High School

If you are interested in this career, you should take courses that develop your communication skills in high school. Such classes include English, debate, and speech. You should also take business courses to develop your management skills; current events and history courses to develop your understanding of the news and the trends that affect the public's interests; and such courses as dance, drama, music, and visual art to expand your understanding of the creative arts. Finally, don't neglect your computer skills. You will probably be using computers throughout your career to file reports, maintain schedules, plan future programming projects, and promote your station on the Internet.

Postsecondary Training

Those with the most thorough educational backgrounds will find it easiest to advance in this field. A college degree, therefore, is recommended for this field. Possible majors for those interested in this work include radio and television production and broadcasting, communications, liberal arts, or business administration. Useful classes include English, economics, business administration, history, computer, and media classes. You may also wish to acquire some technical training that will help you understand the engineering aspects of broadcasting.

Certification or Licensing

There are no certification or licensing requirements for radio and television program directors.

Extensive technical and on-air experience in either radio or television is required to become a program director.

Program directors must be creative, alert, and adaptable people who stay up to date on the public's interests and attitudes and are able to recognize the potential in new ideas. They must be able to work under pressure and be willing to work long hours, and they must be able to work with all kinds of people. Program directors must also be good managers who can make decisions, oversee costs and deadlines, and attend to details.