RE: College radio talent

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 02:38 PM 8/26/2002, Cooper Fox wrote:

>It would kind of depend on what kind of college it
>was...  Obviously(well, hopefully), the talent on a
>broadcasting/commo college station would be better
>than that on a biz/liberal arts college.
>
>Speaking of communications colleges...  How do you
>ladies and gentlemen feel about them?  75% of the ppl
>in the business that I talk to about them swear up and
>down that they are a waste of time...  Personally, I
>feel that the program I went through would have
>benefitted from a more jam it in your face
>attittude(sp?).  I enjoyed every minute of my college
>experience but felt that much of what i learned was
>just a rehashing of things that i had been taught in
>my time in the biz back in high school.

When I was at WBUR and freshly graduated from BU...I asked several Emerson 
grads who're BUR employees if they thought it was worth going to Emerson 
for a master's in radio broadcasting.  All four of them said I could spend 
$30000/yr to go there or I could make $26000/yr and learn the exact same 
thing by staying at WBUR.  I figured that was answer enough for me and I 
decided not to bother with Emerson.

Another thing I've noticed over the years - and this is interesting since 
it's only been four years since I graduated - is that virtually no one 
cares about what you did while you in college.   I did some pretty serious 
stuff, most notably being project manager for moving the campus-only 
station, while I was an undergrad but that fact was near-universally 
dismissed until I tell people what it entailed and what specific work I 
did.  It's a near-universal truth; students get no respect.  Fairly or 
unfairly, it's the truth.   So I say if it comes down to working for four 
years at various stations...or going to a communications school...go for 
the work experience.

OTOH...if you don't have a college degree, regardless of what the degree 
was in, that fact alone can and will disqualify you from many jobs - fairly 
or unfairly, it will do that.

____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels.com Technical Consulting
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron