Job Forum Hears Warning of Slow Success in Radio

"Start at the bottom of the totem pole if you hope to break into radio," four experts told a job-seeking audience at Kirkland House last night. All speakers at the Placement Office's third Career Conference agreed that beginners can find virtually no openings in big-time stations.

There are very few jobs in radio, compared with the demand, explained Adolph J. Schneider of the National Broadcasting Company. In his own office, "a man needs 10 to 15 years of newspaper work before qualifying as a script writer."

"Salaries here will run from $90 to $125 a week," Schneider said. But the only way to reach such a position is to "take the long way around."

"Begin on some little station," was the advice of Ronald V. Cochran, news director of WCOP. "The pay is small--usually under $35--but you can advance rapidly by jumping from one station to another." A man can switch to a better job within a year after starting, he said.

Voice quality is of minor importance for an announcer, Cochran claimed. "What you have to say and the manner in which you say it" is the real criterion.