Chananya wrote:
Maybe someone can help me out with something: I'm interested in becoming
a radio DJ or going into radio broadcasting. I have a few disabilities
that require accommodations so I have asked some people in the industry
how this would affect my goal. I haven't received much response from
them. Can anyone on here help with this? Please contact me if you have
any info...

Assuming that you are in the US....

If you had said this twenty-five years ago, I would have told you that
radio is a great place to work. I have worked with board ops, DJs, and
announcers with all sorts of disabilities. Once had a board op who was
blind; we took the glass covers off the console VU meters so he could
feel the pins and made sure all of the carts were in the same order every
day since he couldn't read the labels on them. I've had announcers and
program directors in wheelchairs, which actually got us to clear some of
the crap out of the air studio and make a clear path through it. Radio
is... err... was... one of those fields where it doesn't matter what you
look like, who you are, or what disabilities you might have as long as
the final result sounds good on the air.

The thing is... the consolidation and deregulation of the past twenty years
has really made a mess of things, and that the current point in time I would
not recommend radio as a career for _anyone_, disabled or not. For one thing,
those stations that used to have half a dozen announcers and board ops, a
transmitter engineer, a traffic director, and a couple sales people on staff
are now being run by a single guy playing back crap that comes off the
satellite link... with no local station staff, the number of jobs available
is a fraction of what it once was, and the jobs are less interesting.

PS. I am in touch with the broadcasting departments at the local
colleges and with the disabilities office but I need more input.

Does anyone even still HAVE broadcasting departments? Now, I should point
out that if you aren't in the US, but you are in a country with a vibrant
and active radio community (and there are a lot of them out there) that
perhaps you should disregard what I said.

Go to a radio station and ask for a tour and a job. That's how everyone
starts out....
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."