Posted by HOC on October 30, 2012 at 14:17:26:
In Reply to: When radio was good posted by Chris on October 30, 2012 at 13:06:57:
Oooh! Fun topic. I'll start. I'm in my mid-30's and was fired a few years ago from Clear Channel Madison in one of the Bain Capital restructuring phases.
The best time for me was around 2000. This was the beginning of the downhill direction but still provided lots of opportunities for newbies to get in and for old-timers to collect decent pay and dignity.
I was on-air at Z104 and unofficially heading Production and Imaging. I made about $40,000 a year which is good money in Madison. I had a side job doing voiceovers which brought me another $15,000-$20,000 depending on the year. Jeff Tyler let me market myself to clients who were advertising on Z. I became the voice for many companies who were also doing TV campaigns, along with their phone system greeter, promotional video narrations, etc.
Weekends on Z104 were live and local, aside from American Top 40 and Club Z's actual production (a live jock hosted Club Z though). It was a great place for youngsters to cut their teeth.
Voicetracking was just starting to really catch on and you were actually being paid okay to do the voicetracking.
Ah, yes..