"Is it hard being a DJ?" (My latest rant)

This is a question I get asked by almost every college student who has ever interviewed me for a school project. The answer is "yes and no". If you have the talent, it's easy do become a Disc Jockey. Lots of announcers are even able to cruise by, based on talent alone. But to be a DJ that presents a good show, is extremely difficult.

Due to lure of big money from call centers, finding talent has become a lot harder. So anyone with even the slightest amount of potential, can find work as an announcer. After being oriented, these DJs can actually get by doing as little work as possible. They come in, intro and extro songs, make a few comments and then fancy themselves good broadcasters.

Producing a good Radio show, on the other hand, is extremely difficult. It takes a lot of hard work and preparation. It takes hours of research, pre-production and conceptualization. One of my Radio idols, Dan O'Day, recommends working an hour on your show for every our you spend on air. I'm sure, not many DJs do that nowadays.

If you listen to local radio carefully, it's quite obvious which announcers put real effort into their shows. The ones that do, have shows filled with content, bits and segments. The ones that don't do much research and production, usually just chit-chat about a bunch of trivial things and churn out a lot of corny one-liners.

It's sad that an industry so highly regarded by the general public is disrespected by the very people who are in it. I have to admit that the state of Local FM Radio has somehow made me lose my drive. It's tough to stay motivated to constantly put a lot of hard work into your show, while others put in so little effort.