New here

Hello,

I am new to this forum. I don't know if anybody here is working in Terrestrial radio in Canada. I am just wondering if there are certain jobs, like receptionists that ends up with them not doing much in radio?

I am from the UK, but it looks like both our countries have a very similar community radio sector. If you volunteer with one of these stations, it is far more likely you will end up doing a "bit of everything" (including producing content as well as admin work or tech support)

These positions are (at least in UK) normally unpaid volunteer work, but you are of course entitled to the digital recording of your show and can use that as a showreel for applying to other jobs in the industry..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_radio_in_Canada

As Canada is big and I don't know where you are exactly, here is a list of every community radio station there..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_radio_stations_in_Canada

Hello,

Sorry for the late reply. I have volunteered in the past in radio. Now I get paid to do little work and sitting around doing not much. I didn't expect to answer phones for others while writing ads (Which is what I am supposed to do as well as help out with traffic which they now don't want me to do). I was promised that I would help out with reception, not take over it. There is no receptionist at my brick and mortar job.

I also create my own podcast, which at this point is voluntary. I haven't been voicing or editing anything at work because the people there don't think that I am qualified for it. Yet, I get 300 to 500 listeners on my podcast every two weeks.

At work, I even tried to ask my boss to get me to do something while waiting for advertisers from top writers and salespeople, and he hasn't. The sales team don't even trust me either. One of them one time back stabbed me when I was having troubles writing for their client. The way that they did that was that they took the client and started to write for them again. By the way, my place of work has five writers (Two of them are salespeople).

Is this a problem to that anybody has experienced? I do like to work in a station where there is constant work.

General Lighting said:

I am from the UK, but it looks like both our countries have a very similar community radio sector. If you volunteer with one of these stations, it is far more likely you will end up doing a "bit of everything" (including producing content as well as admin work or tech support)

These positions are (at least in UK) normally unpaid volunteer work, but you are of course entitled to the digital recording of your show and can use that as a showreel for applying to other jobs in the industry..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_radio_in_Canada

As Canada is big and I don't know where you are exactly, here is a list of every community radio station there..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_radio_stations_in_Canada

Click to expand...

midnightstarr2016 said:

Hello,

Is this a problem to that anybody has experienced? I do like to work in a station where there is constant work.

Click to expand...

its not something I've personally experienced (my last paid work in broadcasting was 20 years ago in the tech/engineering side, my current day job is in IT/telecoms for healthcare), but it is a known problem here in England especially for younger people (<50 years old), female broadcasters, those of minority groups etc, especially on commercial media and has been for a good few decades. on the rare occasions I listen to UK mainstream radio it is mostly the same presenters from 20 years ago and the companies simply aren't hiring (or if they do the pay is less than working in an office or callcentre)

One problem is that a lot of commercial stations consider the ads to be the most important content and don't even care about anything else!

This is precisely why many people no longer listen to "normal" terrestrial radio and prefer podcasts or online content or even pirate broadcasting (its still a whole subculture in the Netherlands and many of those involved are often our parents age group )

Hello General,

Thanks for the message. I am female in her 40s. I've only been working in broadcasting for 6 years. And funny that you should mention podcasting, I do have a podcast out. However, type of podcast that I do is in a niche market and I did try one time to get paid for it. The most I got was $11. At this point I'm waiting until I get 1,000 listeners in order for me to start considering to get paid for that. My last episode I put out had a little over 600 listeners the past two weeks.

General Lighting said:

its not something I've personally experienced (my last paid work in broadcasting was 20 years ago in the tech/engineering side, my current day job is in IT/telecoms for healthcare), but it is a known problem here in England especially for younger people (<50 years old), female broadcasters, those of minority groups etc, especially on commercial media and has been for a good few decades. on the rare occasions I listen to UK mainstream radio it is mostly the same presenters from 20 years ago and the companies simply aren't hiring (or if they do the pay is less than working in an office or callcentre)

One problem is that a lot of commercial stations consider the ads to be the most important content and don't even care about anything else!

This is precisely why many people no longer listen to "normal" terrestrial radio and prefer podcasts or online content or even pirate broadcasting (its still a whole subculture in the Netherlands and many of those involved are often our parents age group )

Click to expand...