Other Careers in Broadcast Media

Hi there,
Thanks for stopping by.

When people think of broadcasting, they may think of newscasters or anchors, but there are a number of diverse jobs in the field. Being a media personality is fun, gives you so much creative expression, engages your mind and person with people, places, thoughts and ideologies that are sometimes, much bigger than you and is generally a very driven career choice.

But like I spoke about in the 2nd episode of my #MPWPodcasts, there are other career paths within broadcast media. Industry workers are involved in all different aspects of creating and airing media programs on television and radio. These paths could be alternatives to being an On Air Personality or can even be combined with a career in the frontline.

On that episode, I touched on 3 other careers – Content Production, Sound engineering/editing/production and Voice acting/voice overs.

Here, I put together a few more careers you could explore.

Writers – News, Copy and Script: Even though a preferred skill for OAPs is the ability to ad-lib, the vast majority of broadcast content is prepared well before show time. At smaller stations, it may be an OAPs job to write his or her own material. At larger stations, however, staff members usually help create original content, along with the Lead content producer.

News writers are in charge of writing news reports that will be read on-air. They perform background research, interview sources, and adapt news stories to fit the station’s format and casting style.

Copywriters think up the material used for commercials that are produced by a station. They create the flow, dialogue and drama that voice actors deliver, to make up the adverts and commercials.

Scriptwriters are responsible for creating the material used during original entertainment programs, such as variety shows, skits, chat shows, dramas etc.

Note: Most stations would expect an OAP to be skilled in this areas. Job opportunities with these streamlined functions are more common in large network stations.

Traffic Controllers / Commercial schedulers: Commercials are an integral part of broadcast media. They are one of the main sources of income for broadcast stations. A controller is in charge of scheduling the commercial flow, ensuring that they are available for the on air staff/producer to play, ensuring that the content is in line with the station format and comes up at appropriate time.

Technical Jobs: Broadcast media technology is dynamic and constantly evolving. This field employs a number of workers to maintain technology, keep the processes up to date and ensure proper functionalities. These include broadcast engineers, sound engineers, camera and light handlers etc. A master control engineer may oversee that transmissions are uninterrupted.

Events / Public Relations / Branding / Sales: Yes, media stations need promotions and publicity too. People in this space are tasked with the job of creating the perception of the station and engaging with clients and audience to deepen the brand.

A station's sales staff finds and secures potential advertisers in order to boost revenue for the station.


Broadcast professionals usually wear more than one hat. Even though there is room for greater specialization in bigger stations and networks, I would strongly advice every professional to be skilled in several job functions within the broadcast media space.