Listen closely

Talent can come from anywhere, so you have to be ready to spot it. Or in the case of radio, you have to listen for it.

Justin Chase, the vice president of programming for Beasley Broadcast Group, cites a recent example where a program director at Star 107.9 in Las Vegas discovered Aimee Montgomery while she was bartending at one of the casinos last summer.

After chatting with the outgoing Montgomery at the bar, the program director invited her into the studio for auditions on a gut feeling she might be terrific on air. “She'd never done radio,” Chase says.