Corey Deitz, Radio Personality, KDJE-FM, Little Rock, Arkansas

If you want to be in radio so you can play your favorite music because you’re absolutely positive you can put together a great show, leave now. Few stations are going to let you pick the music you play, except maybe a college station or a tiny local station in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma.

Melissa Chase, Morning Show Host and Program Director, WURV-FM, Richmond, Virginia

If you want to become a “Radio Personality” versus just being a liner-reading deejay, you have to be an interesting person and have cool things to talk about. So in college, I did wild stuff like taking time to build houses in Miami with Habitat for Humanity, signed [myself] up for the school Broomball Team, took a Harry Potter class for my English requirement, interned at MTV, volunteered at our local PBS station. . . . I just tried to go out and meet crazy people and have a good story to tell. I would also say don’t get too focused on the job you want, which sounds crazy. But the people who get so eagle-eye focused on “this is where I want to work and have this job title and this salary” . . . they close themselves off to so much!

Erica Farber, President and CEO, Radio Advertising Bureau

We need to be certain that our sellers have the tools to be competitive in today’s marketplace. Sellers today must be well versed in the nuances of being a marketing partner—understanding the challenges and business needs of their clients. And as technology changes, education and training in how to understand, use, and market radio with these changes will be essential.

Tim Westergren, Founder and CEO, Pandora

My advice to undergraduates is “learn to pitch,” which is a euphemism for public speaking. And if I could go back and do college again, . . . one thing that I would make as a mandatory course for all students all four years would be a public speaking course. Because there is just no substitute for learning how to communicate, and it applies to everything you do for the rest of your life.