In this research portfolio, I will explore the role of a radio station manager as a profession within the music industry. I have chosen this profession as I grew up around a local community radio station and have always had a strong interest in how it operates. Furthermore, I have a goal to one day run a radio station and would be interested in exploring how this could be achieved.
To support my research into the role of a radio station manager, I collected both primary and secondary data. The primary data takes the form of an interview with a former colleague and close friend who works as a radio station manager.
I also collected secondary data. This includes online articles, websites and blogs where I researched the entry pathways into the profession as well as industry expectations from a more commercial perspective on websites such as ‘The Radio Academy’ and ‘The Community Radio Tool Kit’. These provided insight into the day to day as well as free resources in starting up and managing your own station.
As I have a few preexisting contacts within the industry, I chose to speak with Jonathan Justice, a friend who has been in the radio industry for almost 20 years. As someone who co-manages Lionheart community radio station, he provided me with insight into the day to day life of the profession as well as the management skills and attributes he believes are required of someone who desires to pursue this profession. As his job is entirely voluntary, due to the station being a modest local and community focused, his insight offers a more self taught perspective as opposed to a mainstream station. Before this his background was in film production and computer science. For my research I conducted an interview where I asked him what qualifications and experience he thought were needed in running a station. He explained to me that as a manager of a community radio station a lot of the work centres around being able to manage a range of different age groups as there is a lot of interest from all ages within the wider community as well as being able to effectively communicate with people. As for qualifications he stated,
“Qualifications aren’t as necessary, but something in a related discipline can be helpful. Administration and finance are largely the same regardless of the industry sector, but there are some specialist areas where, again, experience is more useful than book learning. But for a large commercial station, some kind of qualification may be useful if you’re coming in from the outside.”(Justice, J. 2025)
Jonathan then further spoke about the knowledge and skills needed to run a local community radio station. He explained that one of the most valuable attributes includes strong people skills alongside the ability to work under pressure and organise time and resources effectively.
“This is a small station, so being able to manage volunteers is very important. In a larger commercial station, programming and devising concepts becomes more important, as does handling sponsors and commercial income. This is where qualifications perhaps start to matter as they give you background and context.” (Justice, J. 2025)
Before managing the station, Jonathan had achieved a degree in both film production and computer science; although he did not undertake any qualifications in radio management he had experience working in a media related industry for quite some time. He recalls even being invited to the Cannes festival to debut a film he worked on.
I undertook some further research into the differences between smaller and larger stations, as Jonathan had suggested. Looking into BBC Radio Academy in particular, affirmed that there aren’t any specific qualifications needed. However, they expressed that “experience with the medium of radio, social media and video content is essential. You don’t necessarily need a degree or any formal media training” (The Radio Academy, NA). Further research suggested that one of the most important things is having a strong character and good interpersonal skills, for instance, “being decisive yet having humility to take on board others’ views and feedback is key” (The Radio Academy, NA). The website continues to talk about how station managers are responsible for station output at all times and that they need ’excellent editorial judgment’ as well as specific knowledge of things like the Broadcasting Code and Editorial Guidelines’.
The duties and day to day of a radio station manager vary depending on the scale and type of the station, for example a community radio may have a smaller team to work with and therefore more to do individually compared to a large-scale station which may have more money and resources to delegate specific jobs. When I asked Jonathan what type of duties he shared, he explained that in small stations like Lionheart he is expected to do quite a lot. When I interviewed him in December he explained that his current tasks for that week included: training new presenters, sourcing volunteers for back office activities, dealing with a proposed move of the station, supporting the presenters, presenting shows of his own and also absentees, all on top of raising funds to support the running of the station as well as constantly dealing with regulations.
“In a small station, you do a bit of everything. As budgets increase, you can specialise more and concentrate on the more core aspects of running a station like recruitment, programming and scheduling” (Justice, J. 2025).
After looking into the community radio tool kit website on their management section they also explained that a lot of the boring jobs you can usually pay someone to do are done by management in a voluntary based station, as opposed to a commercial station like the BBC.
“Generally the less appealing tasks involved in community radio are the ones you have to pay people to do” (Community Radio Toolkit, 2015). They talk about how you end up having very combined roles ranging from administration to Project management to volunteer support work and business development plans.
I further researched daily tasks and duties again from a commercial perspective expecting them to be quite similar though with more of a concentration on one task by one individual. According to The Radio Academy, their website states a manager’s daily tasks may include “keeping on top of talent trends and relationships with existing and potential on-air/ online talent and agents” (The Radio Academy). They talk further about how they have to stay on top of research and insights around their audience and target audience as well as ‘work on wider company projects around innovation, diversity and inclusion and commercial strategy’ (The Radio Academy).
Alongside their daily duties, management are also expected to deal with promotional and outreach tasks whilst managing finances and legal issues. I again spoke to Jonathan who explained that marketing without much funding is a tricky task as being a community station they are a non profit organisation he further explains that they are ‘not dependent on commercial factors – adverts are a bonus rather than a necessity.’ Also, being in control of a broadcaster means they can market themselves with jingles and adverts but that only extends to the pre-existing audience. He further talked about the shift into Digital Audio Broadcasting,
“As we’ve recently gone on to DAB digital radio, we’re about to have to make a marketing push. So we’re gearing up social media posting in order to engage more with people, but there will have to be a coordinated push to reach the new audiences that our DAB coverage now gives us” (Justice, J. 2025).
From a legal point of view, stations are expected to have a radio broadcasting license regulated by the Ofcom (official communications) licensing department. This is to protect the public from any harmful content that may be aired on their services. Failure to follow these regulations could result in losing a license. This means it is extremely important for managers to make sure to brief and train any new presenters thoroughly and provide them with the correct behavioural expectations. Furthermore, dealing with any breaches that may be made in the regulations in a calm authoritative manner.
“Legal and regulatory matters are very important as one bad mistake can sink us. We’ve been in trouble with the regulator, Ofcom, before and that just reinforces the need not to be so again. It’s also important to keep up with the regulator’s decisions to see if any are applicable to you now or in the future. Legal stuff isn’t as onerous – you need to keep up to date with it, but the planning of the station and the general rules should keep you away from anything particularly bad. With larger stations, these areas of responsibility become more important as more things apply to you and exposure to a larger audience means greater scrutiny” (Justice, J. 2025).
In contrast, a commercial station’s management would have more funding to put towards their marketing strategies, they would be responsible for responding to commercial or partnership opportunities as well as coordinating and organising the output on air and online. However, this job would be delegated to a marketing department, so a Radio Station manager although they would probably oversee final products they would not need to be directly involved in the curation of strategies. They would work with digital, marketing and events teams to make sure the target audience is reached. The legal aspect would be of pretty much the same standard as all stations which require licensing.
As a career, being a radio station manager would provide you with a handful of transferable skills. During my research it seems that progression within this career is very non-linear as there are so many branches of roles a manager has to undertake that the development of skills surrounding the various activities from marketing to training and human resources would be progressively nurtured through the time spent within the job. I spoke again with Jonathan as he provided a unique perspective since his choice to be in this profession is entirely voluntary. He makes no money doing the job he does; he simply does it because he is passionate and loves it.
“One could use it as a launchpad to move to a larger station, through demonstrating skills and abilities gained in the community radio sector. Many of the skills are transferable and being able to demonstrate quantifiable results is always going to help you up the ladder – for instance, if one can show a measurable increase in listeners or revenue through an initiative or project that you’ve organised, that’s worth more than qualifications.” (Justice, J. 2025)
I feel that managing a radio station is the highest in the chain of command for the particular environment but if you were to want a career progression moving away from that particular job you would have the knowledge and experience in so many different categories of skill that you would have your own pick. Touching slightly on the commercial aspect again it is to be said that working in a voluntary position would provide you with the skills to move to a large scale commercial company and make a living from the job, but the financial viability of this would be something worth looking into, as a career path it would be the most rewarding in knowledge but it would be financially unreliable.
Leading on from the financial unreliability of working in a voluntary as opposed to a laddered commercial job, where you could start as a junior producer or sound technician and move up through gathering experience in management, it would pose as quite a personal challenge within the career development. I asked Jonathan what personal challenges might be found within this profession and what he would do when these appear.
“Everything’s a challenge. It’s actually not difficult to find presenters. It’s hard to find back office staff. If we were a commercial station, we’d just pay them. But relying on volunteers means keeping everyone happy and staying on top of things. Having to move the station is an enormous pain that is going to occupy a lot of our energy for a while.”(Justice, J. 2025)
Something he also spoke about was the work life balance, as running a radio station is a 24/7 job. “Even when you’re at home you find yourself updating schedules, preparing for training and corresponding to endless emails” (Justice, J. 2025). What I’ve gathered from this is that mental and physical wellbeing is so important in this job as it is in any job that involves management. He explained the best way to deal with this is creating boundaries but being aware that sometimes it is unavoidable that work will follow you home.
In conclusion, after researching this profession my primary research highlighted the importance of self taught skills and how valuable voluntary positions can be while informing me how I would be able to progress into working for a large scale commercial station. Reinforcing the importance of gaining hands-on experience, building industry connections and developing both creative and managerial skills over time.
Works Cited
“Applying – Community Radio Toolkit.” Community Radio Toolkit, 25 Feb. 2015, www.communityradiotoolkit.net/starting-out/applying/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
“Lionheart Radio.” Lionheartradio.com, 2026, www.lionheartradio.com. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
Ofcom. “What Is Ofcom?” Www.ofcom.org.uk, 24 June 2010, www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/what-we-do/what-is-ofcom.
“Roles: Station Manager.” Radio Academy, www.radioacademy.org/careers/roles/station-manager/.
“What Does a Radio Station Manager Do? Career Overview, Roles, Jobs | ESSAE.” Empire State Society of Association Executives, 2017, careers.essae.org/career/radio-station-manager.
