To Pay Or Not To Pay...

Some days ago Nick Ferrari(on LBC)was doing a story on his morning programme about Harrod's Santas being replaced by more up to date Santas. I believe the other part of the story was the suggestion that instructions from Management would alter how Santas went about their work and the ideas were seen as a way to cut back on how long a child spent in Santas company and that this would speed up the amount of children seen and as a charge is often made these days by the stores to see Santa or for the gift that follows, more children...more profit!

So what do you think the going rate is for interviewing someone that comes into a radio studio?

In many cases I suspect guests come in for free as its publicity for them and they probably get extra work out of appearing. Many who are members of the public receive no payment and its the thrill of being in the studio and being heard by family and friends and to appear on tv and radio they probably are out of pocket as they may have to stay in a hotel or travel some distance.

Now, I have no idea what the BBC pays for the people that regularly appear as guests on the late night discussion type programmes on Radio 5 but assume that if they are in the business of broadcasting they do get some recompense and its an accepted rate negotiated by an agent or broadcasting union.

However, Nick Farrari in covering the story on Santas said that one of the "Old" Santas had been approached and asked to give the programme a quick interview. He was to be paid £45 for approx a two minute interview. The Santa refused and said that something akin to for that amount of money it wasn't worth it.

Bare in mind that this is a commercial company but then again until recently officially only heard in the London area as a whole so it was a local radio station(though perhaps being available almost nationwide via DAB perhaps that will change)as will the rates of what is paid to staff and guests that appear on programmes.

You may assume being a commercial radio station that they pay more than the BBC would, then again with the license fee system for all we know the BBC might pay more(or less)

The Santa perhaps seems ungrateful turning down £45 for only two minutes if he's talking down from home but if he had to travel in to the studio there would not be much left from the fee.

Interesting to see how broadcasters run their business and a side the public is often excluded from...It shows how radio is often the poor relation of television and may also prove that not all dj's presenters are well paid. It may be the case on a National or successful station in a big city such as Manchester, Birmingham or London but many in the provinces do it more because they love the medium and have other jobs to supplement their radio work and get paid a set fee per programme. And its not as high as believed.