Kim Il-jung Beats Oh Sang-jin to Secure SBS Announcer Position, Recalls President's Words That Touched Him

Broadcaster Kim Il-jung revealed the behind-the-scenes story of how he managed to beat out fierce competitors such as former MBC broadcaster Oh Sang-jin and former KBS broadcaster Jun Hyun-moo to become the top candidate hired in the SBS open recruitment for announcers.

In a recently released episode of the YouTube channel B-Class Studio's content B-Class Hearing RE:BOOT, former SBS freelance broadcasters Choi Gi-hwan, Kim Il-jung, Kim Hwan, and Cho Jung-shik appeared to share behind-the-scenes stories from their days as announcers.

On the show, junior announcer-turned-broadcaster Kim Hwan explained, "When senior Kim Il-jung passed the SBS recruitment, Jun Hyun-moo and Oh Sang-jin were the ones who didn't make it. Because the SBS open recruitment exam is held first every year, it was considered the most sought-after test among aspiring announcers."

Recalling the moment he competed alongside Oh Sang-jin in the final round of interviews, Kim Il-jung said, "Everyone around me said, 'You have a KBS face.' So people were surprised when I got into SBS. It was the first time I saw Oh Sang-jin in the final interview room, and he was academically accomplished and even had a wealthy, refined look. I thought to myself, 'That guy is going to make it this year.' Even the head of the announcer academy I was attending at the time told me, 'This time it's not you. There is a dark horse.'"

Kim Il-jung also shared a question he had harbored for a long time after joining the company.

He laughed as he shared, "Before the company president retired, during a farewell dinner, I gathered the courage to sit next to him and asked, 'Do you happen to regret picking me instead of Oh Sang-jin?' To that, the president replied, 'Who is Oh Sang-jin?' Those few words have given me tremendous strength to this day. I later heard that he had said, 'This year's announcers need to be chosen from the hardworking, servant type.'"

In response, Cho Jung-shik brought laughter by saying, "I heard about what happened back then from a company peer in the HR team, and they said it was a massive crisis for the company as well."

Kim Il-jung joined SBS as part of the 13th open recruitment class in 2005 and was active there before leaving 10 years later to transition into a freelance broadcaster.

Self-deprecatingly drawing laughs, he said, "It's not like I strongly dreamed of going freelance from the beginning, but since fellow broadcaster peers Oh Sang-jin and Jun Hyun-moo from other networks who were hired around the same time went freelance, I thought I needed to make a move too. Just like the proverb about small fish jumping when big fish jump, I mustered up the courage."



(Photo: Yonhap News / Reported by Kang Kyung-yoon, SBS Entertainment News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.