Paying imaginary radio staffers

One of the most relevant-to-a-job assignments I ever completed:

In college, I took a radio/TV programming and management class.  One of the class's major projects that semester was to pretend as though each of us were running a particular radio station.  We were asked to write a paper justifying what we would do with the station.  Among the topics we had to address:

• Would we keep the station's current format or change it?  Either way, we needed to defend our decision, using the station's ratings, the ratings and formats of other stations in the market, and the potential for attracting an audience with our chosen format.
• If we chose a music format, we had to explain how we would choose the station's music library and why our method of programming would draw an audience.
• How many people would we employ if we ran the station?  What would be their titles, salaries, and duties? 

My analysis received a B grade.  The instructor, a radio station general manager, didn't question much of what I'd written, except in the section about salaries.  Although I wanted to pay the station's staffers more than what I'd specified, I knew that many radio jobs pay modest wages.  Therefore, I proposed relatively low salaries, thinking they were what the instructor wanted to see.  I was wrong.  Next to most of my proposed salaries, the instructor wrote, "low," or "low, unless part-time."

Looking back, I find the instructor's comments refreshing.  It was good to learn that at least one radio station g.m. would have paid those employees living wages.  Granted, that's easier to do when a situation isn't real.