Radio Imaging - The State Of

Radio Imaging Demo - Joshua Swanson Voiceover

Chasing Radio Imaging jobs these days can be a real headache for a number of reasons. The first being less people are listening to radio stations which makes for tight budgets and a slowing economy adds even more incentive to cut the bottom line. Therefore the pay for the imaging voice of a station has seen a decline. Why, as a radio imaging talent, spend money on demos and marketing when the return is so little. The mere accessibility to talent these days, thanks to the internet, has also saturated the marked driving prices down. The last offer I got was $50 a month. Industry standard, as I understand it, for radio imaging voice talent in the past ranged from $500 - $1,000 per month or about $100 a page. The range was in place because the smaller the market the smaller the radio imaging voice talent budget.Yet, with all of the Station Managers and Programming Directors complaining of tight budgets Clear Channel, the biggest employer of radio imaging voiceover talent, “performed better than the industry as a whole.”

Meena Thiruvengadam
Express-News Business Writer

“Although its radio revenue growth was essentially flat last year, San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications Inc. performed better than the industry as a whole, according to figures released Tuesday by BIA Financial Network. Overall radio industry revenue fell 2.3 percent to $17.9 billion in 2007, the industry advisory firm’s figures show. Last year marked the fifth consecutive year of declining radio revenue.”

Are stations really hurting so much that they can’t afford to pay a living wage for radio imaging talent or are big corporations and their greed putting the squeeze on this art form? Yes, I said art form. You try and make radio imaging copy come alive and be listened to by the audience when that audience is trained to tune it out. Also, for some of the radio imaging jobs out there a God given voice is required. What makes it an art form is that not everyone can do it and do it well. The radio imaging voice is the brand of the station or the voice of the station and if you use a station intern, or pay a beginning voice talent $50 a month your station will sound like what you paid; crap. Is there still a respect for this art form or has the bottom line squeezed out any possibility of developing a radio imaging career?

How can new talent enter the playing field with so much competition and so little pay and expect to work?

What stories do successful radio imaging talent have that they can share with those on their way up?

Is there still a path to success in radio imaging?

There are still working radio imaging voice talent out there and this blog article is an open invitation to any of those talent to post their thoughts on the state of the radio imaging market.

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