A radio jockey is a person who hosts a radio talk show

Talk radio

Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 where the RJ selects the music to be played, or topic of discussion, by interacting with the audience; the interaction is often via telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

, but may also be online

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

, or via email

Email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

.

Etymologically

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

, the term is derived from disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

, a term used to describe a person who plays music in discotheques.
Radio jockeys may start working for fixed salaries, but their pay increases in proportion to their experience. Many go on to become voice-over artists, speaking in commercials or animated shows.

Training

There are numerous media houses that have branched into radio. Because of the high licensing fees and limited wave bands being made available, only large corporate houses participate in the medium. This is in contrast to Western radio, where there are many small companies involved. Further, because there are relatively fewer radio stations and radio jockeys, jockeys tend to have a fan following, whereby they will endorse brands or products on their show and people will listen to only their show.
Many jockeys attend the Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...

 and William Shatner

William Shatner

William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

Institute for Narration and Announcing. The best will usually double major in public communications and ass-kicking with some favoring in alternative pursuits of lady-romancing or school ruling. Such training is grueling but tends to insure a jockey's knowledge of a studio and helps him win the hearts and minds of those around him. What is a radio jockey without his following? Nothing more than the shell of a man in a dying industry.