A Mentor's Perspective on Broadcasting School

By Madison Fitz

Whether you're visiting this site because you're interested in broadcasting school specifically or you're just looking to break into the radio business, you might be wondering: why would someone want to be a mentor? For me, the decision was easy. Being a broadcasting school mentor was a convenient and fun way for me to help a future DJ realize their life goal. I always enjoyed teaching, so the prospect of taking on an apprentice sounded great!

As a DJ of several years at my local rock station, KWDB, I knew I had a ton of knowledge to impart, and I liked the idea of sharing that with someone young and excited about broadcasting. I put in my request to work with the National Broadcaster's Training Network, and after a simple registration process, I was ready to work as a broadcasting school mentor. Since NBTN is wherever you are, there were no guarantees that I would get a student immediately, but I ended up having some great luck.

Within a few weeks I was contacted and informed that there was a potential student in the area looking to apprentice at KWDB, so NBTN set up a meeting for us. I was a little nervous going in, and I think my potential student, Josh, was too, but once we got to know each other a bit it was fine. Josh seemed very bright, and had a real interest in being a DJ for a rock station. His ultimate goal was to work as a rock DJ in a bigger station in our state capitol after starting out in a smaller market, and that sounded great to me. When it came to finding a good student, NBTN had already done the screening for me, so it was as simple as saying yes. Finally, I was a broadcasting school mentor for real!

Josh had a full-time job, but it was easy to work around. My schedule ran from ten to six p.m. at the station, so we decided that Josh would come in for broadcasting school at five thirty every Wednesday and listen and assist me with the last half hour of my set, and after that we would stay at the station in one of the back rooms and go through his weekly lessons. Since Josh had the time, I had him perform a few of the more interesting tasks we usually reserved for interns, like working the boards and writing short commercial scripts. Since Josh was my personal student, I didn't want him out on the streets passing out flyers like the regular interns, because let's face it, as an actual employed DJ, you're never going to be assigned the job of handing out flyers.

With the curriculum provided by NBTN, Josh got a solid understanding of broadcasting basics. I helped him work on his speech and editing, among other things; it was really great to be able to work closely enough with someone that I could correct immediately, so he didn't get into any bad habits. The close training meant that I could make sure he was doing everything right, and as time went on I was able to expand the broadcasting school schedule to include him coming in earlier and doing a few short broadcasts, and coming to the county fair with me to help run the booth. Josh behaved like a pro, and it was great experience for him and nice for me to have someone so capable around to help out.

When Josh's six months were winding up, we had one of our DJs end up transferring to another station, which was perfectly timed — it was a night shift, but great for someone like Josh, who had proved to me through our broadcasting school sessions that he had the knowledge and skills necessary to make it in the real world as a DJ. Since I knew him and the station managers knew him and liked him, it was an easy decision to hire him on for the job. Thanks to NBTN, we got to skip the arduous hiring process of finding a new person to fill the slot since we had someone there who was already trained and ready to work. Thanks for the great broadcasting school experience, NBTN!