What's The Best Way To Get Into Radio?

I got a job as a car salesman the first day after graduating high school.
I'd been trying to make a living in sales for a few years, when one day...

I'm at my buddy's home playing his records and pretending to be a disc jockey.
Hey, this is fun... and I'm not bad. Do I want to spend my life selling cars?
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I decided right then and there,
whatever it takes, I'm going to be a radio announcer.

Okay, now what? Why not go to a radio station and try to get a clue on how to
break-into the business? Maybe I can get some kind of entry-level job.

We listened to WIBG. It was the most popular rock station in Philadelphia at that time.
"Wibbage" was a powerful 50 thousand watt station that had big-name personalities like
Hy Lit, Joe Niagara and others. Why not go there? Start at the top. Or, at least start at the
bottom at the top.

I went to the station and in the lobby I recognized the distinctive, booming voice of
WIBG's mid-day personality, Bill Wright Senior. I introduced myself and asked him
"what do I have to do to get into radio."

He gave me this advice. "Go to college."
(What? I wanna' have fun and maybe make some money. You want me to be miserable
and spend money?)

He was also very emphatic when he cautioned... "Don't go to one of those DJ Broadcast Schools, they're rip-offs. Go to a college that has a broadcasting curriculum."

There was my advice. Go to school. Not the kind of advice I was looking for.
I was happy to get out of high school a couple years ago. The prospect of 4 more years
of school just to get started in radio seemed like quite the effort.
But, if that's what it takes...

My friend John, whose records had inspired me to get into radio, was about to attend
a college in York, Pennsylvania. Oddly enough, they happened to offer a broadcasting
course. So I applied there. And after taking tests and remedial courses, I was accepted.
Within only a few months of getting the desire to be on the radio, I was on the campus.

School got a whole lot better when my broadcasting professor helped me get a part-
time job at the local radio station. Ta-dah! I was on-the-air at WSBA-FM. Everyone was
listening to WSBA-AM.

The FM and AM studios were in the same building. I used to be there all the time.
I listened to and learned from the AM personalities and spent hours taping, critiquing,
practicing and improving my own delivery. I was getting much more broadcasting
knowledge there than I was at school. After a while, I stopped attending classes and
started looking for a full-time radio job.

WIBG's Bill Wright was right. By going to college, I got into radio.

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