in a variety of tasks - the responsibilities range from
liaising with the media, generating ideas, researching news stories and stats, tracking coverage and
media relations. The ideal candidate will have first class communication skills and a passion for
broadcast and radio.

The candidate should embody the following attributes:

Personality: You will need to stand out from the crowd and put your personality into everything you
do, whether that’s talking to media contacts like radio presenters, TV producers or news editors, or
holding brainstorms with other colleagues.

A Natural Communicator: You will be spending a lot of time talking to seasoned journalists and
producers so the ability to be articulate and eloquent is very important.

Phone Friendly: This is no place for anyone with a fear of the phones, it’s a busy environment and
may require patching in on conference calls, networking and building rapport to influence broadcast
journalists and radio presenters.

Enthusiasm: All team members at the Relations Group are passionate about what we do and we’ll
expect no les from you. We want someone who has a fresh perspective and is creative and eager to
learn and develop new skills.

Tenacious: In the early days you may spend lots of time contacting the media to sell-in news and
feature stories and not all ideas and content will generate interest, therefore you need to be
adaptable and tenacious – maintaining focus and drive.

Creativity: You will need to identify what makes a story interesting for different radio presenters, TV
newsrooms or websites. Identify the hook and make it relevant to their audience and your ideas will
turn into stories that will be broadcast to millions of people throughout the UK - week in, week out!

Calm Under-Pressure: This is a role where you need to influence people every day! You will have
targets and deadlines so if you are easily stressed then please don't apply.

Research: You will need to create original content and may need to do desk research or track down
new media contacts - so an ability to research quickly is essential.

Writing: There will be opportunities to write content for the company websites, blog, and media
property platforms. You must have a keen eye for detail and a fresh outlook.
As a growing agency, we like to nurture exceptional talent; some of our best staff became full-time
employees after an initial internship. You will be contacting radio presenters and producers offering
them spokespeople for radio interviews, writing engaging blogs for our sites and social media,
researching celebrity spokespeople and brainstorming ideas based on the current news agenda.

It will be a steep learning curve in the world of broadcast PR with a genuine opportunity to impress
and be offered a full-time position. Enthusiasm and determination are more important than
qualifications. If you have the right qualities, then get in contact.

Recruitment practices for radio jobs

In the recruitment process, getting people into radio broadcasting on
radio stations would look at different factors to make sure that you
are looking for the right person and for their ability to get to the top.
The people who would recruit radio broadcasters would look at all
their portfolio and see what they’re strengths and weaknesses are
and to identify them to improve the employer. They would also look at
their disciplinary procedures to see if they’re record is clean and that
they haven’t been in any serious trouble that could affect the radio’s
reputation which effectively could lose viewers. They would also
make an inquiry to their recent employers that the employer worked
for to see how the person was in work settings and to ensure he is the
right person for the job, they could ask anyone this from their
teachers from school or bosses from work.

Identify short middle and long terms goals

Short term goals

In the short-term goals of being a radio broadcast, I should pass my
qualifications from what I am doing in Media Studies and try to find
some work experience in and around the radio broadcasting industry.
I will be doing some work experience with Lymm Radio as a piece
from them of our choice and get to make and edit it to what we like.
Medium term goals
For the medium term goals, I could pass the level 3 course of media
and get a diploma and then try to get a full-time job after completing
the course in radio broadcasting because I would have the experience
to do so. Could also go to a University such as UCFB or Preston Uni
to do something like sports broadcasting or just broadcasting in
general which will put me in a good position going forward.
Long term goals
The long-term goals will be getting a full time job being a radio
broadcast somewhere after getting all the experience that I possibly
need to be a good radio broadcaster and wouldn’t need to stress with
anything. I would also help younger ages on tips and tricks so they
can learn from the experts and give them opportunities to ensure they
do well in the industry.

Keeping up to date with the industry

I will keep up to date with the industry by continuously listening to radio

shows and to do any research to improve myself as a radio broadcaster and
to take any detail in what I can for when I get into the industry. I could also
look at radio industry magazines that I could see to see the latest news and
developments of radio and if there are any jobs going around that I can get
work experience in and upgrade my knowledge on radio broadcasting. I could
also interview big radio broadcasters for their tips and tricks on how to
become a radio broadcaster and what I need to do to ensure I do a good job
in it.

https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/

https://www.radiotimes.com/

https://monocle.com/