What’s in your wallet?

Nov 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Kari Taylor, associate editor

Besides the debit card, the credit card and the video rental card, is there any actual money in your wallet? Either way, the results from this year’s Radio magazine salary survey will provide a better understanding of the average salary ranges for various job titles in different market sizes. After studying the stats, not only will you have a better sense of how much money should be in your wallet, but also what is in the wallets of those around you.

The results of the study are presented by job title group and market rank (Top 50 and Below Top 50). Where appropriate, medians have been presented for numeric responses. The median represents the middle value.

The information gathered in the survey is intended to illustrate the broad trends in the industry. Treat the data as a starting point for salary ranges. Factors such as cost of living and the demand for a particular job are also important in determining a salary range.

Estimated median salaries for station management. Trend: Slight increase in salaries in large markets; small decrease in small markets.

Estimated median salaries for staff engineers. Trend: Slight increase in all markets.

Percent receiving a salary increase in 2004.

Benefits received.

SBE certification impacts salaries.

What’s in contract engineers’ wallets?

Dedicated to contract engineers, this information is provided to give industry professionals a better idea of how much they charge clients compared to other contract engineers, as well as the general consensus on rates for emergency calls.

Average hourly rates for contract engineers. Trend: Contract engineers earn an average hourly rate of $52.

How many hours do you typically bill during an average week?

How do contract engineers charge their hours?

Do you charge a different rate for emergency calls?

Do contract engineers have a minimum charge for an emergency call?

If you charge a different rate for emergency calls, what is that rate? Trend: $75 is the average hourly rate that contract engineers charge for emergency calls.

Beyond your wallet

With all the discussion the past couple of years, we included some IBOC-specific questions in our survey to find out what the radio industry really thinks.

Crunching the numbers

Want to know where these numbers came from? Each year a Radio magazine-exclusive survey is conducted. For one month, beginning in June, e-mailed invitation letters containing a link to a survey were sent to more than 3,000 subscribers selected on an nth name basis.