How to Become a Radio Jockey – Job Role, Skills Required, and Salary

A person who presents a talk program on the radio is referred to as a “Radio Jockey,” or RJ. In short, a radio jockey is a professional broadcaster who hosts radio programs and live interviews, plays music, and promotes various brands and products between shows. 

The purpose of Radio Jockeys, or RJs, is to interact with callers by phone, email, and online chat while providing entertainment during the chat show that is obviously broadcast on the radio. The radio jockey must be able to engage the listeners or viewers with their voice and word selections, and it is also important how they present the content to them.

Becoming a radio jockey is a fascinating, promising, and challenging profession for music enthusiasts. A spontaneous, charming, and engaging personality is essential if you’re committed to pursuing a career as a radio jockey.

Strong language skills and a pleasant voice are usually beneficial if you wish to pursue a career as a Radio Jockey. Additionally, it would be best to listen to famous radio hosts to learn their approaches and establish your practice to become a professional radio host.

What Does a Radio Jockey Do?

It is an RJ’s responsibility to educate, inform, and entertain. Presenting a variety of music programmes and entertaining audiences with additional activities, such as guest interviews of musicians, celebrities, or work relating to music or movies, are among the duties of radio DJs. One manages audience requests and provides comments about music in a radio jockey career.

Target Audience

Individuals who work as radio jockeys collaborate directly with the show’s creative producer and writer. The target audience of the program they are creating must be kept in mind when selecting the timing, script, music, and other essential elements per the theme.

Planning

A show must be properly planned out in order to prevent confusion and last-minute errors. Planning is crucial, primarily when a show is broadcast live to an audience, because mistakes cannot be corrected in the radio jockey job.

Proofreading

The script must be proofread before a show is recorded to air. Because everything said or quoted needs to have a credible source, especially in the career of a radio jockey dealing with current events or newsworthy subjects, this stage is always completed.

Types of a Radio Jockey

FM / AM Radio Jockeys: The FM / AM radio jockey’s responsibilities involve interacting with listeners, playing music, speaking, or doing both. They frequently work on community radio stations.

Talk Radio Jockeys: A talk radio jockey’s job is to speak only throughout the show, depending on the theme, to talk on a variety of social and political issues. They interact with viewers and audiences as well.

Sports Talk Radio Jockeys: Sports talk radio jockeys’ tasks involve communicating with the audience about various sports news and events. Radio hosts specialising in sports discussion are generally former athletes, television anchors or sportswriters.

Satellite Jockeys: Satellite radio jockeys have a similar role to FM and AM DJs. They often talk or play obscene content without looking at the seriousness of the problem. Any broadcasting board does not govern them.

How to Become a Radio Jockey?

1 Step: Candidates must finish their 10+2 or an equivalent course with at least a 50% mark from any recognised Indian board. To pursue a career as a radio jockey, one can be from any field of science, commerce or arts.

2 Step: As seen, various colleges provide admission to students by conducting entrance exams. To be eligible to take the admission exam, students must have at least a 50% average on their 10+2.

Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) Entrance ExamIndian Institute of Mass Communication Entrance Exam (IIMC) Entrance Exam
Symbiosis Entrance Test (SET)St. Xavier’s College Entrance Exam

3 Step: After completing their 10 +2, aspirants may enrol in bachelor’s degree programs like mass communication, radio jockeying or related fields. Additionally, they must be active in the media. Some colleges and organisations conduct entrance tests for bachelor’s degree courses, and they often admit students according to the percentage they achieved at the level of 10+2.

Popular bachelor’s degrees

BA in Journalism and Mass CommunicationBA in Mass Communication
Diploma and Certificate course in Radio JockeyDiploma and Certificate course in Radio Jockey

4 Step: After completing a bachelor’s degree programme, students have a variety of options to enhance their radio professions. We have described below the best route for choosing the most appropriate course with the fewest barriers.

Option 1: A master’s degree can allow you to learn a broad range of strategies that can be used in a variety of professional opportunities. After earning a bachelor’s degree, aspirants can easily select a relevant stream for a postgraduate course. 

Option 2: Candidates completing the bachelor’s degree program are qualified to begin employment at the entry-level level. You won’t apply for a Master’s degree until you have gained several years of work experience. In some regions, mainly for production-level positions, employment requires a master’s degree.

Various universities hold entrance tests before providing admission to students. Candidates must have earned a bachelor’s degree with at least 50 per cent marks to be eligible to appear for the entrance exam.

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT)Management Aptitude Test (MAT)
CMAT (Common Management Admission Test)Common Admission Test (CAT)

Popular master’s degree and Courses and certification:

  • Post Graduate Diploma in Radio Programming and Management
  • Certificate Course in Radio Production Programme
  • Certificate Course in Announcing, Broadcasting, Comparing and Dubbin

Skills are Required to Become a Radio Jockey

Creativity: Candidates who want to pursue a career as radio jockeys need to come up with innovative and cutting-edge ideas. The listener’s psychological and entertainment needs are attracted to creativity. It may involve vocal modulation. Creativity is the most critical factor in pursuing a radio jockey job.

Communication skills: People should communicate well on air to be successful as radio jockeys. One should be clear when presenting a show or a piece of content. Good communication abilities are beneficial in the radio jockey profession.

Decision-making skills: Individuals wishing to establish a career as a radio jockey should be able to make decisions and contribute to creating a solid and well-liked content-based broadcast. Every business, regardless of its size, needs to make decisions. Decision-making abilities allow one to analyze each situation.

Interpersonal management: A radio jockey interact with a wide range of people in various roles, both within the radio station and with the show’s guests. The traits and techniques a person employs to communicate effectively with everyone are known as interpersonal skills. The ability of an individual to work well with others is necessary for the field.

Radio Jockey Salaries

Average SalaryJunior Level SalarySenior Level Salary
AnnouncerINR 30000INR 20000INR 50000
On-AIR PersonalitiesINR 38000 INR 25000 INR 65000
Production Director INR 50000 INR 35000 INR 60000

Frequently Asked Questions on Radio Jockey 

Q. What is a radio jockey?

Ans: A radio jockey, a professional broadcaster who hosts radio programs and live interviews, plays music, and promotes various brands and products between shows.

Q. What is RJ’s salary?

Ans: The average yearly income for radio jockeys in India is 3.1 Lakhs, with salaries ranging from 0.7 Lakhs to 8.0 Lakhs.

Q. What is the qualification to become an RJ?

Ans: You don’t require any specific qualification to become an RJ.

Q. Is radio jockey a government job?

Ans: There are career prospects for RJs in both the public and private sectors.

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1 thought on “How to Become a Radio Jockey – Job Role, Skills Required, and Salary”

  1. Nice, it was very helpful and informative and also get information on best colleges for radio jockey in India.
    from bangalorestudy.com

    Reply

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