Working a job in radio for low pay is almost a right of passage for those starting out in the industry. 95.5 WSB host Mark Arum shared a low-pay story that involved him getting short-changed after he did the work.
During The Mark Arum Show Friday, the Atlanta host said he once agreed to fill in work only to be stiffed payment when it came time to collect.
“I was doing traffic for another company but it was on WSB Radio. Doing overnights… Someone was on maternity leave. So I filled in for a month for this woman that was doing traffic reports for a producer and I filled in for a month helping out my friend who was the manager of this company,” Arum said. “And at the end of the month I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be a fat paycheck’, because I was making $8 an hour here with WSB, but this other company was paying me $12 an hour.”
Arum then said he showed up to pick up his check but was told cash wasn’t an option.
“The end of the month comes and I’m like ‘I am here to collect my check’. And they say ‘We can’t pay you’. Let’s say hypothetically, it was only $600. I don’t remember what it is, but it would have been life-changing money for 24-year-old Mark Arum. And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He’s like, ‘We don’t have the money, but I can give you $600 in Mad Italian gift cards. And I was like ‘Really?'”
Arum then joked that after using several hundred dollars of the gift cards over six weeks, the Atlanta restaurant began refusing to accept them.
He then admitted that he was naive and was taken advantage of.
“I was young and dumb. I didn’t know — I would but if he had said prior to we can’t pay you I’m gonna give you made Italian gift cards. Could have negotiated it, ‘Alright. I want 30 bucks an hour, then, in Mad Italian’. I love the guy, though. Jim Basile, I know you’re listening. I love you, brother. But you did me dirty,” Arum joked.
