“A Great Idea! It's
creative and concise.
I'd love it if job applicants were to send me
airchecks this way.”
A News Director's View
Bob Schuman
WYCD Detroit, MI
What do you look for in an
aircheck?
I look for a neat, well labeled presentation (cassette or nowadays CD) to start
with including the person’s name, phone number and the station that’s
featured on the tape. Ideally, more than one example of the person’s
work will be included.
The tape should be totally scoped and fairly
short though I can tell within 5 seconds if the person has talent. So
if there’s no apparent talent, the session is over in 5 seconds. If
there is hope, I listen longer. How long should an aircheck be?
That’s kind of hard to say. For DJs, probably 5 to 10 minutes is
plenty IF it’s scoped. You’d be surprised at how little a jock actually
has the microphone on during his/her shift. I can remember some stations
that had “skimmers” that enabled cassettes to only record when the mics
were open. Often the “talk” content of the entire show was 6 to 7
minutes!
Would you like to hear just one
style geared towards the station you are hiring for?
Yeah, probably. I mean if it’s a hot
AC station you’re not going to send an urban aircheck unless it’s all
you’ve got.
What about References?
Background? Resume?
What do you need to know? What would you like to
see?
Well I definitely need to know where
the person has worked and how long they’ve been in the business.
References are basically worthless in all but one way. Nobody’s going to offer the
name of anybody that would say anything bad. But references are helpful
in that they reveal the “dogs” they’ve been running with. It gives you
an advance idea of their personality.
Resumes should be brief,
one page if possible. They should be neat, concise and should be
accompanied by a short but creative cover letter.
Do you prefer airchecks that are
attached to email, a link to a posted aircheck either on their homepage
or another directory, cassette or CD?
That’s hard one for me to field now
that technology has changed so much even since I sent out my last
aircheck nearly 12 years ago. Ideally in this day and age I’d probably
like to have an aircheck on CD in hand, one I could play for my assistant and
perhaps the GM. But if I had the option of also slapping one up on the
internet, that would be great.
Should they call first before
sending anything?
Only if they know the person they’ll
be sending the tape to OR if somebody has recommended them. Otherwise
PDs rarely take calls from applicants. In the job opening section of ads
most of them read “Please – No Phone Calls.”
What about follow up?
That’s a delicate issue. More often
than not PDs won’t even send a “thanks but no thanks” turn-down letter
to applicants who applied. Rarely will they return phone calls. And if
an applicant calls too many times, he or she is dubbed a pest and will
stand no chance at getting the job.
My advice is this. If you really
think you’ve got what it takes to land that new job and you’ve sent a
tape and resume, DO call and see if you can get the PD's attention. But
if you don’t hear back within hours or a day or two, write it off and go
onto the next prospect.
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Your photo, resume and audition on one CD in a flash format.
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