1. A: It depends.  Consider the following factors.
   

2. •Did your station have a good fiscal year?
   

3. •Do you offer star equity to your station or are you simply a competent player?
   

4. •If you’re part of a cluster; is there station(s) sucking the overall stations dry?
   

5. •Have you added more to the station than just your air work?
   

6. •Has any of your effort directly added revenue to the bottom line.
   

7. •Are you outperforming the radio station as a whole?
   

8. •Are you already at your shift’s maximum salary?
   

The reality is that you do nights on your station and though it is great if your day part performs well the reality is that the night shift in many instances is used by sales as the added value shift.  This means that the sales staff uses this day part to give client extra commercials for free if they buy a schedule 6A - 6P.

If you are the star of the radio station you might be able to get more than a 3% raise.  But be aware the GM (again in most cases) does not want to award more than a 2-3% pay raise to anyone.  Doing so shows him to be a week manager to his superiors.  Also be aware that your GM’a main job is to keep costs low.  You GM is probably bonused on how much he can save from the bottom line.  Your Gm may like you but giving you a raise keeps money out of his pocket.

For the sake of this conversation let’s say that you do a proficient job on air, are relatively well liked by staff and listeners alike and don’t add any significant direct dollars to the station’s bottom line... then yeah a 3% raise for nights is nice and just above the increased cost of living.  Again, for the sake of this conversation let’s say you make 100K per year.  A 3% raise puts you at 103K per year.  3K extra split between 12 months equals a windfall of $250 extra dollars per month gross.  Now take into account in this take bracket that between Fed Tax, State Tax and FICA you only see about 60% of this new raise or $150 extra dollars per month or aka $1800 per year.  Asking for 1 or 2 % more won’t add up to much more monthly spendable income.  So if you feel that you deserve more try asking for one of these items:

Weekends off

An extra week of vacation

Fewer ancillary duties (production, etc, etc)

Stipulate that you get more appearances

Trade (car, gym membership, meal scripts, clothing allowance, etc.)

Airfare or trips

Your own parking space (if applicable)

Headphones allowance

Your own T-shirts for promotion

etc etc etc... there are a myriad of items you can ask for.  Don’t be afraid to ask for some.  Your manager may respect you for being resourceful even if you don’t get any of them.  Or you may get 1 or 2% more actual cash because he/she may not want to deal with trade or setting up deals with vendors.

Good luck in your endeavors.

sean@seandemery.com