Bordeaux points out that companies can dig a little deeper and find legitimate reasons for workers to make the switch, but they can't assume radio will work magic for them. The drawbacks Experts say companies should be careful about selecting which job openings they broadcast over the radio. Similarly, Kohout warns that a hospital might scare off potential patients if it runs a long list of medical and health care vacancies. Limited ad space is another drawback of radio recruiting. Radio only plays a certain number of commercials per hour-once they're sold out, they're sold out.
Radio also is limited to the local area it serves.
In a tight labor market, recruiters may need to reach people in other markets. Newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times can be accessed all over the country, either in a local library or on the Internet. But Stonick and Bordeaux argue that radio is a good networking tool because people are more likely to tell their friends about a job opportunity they heard on the radio. They found that more than half of those who responded to radio ads didn't hear them firsthand. And in the future, radio may not be as geographically limited.