19 Secrets Radio Presenters Will Never Tell YouSkip To ContentHomepageSign InSearch BuzzFeedSearch BuzzFeedlol Badge Feedwin Badge Feedtrending Badge FeedCalifornia residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data.Do Not Sell My Personal Information 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc PressRSSPrivacyConsent PreferencesUser TermsAd ChoicesHelpContactSitemapPosted on 16 Feb 2017 19 Secrets Radio Presenters Will Never Tell You It’s more than just talking rubbish between songs. by Jen ThomasBuzzFeed ContributorFacebookPinterestTwitterMailLink 1 Radio presenters need to be loved Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Walt Disney Studios Attention, validation, and approval are all must-haves for most presenters. 2 You really are just sitting in a room and talking to yourself View this photo on Instagram instagram.com It takes a special kind of person to listen to their own voice for hours a day. You wonder if people are listening, and on some stations – especially student radio – they probably aren’t. 3 Presenters can be chronic oversharers Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF FremantleMedia / Via americanidol.tumblr.com Presenters love to tell a story any chance they get, so friends and family often get thrown under the bus for a tale. There is no privacy: Nothing is sacred in a radio presenter’s life if it’ll make the perfect link. 4 Everyone lives in fear of an Accidental Partridge moment BBC / Twitter: @AccidentalP / BuzzFeed Everyone has done it. As soon as you open your mouth with an unintentional pun or a rubbish joke, you know you’re about to sound like the fictional radio presenter – and there’s nothing you can do to stop yourself. 5 A lot of co-presenters actually don t get along Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Warner Bros. A mutual dislike can be fun to listen to, though, and negative pairings can still be successful if the co-hosts paint a convincing picture of being BFFs. 6 There s an insane amount of competitiveness Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF NBCUniversal You sometimes find yourself hating someone for coming up with a great idea for a link, feature, or giveaway. It’s violent admiration. No matter how good of a friend they are, a part of you still sees other hosts as a threat. 7 There s a constant fear that a guest or caller will swear on air Flickr: punkjr / Creative Commons Many talk radio stations have a “dump” button that will remove the last few seconds of audio, which is handy if an angry caller decides to drop an f-bomb. 8 Some breakfast presenters have been drunk on air from the night before Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Endemol UK 9 A presenter probably doesn t absolutely love the song they re playing Flickr: kidstatic / Creative Commons / Twitter: @canyondentalcen / BuzzFeed If you think playlists are repetitive, how many times do you think the presenters have heard what's being played? 10 There are many rules and guidelines Twitter: @johnmyersteam It's not just a case of chatting idly between songs; there are quite often stringent rules and style guides to follow, even for the silliest-sounding shows. 11 When you see a radio station s branded car being driven around there s a strong chance the driver isn t listening to that station Flickr: micsworld / Creative Commons Sorry. 12 Everyone is always chasing the perfect link Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF All3Media A link is the talking bit between the songs. There's a surprising amount of planning that goes into having to calculate the time allowed so that the news happens at the right time, or you don't "crash the vocals" (talk over the point where the lyrics start). 13 Breakfast presenters and producers don t ever get used to the early alarm Twitter: @pipskin Afternoon naps are the key to survival. 14 Callers can make or break a show View this photo on Instagram instagram.com Some regular callers are a joy and you're thrilled to see their name flash up. Others.... not so much. 15 Twitter trolls are the bane of presenters lives Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Oxygen / Via oxygen.com Radio presenters just want to be loved, so abuse on Twitter can be taken really personally. 16 Everyone knows everyone so it s important to be nice Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Paramount Pictures It's an incredibly small industry. The person interning with you now might end up being your producer in two years. This is especially important to remember when just starting out, as word travels fast and you don't want a bad reputation. 17 Most presenting jobs are never advertised and making a demo is the worst View this photo on Instagram instagram.com / Via giphy.com For most careers you see a new job advertised, so you write a CV, or show what you can do at an interview. For radio, you make a lot of demos and send them in to a lot of stations in the hope of catching their interest. This means spending hours going through your shows to pick the right clips until you hate the sound of your own voice and everything you've ever said. 18 There s a lot of imposter syndrome and angst about being good enough Kristin Chirico / BuzzFeed Even the biggest, most popular presenters still feel like they're doing it all wrong sometimes. 19 But most of the time it s the best job ever View this photo on Instagram instagram.com / Via tumblr.com You get to play music and talk for a living, some of the callers are hilarious, the regular contributors can feel like your best friends, and even on the bad days it's still a lot of fun. Note: This post is based on several people’s experience of working in the industry. Thanks to all who contributed! Share This ArticleFacebook PinterestTwitterMailLink BuzzFeed DailyKeep up with the latest daily buzz with the BuzzFeed Daily newsletter!This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.