Ageism in Audio
The Problem
A few years ago I attended an audio conference just for women. At the time I was about to hit the ripe old age of 47. Which didn’t feel that old.
When I left I felt ancient.
There were some wonderful sessions (Jenn White’s talk on what went into ‘Making Oprah’ sticks out in my memory) and I met some great people. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that nearly every panel spoke largely to young women. Many types of diversity were discussed during those few days - gender, sexuality, gender identity, race - but not age.
I flew back home feeling so unsure of myself that I posted my doubts on my show’s Facebook page, imploring listeners for advice. Should I still do the show? Did I have anything to offer that another host (younger, cooler) didn’t? Should I be aiming the podcast squarely at millennial women?
Thankfully the many listeners who responded talked me out of my funk. But I am not the only person who worries that the audio industry, now so focused on podcasting, isn’t that interested in the ideas or skills of anyone over 40 (let alone 50).
I just attended an Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) webinar that got into this. About 100 people had signed up and 60 were there on the call. A LOT of people in audio are concerned that the industry is leaving them behind.
What came out most clearly was this:
Age discrimination sneaks up on you. You don’t think about it when you’re young and then suddenly it hits you. Many people on the call couldn’t land jobs in audio any more, couldn’t even get people to respond to their emails. And if you’re trying to enter the audio world as a fully fledged mid-life person, it’s tough.
Job postings - including ones on AIR itself - often mention standing against various types of discrimination, but age discrimination is rarely among them.
Audio producers would like AIR to take a stand on age discrimination, study job descriptions for language that seems tailored to young applicants, and change it.
Behemoth organizations like NPR are no better than anyone else in their attitude to age. They seem to think an experienced employee can’t pivot and do anything new or fresh, like a podcast, beyond a certain age. Like so many others, they’re focused on twenty and thirty-somethings as the source of all things novel and interesting.
There’s a general assumption that the older you are, the less tech savvy you are - this goes for anyone in any industry.
Solutions
The webinar was guest presented by the fantastic Cheryl Devall, editor extraordinaire and my very first editor at Marketplace. Cheryl has had an amazing career with plenty of bumps in the road. She’s experienced her own unexpected job endings and has had to go out and market herself to keep a roof over her head.
Her advice is below, plus some thoughts from other participants, me included.
“I’m old. I know stuff. I deserve to be paid for what I know. ”
This is something everyone with a lot of experience should keep in mind. Sometimes it’s tough when your confidence is low, which it often is after a fruitless job hunt. And this may sound obvious, but you need a website that effectively describes what you do and clearly spells out your value. Cheryl’s site does this.
Cheryl pointed out that “it helps to assume you’re never too old for anything” and urged us to “stay eager to keep learning.” So true. When I was a fellow on CUNY’s entrepreneurial journalism program in 2012 I was 41 and nearly all the other participants were 27 or 28. It was intimidating, but I learned so much with and from them, my brain hurt at the end of each week - in a good way.
All is not lost. I have a friend in her fifties who landed a job as a local All Things Considered host in Florida last year, having moved there with her husband a few years ago and kept in touch with the station ever since she arrived. Finally there was an opening on the small staff, and she got the job (she had a background in audio but had never hosted a public radio show before).
And as at least one participant on the AIR call pointed out, it is possible to take your audio skills, often honed in public radio, and use them in the private sector. Companies need good audio these days and they actually value experience because for the most part they don’t know what they’re doing audio-wise. And they pay so much better than public radio freelancing.
I’ll end here. I know these points aren’t the answer to ending ageism in the audio industry, they’re suggestions for ways around it. It’s a problem in audio as it is in nearly every other industry. I love the idea of AIR taking this on - not only by addressing the wording in job applications, but by challenging the big employers about their attitudes.
We’re told that our work lives are getting longer and many of us will need to work into our seventies.
To do that, we need to get - and stay - hired.