Egypt Sherrod is the new midday host for WBLS in NY. Egypt is incredibly talented, but she can also stop traffic. You can tell she works hard on her skills, appearance and she hustles and gets a lot of outside work. THIS is what makes a star, especially in an environment where the opportunities are, but should not be, so limited. You don’t have to stop traffic but how well do you hone in our YOUR skills and how much do you know about the art of social networking?
As most urban jocks don’t get a lot of exposure for the stations they work for, those who understand commercial radio’s antiquated techniques and take charge of their own careers will indeed prosper. Urban radio is not phased by the internet or social networks. I’m not talking about PDs or jocks, plenty of them have Facebook pages and twitter accounts, it’s the corporations they work for that refuse to see the relevance. They are going to (they are) paying for that but urban radio people don’t have to fall by the wayside with commercial radio.
People want to be recognized for their talent but understand…Hollywood is about marketability first and make no mistake urban radio is NOT Hollywood. If you are waiting for urban radio to make you a star you will be old, fat, raggedy, bitter and then DEAD or you will start to look like Tom Joyner, that includes the men too (laugh). If you are a working jock and that’s all you want, I would say you are in the wrong business but today, that’s not true. You are the type of jock urban radio WANTS but for those who want and deserve more..a truly wise urban announcer is going to hone in on the BEST way to market THEMSELVES in order to take their careers to the next level be it a great blog, site, social network, podcast, etc and he or she is going to use the station as a way to bring people to them. We are not young, bold, stupid and daring for long.
Wendy Williams is an exception not because there are not other female jocks out there who may even be BETTER than she is at doing what she does but they may not have had the platform to do it. Wendy honed in on her ability to connect with the audience through gossip and Vinny Brown deserves some of the credit because he let her use the airwaves (platform) to grow. MANY urban jocks would complain programmers don’t allow them to do this and many urban programmers would complain the corporation won’t LET them let the jocks do that. I think it’s a bit of both and I do think there are also some urban programmers out there who have a sole mission to prevent the station’s announcer’s growth. I once worked for one in LA. In either situation, the jock, to a large extent, is indeed at a loss. It takes too much work to get someone to believe in you and after a while if you keep waiting and work around that kind of negative energy you stop believing in yourself. Then being on the air becomes a JOB. If it’s no longer fun it’s just time to move on or move up.
The internet is doing for radio what urban radio once did for radio. It has given urban announcers a much deserved opportunity to connect with fans outside of the station and it gives the announcers control over their own careers. I know of a mix jock that, thanks to the internet, social networks like twitter and Facebook, gets to travel worldwide to make appearances to mix at clubs and he is treated like a celebrity and paid quite well. This would just not be possible if he depended on his gig at a very popular radio station who believes the station is simply the star. His PD gave him an option to travel or quit. He quit.
Radio’s antiquated techniques are becoming apparent as ad revenue declines and syndication permeates the airwaves with middle-aged hosts who fail to connect to the trendsetters. Urban jocks are all the wiser for taking advantage of the opportunity that urban radio ignores (the internet and their websites) to catapult their careers in other directions. Kudos to the urban jocks who do this because when it comes to urban radio… self promotion is the only promotion that counts.
