posted
05/09/10
Is there a Radio Connection scam being perpetrated by the owners of this alternative school program? It might seem that way at first glance–after all, the Radio Connection certainly makes a lot of promises to prospective students. Not only does the program promise to connect students to radio personalities from their favorite radio station, but it also claims that students will develop their own radio show within six months. Not only that, it also promises to train you in the areas of the radio industry that interest you most, and then help you find employment in radio once you complete the program. A lot to promise? Absolutely. A scam? Far from it. The reality is, the Radio Connection is the real deal. It’s an affordable, innovative alternative to traditional broadcast school that actually delivers on its promises.
Of course, it’s reasonable to be skeptical. Today’s poor economy means more and more workers are going back to school to get the training and the degrees that they believe will give them a competitive edge in the job market. And trade schools in every industry from cooking schools to film schools are all too happy to cash in, throwing together programs that are high on promises and low on results. Graduates of these programs often find themselves in no better position to get a great job than they were before–and now out thousands of dollars that they spent on a worthless degree. Sadly, some programs are nothing but rip-offs, but there is no Radio Connection scam.
Fortunately, Radio Connection has the reputation and the student success stories to validate their claims. Its parent company, Entertainment Connection, has been favorably reviewed by respected music publications including Billboard and Mix. Music Connection Magazine has praised the program’s apprenticeship model, reporting that “Entertainment Connection has utilized this approach in placing over 5,000 beginners in some of the hottest and most competitive career fields, such as audio recording/engineering, video, film and journalism.”
This model is what makes Radio Connection unique. It puts students in the heart of the radio industry, learning their craft from successful radio professionals. This one-on-one, hands-on training is essential to forging a career in the radio industry, in which personal connections are often more important than resumes. Not only that, but the Radio Connection provides every student with a Student Services Representative who is responsible for helping students find paid work. All of this training, experience, and employment help are provided at a fraction of the cost–and time commitment–of a traditional radio school. When it comes to starting a career in broadcasting, there’s no Radio Connection scam–just a wealth of opportunities.
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posted
28/08/10
The Radio Connection is a program that uses an ancient practice to teach modern concepts. Rather than using the traditional academic schooling methods, it uses the mentor-apprentice approach to learning, pairing students with working professionals in the real world, at a fraction of the cost of other radio schools. Because of the lower cost and the alternative method, some have wondered whether the Radio Connection scam is true or not. However, there is plenty of evidence to cast doubt on that suggestion.
Here are a number of clear identifying characteristics of a scam. See how the Recording Connection measures up to these markers.
- A scam lasts for a brief period of time, then disappears. Although its web presence has expanded in recent years, making it look like a new program, the Radio Connection has actually been in business for 25 years, and most of the program’s graduates are still working in radio.
- A scam claims to be the only viable solution to your need. The Radio Connection makes no such claim; it only claims to accomplish the same results that radio schools accomplish, only for less money and probably more effectively. In addition, in a recent interview, founder Jimi Petula freely admitted that students do not need his program if they are willing to do the footwork to make their own mentoring connections. “I give out a free video and we explain what we do, and what it costs,” he said. “At the end of the video we say, “Now, if you can’t afford to do this, go out and do it on your own.” A Radio Connection scam wouldn’t do such a thing.
- A scam is desperate to get your money. As the above statements suggest, the Radio Connection has more of a take-it-or-leave-it approach. If you do not feel you need their program, they do not pressure you to take it.
- A scam does not do what it claims to do. There have been hundreds of testimonials from graduates of the Radio Connection program over an extended period of time, claiming that they have found meaningful and lasting careers in radio as a direct result of the program.
- A scam gives partial or inaccurate information in an attempt to mislead you into giving them your money. The Radio Connection spells out their program and policies clearly on their website, and abides by those policies.
There is a tendency to classify something as a scam simply because it operates differently than its competitors, or because it uses an alternative approach. However, neither of these things truly identifies something as a scam. The Recording Connection doesn’t even use a new approach; it uses an ancient one. (Mentorship/apprenticeship has been around longer than schools have.) As far as the characteristics that truly make up a Radio Connection scam, the Radio Connection doesn’t add up to one.
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posted
29/07/10
With so many scams out there promising miracle cures, millions of dollars, and the significant other that you have always dreamed of, it is no wonder that the Radio Connection apprentice-mentor program has been greeted with headlines that call it the Radio Connection scam.
Anything that seems too good to true will be greeted by similar skeptical responses but Radio Connection is not to good to be true. The mentor-apprentice program does not claim to make you a millionaire or get you your own morning zoo show or channel on satellite radio. The program offers “students” a chance to skip the long classes in college and follow their dreams by learning and working under the guidance of a mentor, a professional working in the film industry. Over the course of the program, students will learn the craft and technical aspects of radio broadcasting and gain access to real radio studios and pros.
The basic tenets of the Radio Connection program include learning through hands-on training in a real studio environment than in a classroom or college radio station, learning to network and making lasting professional relationships that will help you land work in the industry, and helping their students break into careers in the industry once their education is complete. And they do it all in a fraction of the time of a college education or even a technical school education. The speed of the program does not imply that there is some sort of Radio Connection scam, only the company’s determination to help apprentices launch their newfound careers as quickly as possible.
Apprentices will be paired with a working radio professional called a mentor. The apprentice will work in a real radio station alongside the mentor whose job is to provide as much valuable, real-world training as possible. Obviously, working in a radio station means that you will be working alongside the other radio pros at the station. This is not only to expose the apprentice to the real radio environment but to allow them to network.
Once the program is over, Radio Connection boasts a largely successful job placement assistance program that has helped countless students find careers in radio. Aside from the career help that you can get from your mentor and new colleagues, the company will take it upon themselves to help you land a job, so long as you did well and put in the work.
Unlike miracle cures and companies that promise that you will make millions, Radio Connection does not promise anything it does not deliver. The company does not promise that you will get your own afternoon drive show but they do offer students a unique opportunity to learn, network, and break into radio. The truth is, most people who call it the Radio Connection scam are not willing to put in the work it takes to make it in this very lucrative business.
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posted
22/07/10
There are many people who have lashed out at the so-called Radio Connection scam. Unfortunately a lot of these people are simply offering a knee-jerk reaction to something they know little or nothing about. Still others may be students who failed to complete the program or entered into it with unrealistic expectations in the first place.
The Radio Connection is not broadcast school. In fact it’s not really a school at all. It’s a mentorship-apprentice program that offers career training for people who are serious about working in the radio industry. That means there are no classrooms or lectures or papers or grades or tests.
In the Radio Connection program your classroom is a radio station and your teacher is a professional broadcaster.
Broadcast schools can cost upwards of ten thousand dollars a year and take four years to complete. Upon graduation many students find themselves with a degree that’s hardly worth the paper it’s printed on. Their only professional contacts are other students also trying to find work and their teachers who in the harsh light of the truth could be labeled as has-beens or never-weres.
The Radio Connection is a program that lasts six to eight months. Participants in Radio Connection programs gain first hand experience in the radio business. They learn the kind of inside tricks and information that can only come from being in an actual working radio station.
Not only that but they make the kind of professional contacts and connections one needs to actually find a job in the radio industry. And Radio Connection mentoring programs are available for a fraction of the cost of attending a broadcast program at a 4-year college.
Which one sounds like a Radio Connection scam now?
Whether you are interested in being a DJ, a sportscaster, a talk show host, a voiceover artist or even launching your own Internet radios station, Radio Connection can get you on the road to success.
Radio Connection offers a faster, more direct and affordable route to that success than broadcast college does. What Radio Connection does not offer is any kind of guarantee that you will become the next Howard Stern by participating in one of our programs.
There are no colleges or programs that can claim their students have a 100% success rate. If ever one did you’d know that was a scam.
Radio Connection does provide excellent opportunities however. Opportunities to learn the radio business and opportunities to meet the people you’ll need to know to apply that knowledge.
If you are really serious about making it in radio, you should consider a Radio Connection apprenticeship and ignore stories about the Radio Connection scam.
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posted
17/07/10
Have you been told about the Radio Connection scam? Not surprising. People often lash out and criticize new ideas or things they just don’t understand. Radio Connection scam is anything but a scam.
Radio Connection is an affiliate of Entertainment Connection, which is a mentor-apprentice program that provides career training for people who are serious about working in the broadcast radio business. It was started by a radio professional who never went to college but instead learned the radio business basically by hanging around radio stations.
Radio Connection actually operates on much the same principle. Radio Connection is a formalized program that allows students to essentially hang out at radio stations and learn the business from radio professionals. Of course by hang out we don’t mean sitting around on the sofa drinking soda. Students who take part in Radio Program internships work under the direct tutelage of broadcast professionals.
An apprenticeship through Radio Connection is similar to an internship however there are several major differences. Internships, for one, are only available to students enrolled in a 4-year college. Radio Connection apprenticeships are available to anyone who is serious about working on the radio.
And while many interns wind up making coffee, organizing backlogged cassettes or running errands, Radio Connection apprentices are directly involved in the work they are there to learn. That means aspiring DJs work with professional DJs, aspiring program directors work with professional programmers, aspiring sportscasters work with professional sportscasters and so on.
The Radio Connection scam actually sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
There are many very fine broadcast schools all across the country. However they almost all cost tens of thousands of dollars to attend and can easily suck up four, five even six years of your life. Some people will graduate from such schools and go on to successful careers as radio or broadcast professionals. But a great many more will find themselves under a mountain of debt, with no job and no professional contacts.
Working with the Radio Connection allows you the chance not just to learn skills, but also to make professional connections. It’s very possible to find a career in radio through attending college. It’s also possible to carve out a career in radio on your own, just by being persistent. However if you’re looking for a direct and affordable route to attaining a career as a broadcast radio professional you ought to consider a Radio Connection apprenticeship. Far from being a Radio Connection scam, it may turn out to be the best thing you have ever done for yourself.
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posted
09/07/10
Despite some complaints on the internet regarding a Radio Connection scam, the vast majority of its students continue to benefit from the career focused environment and one-on-one mentoring that makes the program such a success, with three out of four graduates finding jobs within six months of graduation, a rate far higher in this economy than just about any “formal” institution of higher learning can claim. The Radio Connection offers hands on career development, placing students in internships from the get go so that they can begin learning tools of the trade and interacting with the professionals who will soon be their peers.
This workplace education not only gives students a genuine understanding of the duties they will perform as they follow their chosen career path, but also offers innumerable networking opportunities that will help their journey down that path be as smooth a trip as possible. Broadcast radio has experienced some down turn as a result of satellite radio stations, but this by no means should suggest that careers in radio have dried up. Quite to the contrary, with the expansion of satellite radio to more than ten thousand channels, there has never been more of a need for skilled radio professionals to keep the endeavor moving forward.
This is why it is so ludicrous to think there is a Radio Connection scam. If anything, it is these more formal institutions that leave their students ill prepared to navigate the way to a fulfilling career, stressing theory over practice. The philosophy of the Radio Connection is that students learn best by doing, not by studying, and this is why they thrive at such a higher rate upon completion of the program than do those students who spent their time with their noses buried in books.
Radio Connection students are consistently regarded among the most proficient by many industry insiders, and the record of the Radio Connection for getting their students the jobs that they want is as impressive, if not more so, than that of traditional colleges, universities and professional schools. By studying at the Radio Connection, students acquire the real world skills that will prove essential not just in getting the jobs they want, but in succeeding at those jobs and climbing higher and higher up the career ladder, with the work growing ever more compelling, and the compensation growing ever more attractive.
The notion that there is some kind of Radio Connection scam is nothing but the stuff of internet nonsense, as the reverse is actually true, with many more well known schools offering diplomas not even worth the paper on which they are printed.
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posted
04/07/10
There is an old saying, ‘if it appears to be too good to be true, it probably isn’t, and that would appear to be the case with the school known as Radio Connection and the so-called Radio Connection scam stories that surround it.
Their story is that they can train you for a career in radio for much less that the standard type of school. Before we examine how they claim to be able to do this, let’s look at the traditional route to a career in radio.
You find a school that offers a degree in communications, or radio engineering, and attend classes for four years and spend perhaps $25,000. Now you have your nice, shiny new degree telling the world that you are learned in the world of radio. So you go get a job as a Radio Disk Jockey.
Hold it!
It’s not quite that easy. If your goal in going to school was to become a disk jockey, or a radio engineer, you are not going to just show up and be hired by a radio station simply because you have a degree.
You will more than likely have to serve as an intern first. With little or no pay. You have to learn in the real world. At the university, you learned theory, and may even have worked at a campus radio station if you were lucky.
However, most traditional schools do not prepare you for the real world of radio broadcasting. Things go wrong in real life, and the best way to learn how to handle this, is to learn on the job. Most people who cry “Radio Connection scam!” just don’t get this!
The truth is, most radio stations don’t really care if you have a degree or not. They want to hire people who are ready to hit the ground running. This is why you might hope for an internship if you show up right out of college with your degree.
A college degree is not a bad thing, it just really isn’t necessary in radio.
Radio Connection trains you by matching you with a real world radio professional as your mentor. The cost is much less, and this is due to the fact that you will learn on the equipment at a real radio station, not in a safe, sterile school environment.
Here is another reason to consider Radio Connection. If you spend four years at a university earning that Communications degree, and get out in the real world as an intern and find that you real just don’t have what it takes, you have wasted four years, and a lot of money.
With Radio Connection, you will not be accepted if you don’t have the aptitude for this business. While that might sound harsh, if you don’t have the talent, do you really want to spend the money? It’s as clear as day, and there’s definitely no Radio Connection scam there!
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posted
01/07/10
We’ve all heard the statement, “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” This is good advice overall—provided that whatever you’re talking about really is too good to be true. Sometimes, however, something seems too good to be true, simply because it operates on different parameters than other things that are out there. In those cases, skeptics can label it a scam prematurely—as has sometimes been alleged of a company called The Entertainment Connection. Let’s examine this company a bit, and try to discern whether there is an Entertainment Career Connection scam.
This particular company has been in business for 25 years, and claims to be able to help people get an education (and subsequently, a career) in the film, radio and recording industries. It presents itself as a school, and is, in fact, fully accredited as such. All of this seems normal; what raises red flags is the cost. The Entertainment Connection charges remarkably less for its service than its competitor schools—in some cases almost 90 percent less. Because of this low rate, when a misunderstanding arises with a customer/student (as happens in any business), any cry of “foul” raises more suspicion that perhaps it is “too good to be true”—that it might be a scam.
However, Entertainment Connection’s education strategy is not too good to be true; in fact, it isn’t even new. The school keeps its costs low by using an ancient approach to education: the mentor-apprentice approach (which actually pre-dates schools). Rather than place students in a separate, sterile academic environment, the school actually pairs each student with a working professional in the field, who mentors the student one-on-one through a guided curriculum in a real-life work environment. Here, the student learns the trade by doing it, often learning more effectively than in a traditional school. And because there are no buildings or equipment to maintain, and no full-time staff to pay, the costs are considerably lower. That doesn’t sound like an Entertainment Career Connection scam, does it?
The other side of the mentor-apprentice approach is that for it to work, the student has to commit to the process with more self-discipline than in an academic environment, because it is more a guided approach than a programmed one. It cannot be viewed through the same lens as an academic approach. There are many ways where the ball can be dropped without being noticed, and sometimes the program itself can be blamed for this. But this does not make Entertainment Connection a scam—neither does the low cost. Scams are fleeting, making their money dishonestly and then disappearing before they can be caught. This particular program has been around over 25 years, remains very visible, and thousands of people have gone through the program and gone on to have fulfilling careers.
Not everything that seems too good to be true really is too good to be true. The Entertainment Connection cannot be classified an Entertainment Career Connection scam simply on the grounds of using a different approach.
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