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 Tip #67 – Bumpers: Why?

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In the continuing battle to get more “right brain” elements into radio stations, I recently had a client station that was still playing “bumpers”—those things that would end a break by the morning team with a bumper (what some people call a “punctuator”) like “Shaker and Blotto…on 102.5 The Rock” into the commercial stopsets.

Bumpers were a bad idea when they first came on the scene a couple of decades ago, and one of the main uses for them was in syndicated shows. The thinking was that you had to remind the listener (who apparently must be an idiot to most programmers) what the name of the show was, and/or what the name of the station was. But in the real world—the listener’s world—he hears the show’s name or the station’s name, then a commercial. So guess what image is carried forward? You = commercials. Plus, the bumper destroys the First Exit, the most powerful radio technique I’ve ever come up with, by literally stopping the momentum instead of moving forward seamlessly and having the spotbreak on you almost before you’re even aware of it. (If you’re unfamiliar with The First Exit, please see Tip #3 on my blog site.)

It’s easier to see how nonsensical this is if you visualize a real-life conversation. If we’re sitting over lunch talking and I make a good point, I don’t have an announcer come over to the table and say “Tommy Kramer!” after it. That would be very weird.

This is just another one of those old radio things that sounds Strategic in the planning stage, but is actually an incomplete thought. If you’re good, identify yourself regularly when it’s appropriate to do so, and have true Momentum, people will learn and remember who you are and where they heard it. Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory don’t use bumpers into commercials, so why should we?

Momentum trumps everything else. Period. Bumpers are an impediment to momentum. No amount of so-called “branding” can overcome that. While radio people see promos, bumpers, and commercials as different things, in the listener’s world, there are just two elements—Music, and things that aren’t music. To the listener, the bumper is just a commercial for you.

Oh, and let’s do away with the little movie and TV “drops” too. They were great 20 years ago, but they’re not new anymore. I say just get into the spotbreak, and make everyone else sound like they have to quack their names out before they can move forward.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #66 – Work from the Listener BACK

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Here’s something that should be obvious, but apparently isn’t. Work from the Listener back, not from the Control Room forward.

Example: Once, a morning team that I work with in Houston wanted to talk about American Idol auditions being held there the next day. Although they did a pretty good job of delivering the information, using the music from the show as staging, they missed the opportunity to get inside the Listener’s life and make it more visual by describing the scene in her house. (That station’s target Listener is a 28-year old female named “Jennifer,” with a husband, “Mike,” and a baby girl—two years old.)

Here’s the real deal:
It’s just before 6:00 in “Jennifer’s” house on the night before the auditions, and she’s telling her little girl and her husband that if they want dinner, they can either cook something themselves, or go get some takeout food. But they can FORGET seeing her there, because she’s going to the auditions, and if it means standing under a bridge in the rain for 12 hours, that was just tough…because that’s exactly what she’s going to do!

Describing that scene on the air, with its animation and sense of urgency, would be much more compelling than just giving the information.

Most Air Talents make the mistake of deciding what they want to do, and then projecting it toward the Listener. But it’s easy to just sound clinical or informational, and lose the opportunity to convey the visual “flavor” of that “scene” in the Listener’s life. In reality, what ALWAYS works is starting from the Listener’s perspective and working back to the Control Room, then putting that on the air.

You can never go wrong by reflecting your Listener’s life back to her (or him). It gives you a much better chance of ‘linking up’ in a right-brain way.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #65 – Prep the Ending FIRST

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This is the simplest way to guarantee success with any Content you do: Prep the ending first.

Here’s why:
Suppose you have several errands to run. You need to drop some clothes off at the dry cleaners, you’ve got to mail something, and you need to go to the grocery store. So to save gas and go in more of a straight line, you plan everything so you go to the grocery store last. If you don’t, you’re going to end up with a lot of refrigerated items melting in the back seat while you’re doing the other errands.

It’s the same way with everything on the air—know where you’re GOING. Where the “destination” is. THEN, plan the beginning—how you’ll get into whatever the subject is. You’ll find that the middle pretty much takes care of itself.

Saturday Night Live is a good example. Through the years, they’ve always had talented people in the cast, but when the show was strongest, every ‘bit’ had a sense of purpose—an ending or conclusion that was solid and provided some sort of resolution at the end. When the show was at its weakest, there were still some good ideas, but they just kind of fizzled out at the end.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #64 – Momentum is King

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As you’ve heard or seen me state before, Momentum and Pace are different things. Pace is how fast you go, but Momentum is how straight a line there is between Point A and Point B. You don’t necessarily gain Momentum just by going faster. It takes being concise, and good construction, like a great writer’s book that you can’t put down.

Recently, this came up in a dramatic way as a Talk show I work with really got it, and moved effortlessly forward by keeping a close eye on the lengths of calls. I told the host to think of each call as a scene in a movie, and that while not all movies are great, we only resent the ones that bog down and waste our time. By itself, Momentum turns a “C-plus” show into a “B-plus”. Content will vary from week to week, but good editing and constant forward movement are like the tide coming in. Unstoppable.

It’s the same in every format. Given two equal stations, the one with better Momentum will always win. And it’s not just about what happens when the mic opens. It applies to your Imaging, your commercial Production, your jingles (if you use them)—everything. Example: Don’t just sit there, not even realizing that every time your Imaging ends “dry voice”, then the next song starts, you just LOST momentum. Do something about it. (Call me and we’ll build it into everything you do.)

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #63 – Cattle

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The great movie Director Alfred Hitchcock was once asked by a reporter, “Is it true that you said all actors are cattle?”
Hitchcock replied, “No, I did not say that all actors are cattle. I said that all actors should be treated as cattle.”

Whenever you have a guest—or a guest host—keep that in mind.
If the guest or guest host is from TV, chances are that they know NOTHING about radio. They know about hair product and how to read a teleprompter, but if they knew anything about keeping a viewer around, they wouldn’t keep saying things like “after this break” or “when we return.” (I’ll dive further into this in a future tip.) A guest, like someone who’s on “The Biggest Loser” or whatever, knows even less. They’re pretty much like ducklings, just trying to smile and not sound like amateurs.

YOU have to organize things for them.
First rule: Don’t tell the other person something he already knows about himself. That leaves him nothing to say. (“So, you’re on The Biggest Loser tonight…” only leaves him “Yes…” or “That’s right” to say—both boring “null” responses that don’t move the conversation forward.) To use Hitchcock’s example, if you say what THEY should say, they might as well just answer with “Mooooooo.”
Second rule: ONE thought per break, not three “related” thoughts that should be spread out over three separate breaks.
Third rule: Let them know exactly what you’re going to do each break, so their role is clear.

If you need help with this, call me. A couple of coaching sessions, and you’ll be setting people up to sound good instead of giving the listener a really good reason to go somewhere else.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #62 – Kill the word “podcast”

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The National Football League is a “copycat” league. If a team succeeds by throwing 50 passes a game, the next year, every team looks for its Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. If a mobile quarterback wins a bunch of games, everyone starts drafting a quarterback who can run in addition to pass. (I’m not talking about Tim Tebow. Note the “and PASS” part. The only target Tebow can hit consistently is the ground.)

Radio’s like that, too. For a while, it seemed like every break ended with the jock giving their website address—often with no real purpose. “I’ve just told you everything about this that’s interesting, but if you’d like to read what I just said, go to the morning show page at 94.7thefart.com.”

The one getting copied the most now is the podcast. “Hear the full interview on our podcast” has become the mobile quarterback of the radio world—but that term is outdated.
In the real world, “On Demand” is the term that works, and here’s why: “On Demand” isn’t about the radio station; it’s about me—the listener—and how I use it. “Podcast” and “webcast” are left-brain analytical words that don’t have anything to do with me.

We’ve got to make things more about the listener than about the radio station. Go there, and stay there. That’s why social media is so hot right now—it’s about the USER.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #61 – You can skip to video in…..

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Thanks to my friend Randy Brown for this thought:
Often, when you select a You Tube clip, it starts with a commercial. In many instances, a message pops up in the lower right portion of the screen that says “You can skip to video in…” and then it counts down 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1, then you click it to get to what you actually wanted to see in the first place.

That’s the way people think when they listen to you. You start talking, and in the listener’s head, the 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 countdown begins.

Get on into it, or the listener “clicks” mentally—or sometimes even physically—and isn’t hearing you anymore. It’s just “blah-blah-blah” noise in the background. So you want to connect the Subject to the Listener as concisely as you can.

We have to EARN EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF LISTENING that we get. You do not deserve being listened to just because your transmitter is on.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #60 – Know when to stop (Version 2)

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After you’ve become a successful talent, one of the most significant challenges with your show’s Content is knowing when to stop doing something.

People listen for 10 minutes—20 if you’re lucky. Huge fans of the show will listen longer, unless they feel that it’s just rehash. Then, even they will go find something else.

So try this on for size:
[A] Whatever you do, treat it as a “one-off” break, meaning that it could stand alone. Plan to move on to something else the next break.

[B] But IF you get a decent reaction—a phone caller, for instance, or if you have a teammate on the show that might have a different “take” on it, okay, air that.

[C] Everything else on that subject now has to EARN being on. This means it has to cover NEW ground, not just repeat a point that’s already been made or give a second example of something we already heard.

Think of it like movies with sequels. Almost every time, the sequels get worse. The 4th Indiana Jones movie, the 4th Lethal Weapon movie, the additional 3 Star Wars movies, or any Jennifer Aniston movie.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #59 – The Disembodied Voice

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It seems so easy to hear the mistakes your competitors make–the things they do that are dumb, not thought out well, phony-sounding, pukey, lame, irritating or obvious.

But for most air talents, it’s hard to hear ourselves the same way.
It’s because we know it’s us. Someone we like. Someone we root for and want to succeed.

So here’s the lesson: To really be able to listen to audio of yourself and make improvement, you want to try and hear yourself as a disembodied voice that belongs to someone else. You need to critique yourself just like you would your most hated competitor.
I’ve always tried to listen to myself like it was just an aircheck that someone sent in looking for a job, and assess it accordingly, asking things like…
Does this person get to the point?
Is he having fun?
Is he obvious, or does he go somewhere with things that most people don’t? If I were coaching him, what would I tell him to help him get better?

You don’t want to kid yourself about your strengths or weaknesses. Maybe they’re not what you think they are. If you’re not sure, I’ll be glad to help you.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #58 – What we SAY to jocks versus what they HEAR

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Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side comic strip, had this great two-panel cartoon. The first panel was titled, “What we say to dogs.” A guy scolding his dog was saying “Okay, Ginger! I’ve had it! You stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger? Stay out of the garbage, or else!” The second panel was titled, “What they hear.” Same drawing–the guy pointing his finger at the dog, but the dog is hearing him say, “Blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah blah.”

This not only applies to the Listener—you have to be talking about things that he or she CARES about—it also applies to your Air Talent. Say you’ve had a coaching session, and decided that for the next two weeks, you want the Talent to work on being concise.

When you listen to audio of the show together, talking about anything other than that point just translates to “blah…blah…blah” to the Talent. What he or she wants and needs is for you to address the one thing that you said to work on.
So your responsibility is to have the discipline and patience to “lay one brick at a time” instead of trying to build the whole house at once.

A great way to approach using aircheck audio in sessions is to have the Talent bring in something that he or she would like you to listen to. That way, you get an idea of their level of understanding, and their opinions of themselves. (You also make the Talent a part of the process, instead of just conducting a lecture series.)

But remember what they hear.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.