Last week I offered a job description for the radio personality.
One person (quite understandably) opined that there would be no need a definition of “the radio news reporter’s job,” because “it’s fictional, like Le Nesman.”
But for the small number of American radio stations that employ real newspeople, as well as the larger number of radio stations outside the U.S. that have “real” news departments, here is The Radio News Director’s/Journalist’s Job Description:
To keep your listeners “in the loop.”
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Short and to the point! May I pass this on to my GM? 😉
Funny on the face of it, but it’s also worth noting the huge number of programmers and radio executives who then are surprised to learn the kids they promoted to watch the automation and handle voicetracking are somewhat lacking when a twister comes through or there’s a shooting at the school. Or did the lessons learned on September 12, 2001 really evaporate that quickly?
I think the problem is that too many station owners/managers in small markets restrict REAL newsmen from doing their jobs and FORCE them to do other things that KEEP them from doing their jobs well.
When PD, MD, GM, or whomever starts getting in the way of the collection and dissemination of news, either by restriction of the ND’s authority, or by increasing OTHER THAN NEWS responsibilities in the ND’s Job Description, he then becomes INCAPABLE of keeping the listeners “in the loop.”
And, to make matters worse, MOST stations these days don’t understand the financial commitment to a news department – NO MATTER THE SIZE OF THE DEPARTMENT OR THE MARKET – that REALLY keeping the listener in the loop costs.
So, when your ND is getting paid a third of what the PD is getting paid and having to do some of the work the PD doesn’t want to do, keeping the public in the loop QUICKLY becomes less of a concern of the ND as his need to survive, thrive and advance increases.