I Want To Work On TV

When I was small, the only thing I can really remember consistently wanting to do was to work in broadcasting. Yes, I had brief flings with wanting to be a fireman or a train driver, but I always came back to my first love. The world of TV and radio fascinated me. (This was quite disturbing to the rest of my family, who had no "showbizzy" leanings at all. They hoped I'd grow out of it, but I haven't yet.) Living on the western fringes of London, we were close to the studios of both BBC and local independent TV stations, and I'd eagerly try to catch a glimpse of something exciting from the tube train window as the Metropolitan Line sped past the BBC's Television Centre in Shepherds Bush.

Now, at a significantly older age (!), I've worked in TV and Radio all my working life - 20 years this year - and learned a few things I didn't know when I set out. I've worked at TV Centre, which I used to ride past on the train, and discovered it is (a) the most exciting place in the world and (b) as dull as dishwater (but not both at the same time).

This Suite101 article and the next edition will take a look at whether you REALLY want to work in broadcasting, how you go about it... and how you survive it.

The Glamorous Life

If you want to work in TV and Radio because of the glamorous lifestyle, you might as well click somewhere else now.

Glamorous it ain't.

The hours are lousy, the pay is frequently worse, and it doesn't get any better when you get older. I've just finished a shift which involved me getting up at 2:30 in the morning... I know I'll be working at either Christmas or New Year... and I know at least one person will abuse me on the phone this week. Salaries aren't enormous, either - a broadcast journalist just starting out in New Zealand, for example, will typically earn less than US$15k a year (that's TV and radio).

Travelling the World

While working for BBC TV, I worked all over Europe, in America and in the Middle East. In that time, I (a) missed my wife and family... (b) usually found myself queueing for hours to work my way through some strange bureaucracy... and (c) carried large, heavy pieces of equipment up the sides of mountains in 45°C heat in the middle of the desert, after two hours sleep for four days in a row. I have seen some of the greatest views in the world... but sadly, huddled under a jacket watching a monitor connected to the TV camera which was taking the picture of the greatest view in the world.

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