The Salaries of Public Radio Personalities

• Ira Glass, host and producer of “This American Life.” 2009–2010: $171,224, base salary of $127,871. 2010–2011: $170,190, base salary of $148,782.

• Alex Blumberg, producer of “This American Life,” cohost of the Planet Money podcast. 2009–2010: $154,801, base salary of $123,220. 2010–2011: $201,734, base salary of $134,400.

• Julie Snyder, senior producer of “This American Life.” 2009–2010: Not listed. 2010–2011: $156,153, base salary of $146,175.

I started my career working in radio and quickly left and moved on to work in other mediums after I discovered how little money there was in the industry. There is money, though, for top talent.

Andy Boyle looked up the salaries of some of the highest-paid people who work in radio (non-profits are required to list their top five highest paid employees on their tax forms), and unsurprisingly, radio personalities like Ira Glass are making decent money. As they should — Ira Glass is very good at his job and I couldn’t imagine anyone else hosting This American Life.

Photo: Timothy Vollmer

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