Over the last ten years a major shift has occurred in how business hires. Freelancing in many industries has become the norm. Radio is no exception.
It is no longer unusual for talent to maintain more than one job, or work independently from a home studio.
The concept of using freelance talent in radio really isn’t new. The increased number of positions that are now outsourced by radio to independent contractors is new.
For many years radio programmers have become accustomed to hiring out their station imaging voice and station jingle package to freelance talent and production companies. Why hire a full time imaging voice that is usually utilized a few hours, once or twice a week. Why staff full time singers, song writers and composers to produce new jingles that are only “freshened up” every year or so?
Radio stations have always saved money by outsourcing some work. Now, out of budgetary necessity, and often times not out of preference, the trend of hiring out has extended to other areas of programming, specifically on-air voice track talent, audio producers, and voice over talent for spots.
The benefits to radio in this new cost conscience landscape are obvious; mainly a cut in labor costs (no employment taxes or health and retirement benefits), but also a new found pool of premium freelance talent who once were full time salaried employees at other radio stations.
The benefits – and yes there are some benefits – for talent are less obvious. Many top skilled talent (on-air, audio producers, voice over/imaging talent) have gone on to provide their services to multiple radio stations, as well as other media outlets, accumulating a living income from their home studio. Radio veterans who have built unique on-air and production skills over years of employment in radio’s programming and production departments, can continue to put their talents to use as independent contractors.
Of course, if you’ve been “downsized” from a station, which I have been twice, it’s hard to see the silver lining in that job loss cloud. But I assure you there is a silver lining, if you have a freelance mentality, and look in the right places.
Online freelance labor marketplace Elance.com offers that ray of optimism for radio talent in their quarterly Online Employment Report. Their data shows a surge in demand over the last year (up 60%) within their “Creative Economy” category, which includes audio production and voice over (up 295%).
Another online job marketplace that caters specifically to the needs of the radio industry (over the air and online) is TalentTrax.net, radio’s talent marketplace, of which I’m a part of. Radio can quickly find talent (on-air, VO, imaging, production) searchable by format, language, gender and more, listen to demos, and can post jobs for free. Talent can easily gain access to radio stations by creating a free basic listing and uploading their audio demo.
Change is usually never easy. But as radio programmers and talent adapt to the freelance marketplace, both can contribute to the betterment of one another. Talent can help preserve the quality of programming that radio seeks by providing experienced service and content. Radio can help maintain a quality pool of talent by using and compensating talent for their skills that are unique to radio.
–Michael Raffety is a radio producer and the operations manager of TalentTrax.net, radio’s talent marketplace, and SkidTrax.net, a radio voice tracking service for radio stations.
