Friday Five - radio stuff

Five things you might not have known about radio:

1)  All commercials are either 30 seconds long or 60 seconds long.  There are some very special commercials that might be longer, like 2 minutes long, but those are more like mini-programs, and advertisers pay through the teeth for them.  We hate those.  However, they do allow us time to get a beverage refill.

2)  We don't call them commercials.  We call them "spots".  Or, we call them "30s" or "60s".  As in, "I have to record four 60s before I go home today."

3)  Some advertisers don't pay cash for their spots.  Sometimes we trade.  That flashy station vehicle you see at remote broadcasts?  We traded spots for it.  That's why you'll hear ads for that car dealer so often.  Those station t-shirts we give away like they're free?  Same thing.

4)  Speaking of car dealers, you'll hear more of their ads at the end of the month.  They're trying to meet their monthly sales goals, and if they're short, they'll advertise like crazy.  The more commercials you hear, the better chance you can negotiate a good bargain.  (We're not allowed to play two car dealers in the same commercial break.  Some months, it's difficult to sort them all into their own breaks.)

5)  Most radio djs make a little over minimum wage.  We make extra cash by doing outside voice work.  (Not the commercials we record for our station's clients.  We do those as part of our job.)  Sometimes, we get to endorse a product like a car dealership or cable TV for free product... such as a free car lease or free cable service which we have to claim as cash income on our taxes.  (A lot of the time, we don't even like the product as much as we claim we do on the air, but the deal is so tempting, it is a lot like selling one's soul.) 
Syndicated personalities do make the big bucks, but again, most of that money comes from endorsements and personal appearances.