The Great Intern Debate - Are Unpaid Internships Illegal?

I recently came across a discussion on the Connecticut Board of Radio-Info calling internships into question. Why should radio stations not pay interns? This is, of course, relevant to other industries. But I'm going to stick with radio here for the most part.

A little of my history... I got into radio at the age of 24, which is actually kind of late to get started in the industry. I was a student at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. I was a part of the college radio station, WOWL, and absolutely fell in love with radio. Part of my curriculum as a Communications major was that I had to do an internship. There were 2 major radio stations in the area... WPLR (99 Rock), which was a rock station, and WKCI (KC 101) which was a CHR. I always preferred rock, so the natural inclination would have been to go to WPLR. However, I knew a number of people who interned at both stations, and the folks that went to WKCI seemed to always get hired out of their internship, while WPLR gave them a handshake and sent them on their way (for the most part). So I gritted my teeth and went to 'KCI. And 3 months after I started interning, I got hired part-time to run the board for the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40". After that, they started giving me weekend airshifts, and I eventually got hired as the Full-Time Assistant Promotions Director. And it happened because I worked hard in the internship. When I wasn't at school, I spent my time at the radio station. Doing anything I could to learn what was going on. Since then, I have worked as the Marketing & Promotions Director at stations such as WTIC-AM, WTIC-FM (96.5 TIC), WRKO-AM, WRKI-FM (I-95), and WDBY-FM (Y105). I have also had the good fortune to be an air personality at WKCI-FM, WQGN (Q105),WDAQ-FM (98Q), WTIC-FM, WRKI-FM, and WDAQ-FM.

In order to write this post, I wanted to see what others thought. I conducted a very intense, focused, and expensive survey. OK, I posed the question on my Facebook account and let my friends comment.

To begin with, interns receive college credit for their internship. Essentially, it's a class. You don't sit through a history class in college and collect a paycheck at the end of the hour. Interns are going to their radio station to learn about the business and whether or not they even want to get into radio as a career. Anne said, "I loved my internship at WPLR.. was there for 4 years,
learned all kinds of good things... like I didn't want to work in commercial radio! Very valuable information when your still in college trying to figure things out!"

And Gina points out that, "My college internship at Z100 in NYC was a fabulous experience, both professionally and personally. I lived with a cousin and his family for the summer. This type of experience forces you to be resourceful, responsible and teaches the value of hard work. Too many young people today expect everything to be handed to them...entitled to be compensated for merely existing! There's no need for a person who's not even left college with a degree yet to be paid...they have no experience to hang thier hat on and they are there to LEARN, not to be paid. Payment comes when you've earned a hired position there. Internships are a great way to get there."

The problem becomes that people view interns as unpaid labor. I suppose, in a sense, that it is. I know that when I was running internship programs, I completely depended on them. But, again... college credit. They have to be there AS IF IT WERE A CLASS. And when the time came that I needed to hire a new staff person, guess who I hired! Think about it... wouldn't you rather hire someone that you already know than someone from the outside? When I was at Cumulus in Danbury, I probably hired 50% of my promotions interns into part-time promotion coordinator positions. My Program Director would also hire them as part-time board operators and personalities. Not bad for your first real radio job! Greg mentioned, "Unpaid internships are like getting a clunker for your first car - you need to be humbled before moving on to better things." It's true! I've seen too many people walk into my radio stations thinking that they could do (and deserved to do) whatever they wanted!

The first rule of radio is that you're not nearly as good as you think you are. The second rule is that commercial radio is NOT anything like college radio. Do you think you're going to come in, start off in Afternoon Drive, and get to play whatever you want? Think again... You're most likely going to start off in the promotions department, helping us to set up remote broadcasts, hanging banners, giving out prizes, and LEARNING TO TALK TO THE PUBLIC! You see... it's more than just hanging banners. You need to get out and learn who the listeners are. The station is more about them than it is about you. Why are they fans? What do THEY want to hear? What do THEY want the radio station to be? After that process, you may get the chance to run the board for a syndicated show or get a weekend overnight shift (some stations still put people on at 3am), and for that... you will be paid. Probably minimum wage, but paid, nonetheless.

Wherever I worked, internships were primarily in the promotions department. Simply, it's the place that needs the most help. Unfortunately, in this day and age with automation, there is not really anything for an intern to do in the studio. I would encourage them to go into the studio (with the DJs permission) and just sit there and absorb. Todd made an intersting comment,"I believe a good internship allows for the intern to embrace the roles that peak their interests and shape their long term credibility. They should also be allowed to avoid what disinterests them. For instance an aspiring radio news reporter intern should NOT be assigned to assist the sales department. Chances are this model of freedom could only exist if the intern is NOT on the payroll. Once you are compensated by someone else, you are under an obligation to meet their requirements and expectations" I actually don't agree with this. A good internship is going to give the intern a well-rounded vision of what goes on. Maybe they thought they were interested in news, but after getting exposed to the sales department, maybe they would decide that perhaps that is the direction that they want to go. The cool thing about interning in promotions, is that it is one of the only dpeartment that interacts with every other department in the station.

Most radio companies require that that the internship exchange for school credit. Therefore it's NOT illegal because the student is actually receiving something. As Samantha points out, "If interns are getting college credit or trade school credit, they don't need to be paid and that should be legal. But if you are hiring an "intern" and not requiring that they are getting credit, the company should pay at least minimum wage or else it is free labor. Too many companies are trying to save money by eliminating paying positions in favor of having interns do the work." I actually see both sides of this argument. When I was running the internship program at Cumulus in Danbury, I was allowed to hire interns who were NOT doing it for credit. And the simple fact is that they were, for the most part, better interns. These were the people that wanted to do it because they loved radio and wanted to get their foot in. Interns doing it for credit were sometimes there only because it was a "blow-off" class.

Kirk feels that interns should be paid based on what they do, "It depends on the quality of the program too. Most of what I did was marketing, not broadcasting. No one asked to hear a sample hour of me on cassette or explained a format clock to me. That all happened at WXCI in college. My coop was at WTXX (a television station) in Prospect and that was much more hands-on. The GM and I had to meet every week to see what I was doing. That never happened at RKI. So, I should have been compensated at the "I" but not at TXX." This raises a good point... my question for Kirk would be did he ask anyone to listen to an aircheck or ask to have clocks explained? He may have... I didn't know him at the time. But to get the most out of an internship, the person has to ask. You will only get out of it what you put in. If you show the Program Director that you are interested in these things, I'm sure he/she will go out of the way to help. Corey, who is a chef and not in radio (but certainly knows about it second hand because he is my brother) mentioned "For my industry, I think a short unpaid stage is OK...but not a full internship....with this said...once hired, it is the Chef's responsibility to train you for your station...the other stuff you want to learn....that's up to you to make yourself available and pay attention too."

Kirk takes a different point of view than me... "It really depends on the internship. College students should be paid a stipend. Back in the 80's, I Interned for I-95 (WRKI). I mostly drove all over Fairfield County delivering I-95 Gazettes to advertisers without being compensated for gas and mileage. I accepted this because I knew that it was an opportunity. Bruce Goldsen and I did a Remote at the New Milford Burger King once and I did the Oyster Fest. What I got out of it was some concert tickets and T-shirts, Bart Gannon would let me fool around in the Prod Room while he was on the air. What I learned is that there was no way that I'd be on the air without experience; which is why I enrolled at WestConn for WXCI." I don't believe they should be paid a stipend. I DO believe that hey should be reimbursed for expenses such as gas. Or better... they should be allowed to drive the station vehicles. Get the logo out on the streets! But some insurance companies don't allow it because technically, an intern is not an employee. When I was with I-95, interns WERE allowed to drive the station vehicles.

And then there is the question of the fact that owners are laying off people by the thousands. If they are not paying the experienced, why would they pay the people trying to learn? As Andrea says, "If radio stations have to pay for interns there won't be any. Radio stations are too cheap to even keep seasoned part-timers on staff, do you really think they would shell out any cash for someone with NO experience?"

I think what it comes down to is whether or not you really want to break into the business. If the person is trying to learn the industry, there is no better way to do it then through an internship... whether it's paid or unpaid. Like I said before, if you are doing it for credit, it's a college class. I also believe that if you are doing it as a "volunteer" (not for credit), it's your choice. I volunteer for the American Cancer Society handling publicity for a local Relay For Life. Should I start insisting that the Cancer Society pay me? Of course not! I do it for personal reasons, and truthfully, for professional reasons, as well. I have been very open in that the Cancer Society is an organization that I would someday like to work for. My hope is that they would take my work as a volunteer into consideration when deciding whether to hire me. If a radio station hires an intern for credit, it's not illegal. And if they hire a volunteer, I don't think it should be considered illegal. That person is doing it for a chance to gain experience in an industry that they might have no hope of breaking into otherwise. And besides, they are getting all kinds of perks like concert tickets and t-shirts!

Is the Radio Performance Tax Reverse Payola?

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of payola is "Undercover or indirect payment (as to a disc jockey) for a commercial favor (as for promoting a particular recording)."

There are two bills in congress, H.R. 848 and S.379, that, if passed into law, would levy fees against radio stations for playing music. Wait... WHAT??? Isn't that one of the things radio is supposed to do? Play music so that people will hear it and then go out and BUY it?

To listen to the record companies and the artists themselves, you would think that radio is stealing their product. Since the dawn of entertainment-based broadcasting, radio has been used as a means to help promote music and artists. You hear the song, like it, and purchase it. Payola was even used as a mans to get radio stations to play songs more often because, say it with me... MORE AIRPLAY MEANS MORE SALES!!!

Now that the record companies are having trouble staying financially in the black, they are looking for new streams of revenue. Hey... let's charge the people that are helping us a fee. Keep in mind, that radio stations ALEADY pay a licensing fee for the music.

Radio is already in enough trouble. The major groups are all starting to file for bankruptcy protection, literally thousands of employees are being laid off, and syndication is becoming more the rule than the exception. Let's face it... from a financial standpoint, it's cheaper to have Ryan Seacrest host 100 of your morning shows than to actually pay for 100 morning shows. I'm not saying radio is innocent in all of this. Consolidation has more or less killed the industry. But... that is a different issue. If these bills pass into legislation, even more people will lose their jobs, and the small radio operators will probably disappear altogether. You will see a good majority of stations switch to talk/news/sports formats. In a lot of cases, it will be cheaper to just shut the transmitters down and call it a day. College radio? forget it... it will completely cease to exist.

And of course, the artist themselves are up in arms over this. "How dare radio play my music without compensating me?" Ummm... let's go back to paragraph #1. Airplay translates into sales. It's promotion. You provide the content, radio turn that into sales. And NOT just sales of music. We're talking ticket sales for concerts and merchandise... both multi-billion dollar industries. Bono has been one of the most outspoken performers in support of the tax. And he's one of the richest people in the galaxy! Click Here to read what the NAB had to say in response to Bono. I certainly understand that Bono does a LOT of charity work. I appreciate that. But if it wasn't for media airplay from early MTV and radio, U2 wouldn't be around today and Bono would probably be a bartender in Dublin instead of owning half of the city! Why do you think artists like the Grateful Dead, Phish, and Dave Matthews ENCOURAGE people to record and trade their music? They know that they might lose some music sales, but they are gaining in merchandise and ticket sales. And The Dead have been around in one form or another for almost 50 years! Sounds like they know what they are doing!

The only music you would probably hear on the radio is that of the biggest artists in the world... the U2s, Rolling Stones, Britney Spears... If you were a new artist trying to get heard, it wouldn't happen. Whatever happened to the thrill of a new artist hearing their song on the radio for the first time?

Yes... the musicians have a right to be paid for their material. I'm not disputing that. But it is the responsibility of the record companies to pay that. NOT the people trying to help them sell more records. If more artists were to examine their contracts BEFORE they signed them, or learned to negotiate better deals, then this wouldn't be an issue.

And how would radio pay for these fees if passed? Well, other than laying off even more people, advertising. I think that most "casual" listeners of radio would agree that there are too many commercials as it is. I think that a good average would be 12 to 13 commercials per hour split into 3 commercial "stopsets." If these laws pass, I have no doubt whatsoever that 20 minutes of commercials per hour would become common.

The record companies know they screwed up big-time when they didn't jump on the digital bandwagon. And now they are trying to make up for lost time. Piracy is rampant and it's because the music industry DIDN'T see digital music as a viable platform. For the record (no pun intended), my iPod currently has well over 28,000 songs on it, and it fits in my pocket. How many CDs would I need? The music industry needs to learn to embrace new platforms, not just decide to stick with the old ways of doing business. If they did this back in 1997, there would have been more safeguards against music piracy in place BEFORE it became a major issue.

So... back to the original question. Is this tax a form of revere payola? I think the answer is "yes." even though payola is illegal, record companies embraced it for years as a way to get their artists more "PROMOTION" by getting records more spins on the air. Now they are asking, no... demanding that radio pay them for the right to promote their music.

I would encourage people to take a look at this website... www.noperformancetax.org to get more information.

Crazy Radio Stalker Story #2

Last month I told you about "Linda"... one of our stalkers. Now I'm going to tell you about "Bob."

I've worked for a lot of radio stations in all formats. I've found that the rock format not only has the most loyal fans, but it also spawns some of the craziest fans. "Bob" technically lived outside of our market, but certainly within listening range. And he was one of our most rabid fans. Here's a few stories:

"Bob" really thought he was one of the group. He liked to call the listener line and talk to us about... well... really nothing. There was one time when on of our weekend jocks received a call, and recorded it. "Bob" went on and on about his personal life, his love life, his money issues, etc... and after about 20 minutes, our DJ finally interrupted him and said he was sorry about putting him on hold, and could he please repeat what had been said. Of course, he was never really on hold. And yes, it was a little cruel. But that recording kept us in stitches for weeks!

There was a time when our morning jocks were lamenting on the air about how they wish they had remembered to record a bit they had run. "Bob", who lived an hour away showed up at our doorstep an hour later, cassette tape in hand. He told me that he called in sick to work in order to drive that tape up to us. Nice thought... but really... who does that? It's certainly not worth taking a sick day for. Especially because our morning jocks really didn't care. They were just making a comment on the air.

"Bob", like any good stalker, liked to come to as many radio appearances as humanly possible. There was one weekend when my station was set up at a fair that lasted 3 days. Being the promotions director, I was there pretty much the whole time. On Saturday, I had gotten there around 6:30 in the morning. It was the middle of August, and admittedly, by 9:00pm, my patience was pretty much shot. I was hot, tired, sweaty, and all I wanted to do was go home, take a shower and climb into bed. This is when "Bob" showed up. He literally cornered me and talked at me for 1/2 hour. I hated to do this, but one of our weekend jocks/receptionist was about 20 feet away. Kelly is one of the nicest and sweetest people you could ever meet. And a very good friend of mine. And I completely threw her under the bus! I asked "Bob" if he had ever met her. He said he hadn't, so I introduced them and made my escape! The next day Kelly told me he talked at her for over half an hour! Years later, I'm STILL apologizing!

And here's the capper... my phone rang one day and "Bob" was on the other end. He had a GREAT idea that he wanted to run by me. As I mentioned earlier, he lived out of market. He was telling me that he noticed that we didn't have much of a presence in his city. I explained to him that we were concentrating on our market and it didn't really matter that we didn't have a visual presence where he lived. He completely ignored me. His idea was that he wanted to get his car logo'd for us! Um.... NO!!!!! I understand, and appreciate radio fans, but he was really taking it too far. Thankfully, I was able to talk him out of it. Nothing like having your station's logo on a beat up 1985 Dodge Aries!

The point is that you have to be careful about the fans of you radio station. NEVER eat cookies that a fan baked and brought to to you. NEVER give out personal information. ALWAYS find somebody to walk to your car with late at night. "Bob" and "Linda" were harmless... but you don't know when one of these fans could just snap. Just ask my former night jock who had an angry fan show up at the station with a loaded gun...

Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy Radio Stalker Story

We've all seen them... they come out to every remote your station does. They call in constantly on the listener lines. They show up unexpectedly at the radio station at all times of the day. Yes, I'm talking about the crazy P1 stalk... er... listeners.

While I've never had one of my own stalkers, I have had the experience of sharing one with the rest of the airstaff. We'll call her "Linda" for the sake of argument and to protect the guilty.

I was working for a rock station, and "Linda" was a huge fan. She was "39 year old heterosexual female, liked to smoke Marlboro cigarettes, and drink Budweiser Beer." How do I know this? She put it in the letter that she sent to one of our morning show hosts. I should also mention that the letter wasn't written on stationery or even on a nice sheet of paper. No... it was written on a series yellow post-it notes that also included a crudely drawn map for said morning host to find her house! "Linda" also sent every single one of our jocks a letter that day. Each one personalized, and written in a different form. Aside from the post-it notes letters arrived written on paper, 3 x 5 cards, and even one written on an envelope. Not all of us received maps to her house, though.

"Linda" also had the habit of showing up at remotes to just hang out. The first time I met her, we were doing a remote at a Quiznos. It was also the day of our annual listener halloween party. She was the first person at the remote and proudly told me that she was coming to the party that night. I had no idea at this point who she was or how I was inviting a world of crazy upon our doorstep. I politely thanked her for listening and wound up giving her a t-shirt. But she stuck around for the entire remote to help us "promote" the radio station, and by that, I mean scare people off! And true to her word, she showed up at the Halloween party that night. In fact, she was the first on line! While we were still setting up! At this point, she had integrated herself into our lives and thought she was one of us.

There was one particular day when I decided to go to one of my favorite delis for lunch. I took one of the station vehicles (get the logo out as much as you can). As I was leaving, I heard someone call my name. I looked up and "Linda" was standing on the porch of the apartment over the deli. I didn't know until then that that was where she lived. "I saw the van and thought you were coming to visit!" Ummm.... no. Now I can never go to one of my favorite delis ever again!

Coming soon, I will tell you about "Bob"... who is even crazier!

Community Relations & the Radio Station

In this world of focusing on generating income from advertising, voice-tracking, and cutting of staffs, I'm always afraid that radio will lose sight of it's involvement in the community. Specifically in being there for all of the non-profits that are also feeling the pinch of the economy. I have always been a big believer in the fact that radio needs to be a part of as many non-profit campaigns as humanly possible. Part of this comes from having worked in the non-profit world as a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, but also from my sense of wanting to do the right thing.

Now I understand that fielding all if the calls for help can be a daunting task. the way I always liked to handle it, and take it for what you will, was that if was working with the big charities such as the American Cancer Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association, The National MS Society, The Red Cross... you see where I'm going with this... is take on those causes. No questions asked. Whatever they need, we were there for. PSA's, participating in events, helping to recruit teams, interviews... you name it.

Unfortunately, for the smaller groups like the church holding a book sale... we had to cut back. We would run PSA's and put them in the community section of the web site. If time and staff allowed, we would send a street team and a van.

I'm not saying to ignore the smaller groups, but you have to allot for time and resources.

Here's a personal example of what being involved in the community has included. I'm a cancer survivor. At my last radio job, I wondered why we weren't involved in any of the local "Relay For Life" events in our area. I called the Director of Communications for our region and arranged a meeting with her. She told me that they had been working with our competitor for years, and the Cancer Society wasn't particularly happy with them. But the volunteer committees that actually ran the events kept insisting. I asked her what they did and she replied that they would run some PSAs and show up with a van for a little while. I laid out my plan for her which included not only the PSAs, but they would be on all three of my radio stations, interviews on 2 of them, assistance in recruiting teams, web site inclusion (a whole page dedicated to Relay), showing up for the events, having our jocks do the kick-off and in one case singing the National Anthem, help in recruiting entertainment, and so on. When the person I was speaking with asked me how much this was all going to cost.. well, I was caught off-guard. My response was "What do you mean cost???" Apparently, our competitor charged non-profits. this is a HUGE no-no in my book. When I told her nothing, I thought she was nearly going to faint.

As it turned out, this was a huge win for my radio stations. Not only did we do something for the good of the community, but it was a win-win for everybody. It gave the American Cancer Society some much needed publicity and gave the stations that "warm-fuzzy" with the community.

We not only under-promised and over-delivered, but we were awarded the ACS' award for Best Media. One of the accomplishments I'm most proud of in my career.

If you're radio station has a minimal involvement in the programs like this, consider taking a more active role. It will only reflect well.

The Radio Promotions Director - An (abbreviated) Job Description

I've spent the better part of my career in radio promotions. I've worked in small markets (Danbury, CT), large markets (Hartford, CT), and major markets (Boston, MA). The one question that seems to be a constant throughout my career has been, "What exactly do you do?"

That's actually not an easy question to answer. The thing that most people expect is that I'm the guy that just goes out and hangs banners and balloons. And yes, while that is a very small part of the job, there is so much more.

I guess the best way to start this discussion is that the Promotions Director is the person in the radio station that directly interacts with every single other department. From programming to sales, production, traffic, business, engineering, even reception. I also like to describe it as the person that the receptionist sends all the phone calls to when he/she has no idea where they are supposed to go.

Even though the jocks are the "faces" of the station, the promotion director is generally the mouth. When the jocks don't want to answer an awkward question, it usually comes to the Promotions Director.

The Promotions Director generally works very closely with the General Manager and the Program Director to plot the marketing course for the station. Everything from how to brand the station, logo design, web presence, and so forth. You also have to work closely with the sales department to develop promotional programs for station clients. This is actually tricky because you have to make these programs fit in with the aforementioned branding and presence of the radio station. Here's a simplistic example... You are a classic rock station, but your client wants you to give away tickets to, say, Britney Spears. How do you do this? Well, you don't. This annoys not only the client, but the sales rep who already promised the client that we would do it. NOTE TO SALES... Please do NOT promise anything to a client until it has either passed through promotions or programming.

Most of the time, though, I've enjoyed putting together sales promotions. We usually have really cool prizes to give away, make much needed revenue for the station, and can look larger than life. While I was the Promotion Director in Danbury, I worked closely with a local travel agency who got us lots of trips to give away... cruises, Rio, a private concert with Jimmy Buffet in Anguilla. Plus we've given away backyard makeovers including new patios, grills, hot tubs, landscaping. Cars are always fun prizes to give away.

Sales promotions could also be very turn-key programs. The client places a buy and wants to give away tickets to their event. Simple enough. Divide the tickets up throughout the day. Usually with an emphasis on AM Drive and PM Drive. Have the jock take caller 9, include the :10 second tag and you're done.

The problem with sales promotions is that in a lot of cases, the sales rep is focused on getting the sale and will promise the client things that are impossible to pull off, or are, quite frankly, not worth putting together based on the amount of the buy. Not true in all cases... I've certainly had my fair share of salespeople who "got it". Who would sit down with me and discuss possibilities and what would work best for not only the client, but also the station. But it seems that at every station I've worked at, there was the one sales rep that made my life a living nightmare. Ironically, the one from my last station is someone I still keep in touch with and she will still come to me for ideas. Which I like. It helps keep my unemployed brain active.

Events: This is where a promotion director can really shine. I would say that about 80% of the events are pretty turn-key. Usually remote broadcasts where the station will show up at the client with the van, a tent, some prizes, and a jock who will do a series of 1:00 minute live spots imploring you to "Come down to XXXX Honda for Midnight Madness. The best deals of the year are here now!" But there are other events... festivals, consumer shows, seminars. I've loved working on each and every one of them.

Public Relations: Somebody has to get the word out to people outside of your listenership. My job consisted of writing press releases, being the station spokesperson, being interviewed, etc.

Community Relations: This warrants an entirely different blog post which will hopefully be coming soon.

Staff management: Weirdly enough, when I worked in a major market, I had an assistant. That's it. And he split time between my station and the other AM station in the cluster. In the tiny market of Danbury, I had a full-time assistant, 8 per-diem part-timers, and at any given time 5 to 25 interns. Go figure. My job was to hire, in some cases fire, train, schedule (though I usually delegated that to the assistant), and try to keep everybody happy.

Vendor relations: I was responsible for seeking out and growing relationships with all kinds of vendors. People who made our t-shirts and premium items for giveaways, graphic designers, auto body shops (station vans get dinged), etc... Most of the time with little or no budget to work with. Advertising trade was my savior!

There is so much more to this job that I can ever put into one post. I'll add more in the future. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you have to say. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Hi... My Name Is Eric. And I'm a Radio-Holic.

Hi there! My name is Eric Seigel and like many of my radio brethren, I'm currently unemployed. OK, not completely. I serve people coffee at Starbucks. But I'm otherwise unemployed. I have a long history in radio...

Here's a quick resume... I started in 1992 as an intern and Assistant Promotions Director at WKCI (KC 101) in New Haven, CT. Did some on-air there as well. I spent the summer of 1995 at WQGN (Q105) in Groton, CT on-air. From 1995 to 2000 I worked at WTIC AM&FM in Hartford in several positions including on-air, Promotions Director, and National Sales Promotion Director. Somewhere in this time frame I also worked on the client side as an Account Director for a radio promotions agency called TMPG. In 2000, I got a call out of the blue inviting me to interview for the Promotions Director job at WRKO-AM in Boston. I took the job and stayed a little less than a year. After a stint of unemployment, I got out of radio and became a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Although, I wasn't out of radio completely. I started doing weekend airshifts at the radio station that I grew up listening to. WRKI (I-95) in Danbury, CT. When the Marketing Director left, they offered me the job. Which I promptly turned down. 5 times. Realizing how much I missed the business, I eventually took the job overseeing marketing and promotions for both I-95 and WDBY (Y-105). 3 years after that, apparently it was time to "make a change". 2 years after that... well, I can make a mean 1/2 caf grande non-fat sugar-free vanilla extra carmel carmel macchiato.

I'm looking forward to blogging about my experiences. A lot of my posts will be about radio through the eyes of a promotions person. I hope that you find them interesting and leave comments. I have a personal blog (which sorely needs to be updated) where you can see my resume (you know... if you're hiring) called Blogged Down.

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