You can get formal training in radio broadcasting by attending a specialized broadcasting school or a college that offers broadcast communications as a major. Informal training can be gained by interning or doing volunteer work at a radio station. You could also take a low-level entry job, such as doing drudge work on a radio station’s promotional street team, to get your foot in the door at a radio station. With informal training, it’s up to you to be a proactive learner. Ask questions. Request to sit in as an observer on radio shows and production work.
You do not need a license to work as on-air talent at a radio station. The radio station (as an organization), however, does have to be licensed with the FCC. Professional on-air announcers and radio programmers typically just have to sign annual payola agreements, which say you will disclose any money or thing of value given to you in exchange for promotion. But this is to help the radio station you work for comply with federal standards of broadcasting. It’s not a personal requirement to be a broadcaster.
The most notable method of getting yourself in a position to broadcast on a radio station is to get a job as on-air radio talent. Depending upon where you live, this may be easier said than done. Some major city markets, such as New York and Los Angeles, can be tough to break into on a professional level. You will need to have demonstrable experience as a radio broadcaster possibly through radio broadcasting internships, volunteer work at your college radio station, or employment history at other radio stations. In addition to experience, radio stations will expect you to supply them with an audition tape if you are applying for an on-air talent or radio production position. An audition tape is an audio collage of some of your on-air or radio production work.
But you don’t necessarily have to work for a radio station in order to broadcast on one. Some (typically AM) radio stations lease air-time to clientele. Under this scenario, the radio station managers are responsible for meeting all the technical FCC requirements, supplying and maintaining the broadcast facility and equipment, assuring good over the air sound quality, and in some instances actually producing your show. You as the client are responsible for paying for the use of this service, formulating and delivering your radio program, and complying with the guidelines put forth by radio station management. You can drum up the funds needed to lease air time on a radio station the same way radio stations that don’t lease air time do, by setting aside time during your show to plug the advertisers you’re able to convince to sponsor your program. What you in turn offer the advertiser is the ability to pass on information about their business to a target audience, hopefully a substantial one, that is perfect for their market.