Tommy Kramer Tip #57 – OWN the Information

Think of how many times you’ve heard an Air Talent say–more often than not, with the sound of rustling paper or a page turning in the background–“I was reading an article in this magazine yesterday,” or “I saw in the paper this morning that….”

Or there’s the “attribution” thing of “This morning in the Dallas Morning News…”

Listen, it’s not 1995. Information was once the most valuable thing on Earth. Now, in the era of smart phones and social media, it’s the cheapest commodity there is.

So OWN the information.
The late, great sports broadcaster, Howard Cosell, had the right idea forty years ago. You’d hear Howard say, “Tommy Lasorda, the Dodgers manager, told me over lunch today that he’s thinking of moving Ron Cey from third base to shortstop.” Well, in reality, at the “lunch” there were about a hundred other sports guys there, and Lasorda was seated at a dais, taking questions. But Cosell made it seem like it was privileged knowledge, that only he and Lasorda were in the room, and that he was letting you in on something that no one else could tell you. So when you did hear that item again later in the day on the local sportscast, or see it in the paper, your first thoughts were, “Yeah, I knew that. I heard Howard Cosell say it. That’s where they got it.”

Oh, and don’t READ it to me, just TELL it to me—you know, like real people might say to each other in the hallway at work, or by the coffee maker, or at a party.