Moonlighting as sports talk radio host

Which is why some newspapers are questioning the need to have writers appear on TV and radio.

 

I had the flexibility that I could leave if a press conference was called when I was supposed to be on the air. I think I could count on one hand how many times it was an issue in the three years I did it.

Since I did the morning show, we were talking about the stories that were in that day's paper. News that hadn't been in the paper yet was almost never an issue. Our paper and website would be plugged probably 4-5 times an hour.

Plus I got between $200-$250 a week, so there was that too...

 

But again, Traveling is a sports editor. Even at a smaller daily, that's really time-consuming.

I know our SE is moving nonstop for eight hours -- and he doesn't work any desk.

I think it would be really tough to moonlight in sports radio.

 

Understand that the station will try to underpay you. A radio hand once told me he'd ask for the revenue from two 30-second spots per hour on the air, net (before agency discount). A station might be selling 16-20 minutes of ads per hour. He gets the cash from one minute an hour. Even in a small market, it adds up.

 

Ironically, Ron Swanson had the answer on tonight's show:

"Don't half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."

 

I did radio for about 10 years. For five of them, I was the SE.

The whole thing about being a time crunch is true. The station wanted me to do afternoon drive, I declined because I needed to be in the office at that time. They came back sidekick role on morning drive. So I'd do 7-9 a.m. and then either go to the office (on a slow day) or goof off until noon if I was working late that night.

Clerk is correct about the station trying to rip you off. I was getting $10 per hour to start. We won the book after a year, I got bumped to $15. After 10 years, the station owner decided he couldn't afford $30 per day - even though the ratings were solid - and bumped my sports show for a simulcast of the news/politics/weather/traffic report show he was doing on the AM side.

I miss it.

 

I did weekly shows in one form or another for a few years in the Twin Cities. It was fun and, because I had done all the actual reporting as part of my real job, it was incredibly easy.

Oh, and I used to say it was "like finding money under a rock." In my best Let's Get Small-Era Steve Martin voice, I'd sing to my wife: "The most amazing thing to me is I get paid for doing this."

I'm sure having to do a daily gig for several hours a day would be more like work ... but I'm equally sure it's nowhere near the grind of being a real journalist. I can see why those who get involved in both usually choose to leave real journalism.

 

At least in the markets where I've lived (both of them), the sports talkers sold their own shows. There were still ad reps who sold for the station as a whole, but the hosts were responsible for selling their block. They'd get advertisers to come in, then in addition to the spots, they'd talk up their products during the show and occasionally hoof it out to the business in question for a remote.

Some of them struck a good balance, others were pandering jackals who exist ONLY because they can sell ads. One guy in particular was brutal with a capital "Christ, this guy sucks". More dead air than a bad college station, horrible voice, wholesale ignorance on everything outside his station's programming and barely-passable knowledge of the stuff they DID cover. But he got the advertisers in, and that combined with a tiny cult of dedicated listeners keeps him on the air.

 

When I did it, I wasn't allowed to read live ads. We'd walk that line ever so slightly when we were talking about the quality of food when we would do shows from restaurants or bars...

 

My rule is never say anything on the air that i wouldn't write.