Author Archives: tommykramer

About tommykramer

Tommy Kramer has spent over 35 years in radio as an on-air talent, Programmer, and Talent Coach, and has worked with over 300 stations in all formats, specializing in coaching morning team shows, but also working with entire staffs. In addition, he works with many premium voice actors that you hear every day on Imaging, Radio and TV commercials, and Hollywood Movie Trailers. Tommy was elected to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. Call Tommy @ 214-632-3090 (iPhone), or email coachtommykramer@gmail.com

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip $641: Be Like Mic

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A generation – maybe more – of young people wanted to “Be Like Mike” (Michael Jordan, of course) when I was younger.

In the radio arena, I wanted to be like Larry Ryan. Larry’s a legendary morning man in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. And besides a terrific, inviting voice and a laugh that makes YOU laugh, Larry embodied what I wanted in my life – to be successful, well-liked, and have a long career.

So, as everyone does, I did my best “impression” of Larry.
Obviously, that didn’t work, since I’m just me. But that’s kind of the point. We all start out imitating someone (or everyone) that we like. Fortunately, at some point, we have to reluctantly settle for being ourselves.

But I think it’s a good thing to have someone you admire be a goal. That instills a work ethic. And by trying, even if you fail, you learn your limitations – and your strengths.

Now obviously I believe it’s a LOT easier with a Talent Coach that you can trust. If you’re working with a good one, you’re going to reach your goals a lot faster (and a lot easier) than I did.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #640: The Mirror

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Once, years ago, I decided to audition for a Talk station in Dallas. A friend of mine said that they had an opening, and at that time, I had never done Talk.

So I fashioned a “sample plate” of subjects I thought would work, and sent it to the Program Director.

Boy, was I wrong. I had taken a detached view of “things that are interesting” and put ‘em all down on paper. In retrospect, they were horrible. Nobody would have cared, and it would have been embarrassing.

Fortunately for the station’s P. D., I “looked in the mirror” at what I had prepped, and realized how it wasn’t me at all. So I chickened out of doing an audition set for that weekend. My inner compass pointed “due nowhere” and I apologized for wasting his time.

Over the years, I did end up doing both Sports radio and some straight Talk, but only after I had rethought that incident and learned a lot from others in the format, including my dazzlingly smart friend Valerie Geller, Consultant to many, many great Talk stations.

The takeaway: “look at the mirror” with your Content. If it doesn’t “look like you”, drop it and move on.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #639: A Tip from Robert Heinlein

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“The Dean of Science Fiction writers” is the title given to Robert Heinlein, author of “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “Starship Troopers”, and the wonderful book “Time Enough for Love” – among many others, was both an author and aeronautical engineer. That led to amazingly predicting many things that we now take for granted in the real world.

His main character, running through several of his books, was Lazarus Long, the world’s oldest man. Lazarus had a saying that I believe is the secret to true success in radio: “Be yourself, and be it in style.”

To young talents, stop hiding behind some façade. Stop trying to be or look like or sound like someone else. I always tell people “Crack your chest open and show us what’s in there.”

To veteran air talents who want to stay valid, I would say sweep through what you do, and take out anything that’s not genuine. What makes you “sound old” is clinging to outdated habits that don’t match up with the short-attention-span listener of today. If you sound old, you ARE old. If you sound engaged and interested in what’s new, you won’t sound old.

But above else, be yourself. And be it in style.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #638: Teases – the Wrong and Right “Stuff”

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A very talented woman I’ve coached on and off for years faced a challenge recently with a station’s Program Director wanting the air talent to do “teases” of what they’d be talking about a few minutes later.

So, she reached out, asking how to handle it. Here’s part of what I sent her, with a couple of added thoughts…

“Teases” – as in “teasing” what you or someone else is going to talk about – are worthless. We don’t do that in real, everyday conversations.
“Hey, Jim, something is seriously wrong with your car! And I’ll talk about it in the next ten minutes.”
Dangling a subject out there, then yanking it away. SO stupid. And so rude, actually. Tell me NOW.

If you want to tease something, I would stick with the following:
(1) Features of the station – a special guest coming up on the morning show, for example. Or any in-show feature of a daypart. (Each show should have something unique.)
(2) Things that benefit the listener on the website or your social media. A link to an air talent’s podcast, for instance.
(3) A station event, a contest (with a prize!), or a promotion that’s listener-focused.

Program Directors: Everything else is just quacking. If you’re going to tease something, it has to matter.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #637: Why Your Station’s Formatics Matter

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Many MusicRadio Program Directors who were too late for the Top 40 wars really don’t understand how proper formatics work – or even what they ARE.

Example: If you wait for that last LOGICAL moment to start the next song, then talk (or where the next element, like a “sweeper” or Imaging piece should hit), you…

(1) show respect for the music,
(2) have true Momentum, not just an “upbeat” pace (which is a different thing),
(3) and you won’t sound like some idiot who just talks anywhere you feel like.

Remember that there are only two elements to the listener on a music station: music, and “things that AREN’T Music.”

So, the choice of efficient formatics can make you come across as either an intrusion, or as a part OF the music. (Guess which one works better.)

The bottom line is that a station that seemingly has no respect for the music has no respect for the ear of the listener, either. That’s why streaming music services occupy space that radio used to own. Times and technology will change, but I would think that something like not jerking the listener around with loud sound effects chopping off the end of a song would probably always be a good thing to consider.

I mention this primarily because every P. D. should want his air talent to just be able sit in the pilot’s seat and cruise along, which is what solid formatics provide. When a talent feels confident by doing the right things, that person becomes easier to coach to a higher level.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #636: Why “Good Enough”…Isn’t

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One of the most crippling thoughts in radio is “That’s good enough.”

The reply from the Listener’s end of the radio will often be, “No, it isn’t.”
I spent practically my whole on-air career being part of stations that knocked off the competition if they thought “good enough” would win. In particular, taking advantage of that kind of thinking was what fueled our staff in the early seventies in Dallas at KNUS, when we became the first FM station to ever be #1 in a major market. (Yes, there was a time when AM ruled. We helped establish that FM was the new sheriff in town.)

We, as a staff, were relentless. We had a sense of friendly competition amongst ourselves in who would be the best each day – who had that line or that “camera angle” that we all quoted or laughed about that night. By holding ourselves to the fire about being fully engaged in a different approach – not too laid back, certainly not ‘pukey’, but down to earth and real, instead – we simply evaporated the stations that lived with “good enough” as their stopping place.

When a station is self-satisfied, it’s easier to knock off.

Want to learn how to do that? That’s why – and what – I coach.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #635: Your Strategy Each Day

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My dear friend and associate John Frost and I talk to stations all the time about what their Strategy is. (Hint: “What you want to happen” is not a Strategy.)

I talk to air talent all the time about what their specific strategy is each day. And I push them to think about these questions…

“What’s today’s show about?”
“What do you want to be known for?”
“What do you want to be counted on for?”

To use a Sports reference, the best hitters in baseball don’t just go up to the plate and flail away. They’re sure about what they’re trying to accomplish, and the techniques they’ll use.

If you don’t have a real Strategy behind what you do….well, good luck with that. The best air talents are the ones who are clear-eyed about what they’re trying to do, and secure (maybe after some coaching) about how to accomplish it. That’s why they win.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #634: It’s Not What You Say You Do

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Radio is not about what you say you do, or what you say you are.
It’s about how you show it, and how you live up to it.

Your “Mission Statement” should really be a simple one:
Welcome in the person who’s never heard you before, and then either inform or entertain them (or both) every day.

I would add “have an attitude.” (The late, great Gordon McLendon insisted on that. It worked pretty well for him. He was a pioneer in both AM and the emergence of FM.)

I hear air talent in every format pushing their agenda on the Listener; the “We want to say this” crowd. But that has an oily residue, because it ignores the Listener’s “but I want to hear this” reply. It’s a shame, because you could be so much more.

The reality is this: The Listener comes First. Your agenda doesn’t actually matter, except in terms of what’s top of mind to your listener each day. If you can’t find a way to give an “accessible” vibe, then sooner or later you’ll fail. The world keeps turning, people have their own thoughts about things, and your job as a Program Director or as an air talent is to REFLECT what matters most to the Listener back to that person, filtered through your own experiences, observations, and emotions. This sounds ultra-simple, and it can be, but it usually takes some coaching. Focus doesn’t come naturally to most air talents.

That’s why I do what I do. There is no room for bad radio in the lives of today’s listeners.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #633: Work On Your Timing

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One thing stands out immediately when I listen to someone – that person’s timing. (And the station’s timing, too.) Waiting for that ‘last logical moment’ to start talking, or to hit the next element when a song ends, for example. Yes, we’ve all grown used to cue tones – but who’s creating them? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever hear the ending of a song again without some Imaging piece crashing in or the air talent talking over it.

Settle down. Wait for the right place. And PDs, watch your Imaging. Some of it is just downright annoying. Tactics don’t matter if the Strategy in presenting them is flawed. Most music stations almost seem like they’re trying to chase the listener away – and then they wonder why their ratings sag.

The whole staff should be infused with this “sensitivity factor”. Back in the day when we had giant ratings shares, we really cared about this stuff. If you constantly step on the music or BLAST your Imaging AT the listener, you’re courting an “I really don’t care to listen to this anymore” reaction.

Low ratings will inevitably mean low salaries because of diminishing revenue. CARE more.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #632: A Content Tip from Bob Dylan

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In the last tip, I mentioned Bob Dylan. To cut to the chase, think about his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Even if you take away the imagery and the storyline, one lyric rises to the surface over and over as Dylan starts each chorus asking, “How does it feel?”

And THAT is what you should be thinking of as you shape your Content each day. How did this thing that happened FEEL?

Without a discernible feeling, an identifiable emotion, it’s just a bunch of factoids. Incidents, maybe opinions. But what did it FEEL like?

If you can’t answer that, the idea is an incomplete thought.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.