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 #57 – OWN the Information

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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.

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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 #56 – The Barney Fife Method

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Barney Fife, the classic Don Knotts character on the old Andy Griffith Show, probably never thought he’d become a role model–at least not for radio. But that’s exactly what happened.

Sure, many radio jocks share Barney’s ego, bravado, nervousness under pressure, taking rules too seriously (or ignoring them), trying to pretend you know more than you actually do, bad singing voice, and rather vague knowledge of the human anatomy (“the obondalla isn’t in the leg, Ange…it’s in the brain”), but the passing on of the “idiot torch” is not what made him a role model. It’s that in his shirt pocket, this fearless deputy, this symbol of law and order, this staunch upholder of the people’s rights carried…his one bullet.

Barney Fife was given only one bullet by Sheriff Andy Taylor (and told to just keep it in his pocket until he needed it) for a simple reason—to keep Barney from shooting his foot off.

It’s the same for you. We’ve all heard the “ONE thought per break” rule. But under that ‘umbrella’ heading are two additional guidelines: One STORY per break, and/or one EXAMPLE per break. This is the Barney Fife Method, one “bullet” per break.

As a listener, I may love ice cream, but I can’t eat two banana splits.

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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 #55 – “Human interest” stories

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Not long ago, I heard this so-called “story” in a newscast:

“They did a study letting dogs just hear someone yawn. They responded with their own about half the time. But when the canine heard a familiar person like their owner yawn, it happened five times more often.”

Who cares? If you asked ten people what mattered most to them that day, I’d give you 1000 to 1 odds that dogs yawning wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of that list.

When I asked the air talent about this, the justification for it was that it was a “human interest” story.
I don’t see the Interest. (Plus, saying “the canine” is that stilted old newsy language, like saying “the five-foot-eight-inch male was spotted running away from the scene.” No one would EVER say this in real life.)

Yes, I keep harping on this, but I’ll stop griping about it if you stop boring people to death. What do you not get about the fact that you’re in competition for the listener’s time with every other station, hundreds of TV channels, social media, audio books and gaming?

Don’t let your SHOW be the thing that makes the dog yawn.

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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 #54 – Today, tomorrow, next week, next month

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Here’s a really simple way to do show prep. Think “Today, tomorrow, next week, next month.”

Today and tomorrow are pretty obvious, but there’s a reason to always glance at what’s coming up next week, or next month. It’s all about how the brain works. Once the “left brain” (the logical, mathematical, “everything in its place”) side is made aware of the “next big thing” the RIGHT side of the brain (the creative, emotional, artistic side) will start noodling around on how to do it well.

This also gives you time to put things in motion—maybe a promotional or social media angle or follow-up, or finding some music that will stage it perfectly on the air.

If you wait until the last minute and think you can just wing it, pray that I don’t start coaching your competition. You can’t do left brain AND right brain stuff at the same time with any great degree of success. No one can. That’s why golfers work on the practice range until things become subconscious, then when they get into a tournament, it’s not about swing thoughts, it’s just about hitting the shot.

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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 #53 – Is there something going on here?

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Let’s make this short and sweet. When I tune you in, is there something going on here? Or is there nothing going on here?
If you think just playing the music and constantly promoting stuff will work, welcome to mediocrity.

Any idiot can intro a song. Any idiot can read a liner or plug the website, or read something from the internet that the listener can get on his or her smart phone in three seconds.

I used to think of my show as “The Adventures of Tommy Kramer” (or one of the five different morning shows I was part of). Like Seinfeld in the 90’s or Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory now, each show was an episode in itself, pertaining to THAT DAY.

Yes, the listener wants companionship, but not with someone who’s bland or boring. Whether it’s evident in your research or not, the listener wants a show.
DO SOMETHING, instead of doing nothing. Try stuff. You’ll be surprised at the results.

If you need help, call me. With a little coaching, you can jump start (or rejuvenate) your career. Every professional athlete or actor you admire has a coach.

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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 #52 – EMOTIONAL Content

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Here’s the real key to everything you do on the air: EMOTIONAL content. No matter how factual something may be, you have to remember that the Listener doesn’t really bond with the radio through the left side of the brain (the logical, mathematical side). The Listener bonds with you through the right side—the emotional, artistic side of the brain. I touched on this in an earlier tip, but people tend to think that only “big” things require emotion; Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Memorial Day, etc.

Even in something as simple as a contest or some station information about a concert or website feature, plugging into my EMOTIONS is key. That’s why your trivia contest or overly wordy weather forecast doesn’t really click. We’ve covered trivia before, but that “clear to partly cloudy with southerly winds 5 to 10 miles per hour and a 30 percent chance of rain” stuff is really boring, too. The Weather Channel app on my iPhone can give me that—AND show me the satellite picture right over my house. But if you said, “no wind to speak of, but we could sure use that rain,” I might actually put some value in your doing the weather.

Other examples:
Instead of just giving away a trip to Disney World, sell the great time I’ll have with my kids, how my wife won’t have to cook, and how great the weather in Orlando will be.

Or say you have a “listening club” or “Music Advisory Board” on your website where I can vote for my favorite new songs. As you promote it, make sure to let me know that the songs I LIKE BEST will be the ones you add, and that the reason you’re doing it isn’t just to suck me into your website, but to make sure that I’M part of your radio station.

I know…this sounds really easy. So I have to wonder why so few people do it. Focus on the Emotion, and everything changes.

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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 #51 – You ARE Twitter

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Dear friend and fellow Texas Radio Hall of Famer Randy Brown said something to me the other day that really struck home: In the early 70’s when our little rebel alliance was ushering in FM becoming dominant at Gordon McLendon’s KNUS in Dallas, we WERE Twitter. We were tightly edited, concise with our wording, and only made one point per break.

If you want to look at radio back then as social media today, AM Top 40 was Facebook. They had a huge following, with millions of listeners, and were the 800-pound gorilla—until we made those pukey, rambling deejays sound like they just couldn’t shut up.

Over and over, in market after market, PPM verifies what we knew then. If you’ll be concise (so you don’t waste people’s time) and offer something of real value to the listener every time you open the mic, you’ll be wildly successful.

And remember this: Just like Twitter is limited to 140 characters, the listener is sitting there, listening to you, with his foot tapping anxiously, waiting for you to get to the point. 140 really fast foot taps, then YOU’RE DONE—whether you’ve actually finished or not. The LISTENER decides.

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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 #50 – Trivia is, well…trivial

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It’s hard for me to believe that people are still doing trivia questions on the air as a contest mechanic. Trivia is LAME, man.

Here’s what happens:
5 people call, so jocks think it works “because the phone lines lit up.” Meanwhile, 90 people tuned out because they’ve heard enough “brain teasers” and “impossible questions” to last several lifetimes. (In my seminars, I always say “No one cares what the gestation period of the female aardvark is.” Oh, and it’s seven months. My, that’s exciting.)

Think about it from the other end of the radio. It’s usually just a bunch of “No, that’s not it, but thanks for calling” stuff leading to the one nerd who guesses right or looks it up. Boring.
If you Google “trivia questions and answers” (which I just did), you’ll see over 67 MILLION websites full of this cra….uh, stuff. It’s kind of hard to be unique when you’re doing something that I can find in 67 million other places. And you’re forgetting that it’s not 1990 anymore. Today, I can just ask Siri, and have the answer in five seconds.

You can be better! You just need some coaching. Start with just scratching Trivia off the list – permanently. Let everyone else do that stuff, while you do something more relevant instead. Then call me, and I’ll show you ways to give stuff away that generate great phone calls and will actually engage the listener, not just feed more radio tofu to the same thirty people that win 90% of your contests.

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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 #49 – Resets: The One-Sentence Rule

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Okay, you’ve done something that got some phone reaction, and there’s a good call you want to play.

We’ve all heard a Talent circle around the block endlessly, eventually gurgling and drowning as he tries to re-introduce the Subject. Sometimes we hear innocuous details that take us nowhere. I’ve even heard people tell the whole story again! As a RESET!!! (This, of course, is Death.)

If it takes more than one sentence to “reset the stage” of what you’re talking about, you need to work on this. “Redundant” is not the vibe you want to give off.

So think of it like a newspaper article. You want to start with a headline, not with a paragraph. ONE line, then BANG!…go right into the “meat” of the call.

The same rule applies when you’re not going into a call; you’re simply resetting a Subject in order to add another point about it. Don’t waste the listener’s time. Editing is the name of the game. Editing yourself is a GREAT quality.

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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 #48 – One thing, One thing, One thing

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Here’s a quick and easy show prep tip.

Every day, bring in these three things:

1. One thing you saw. (Observing real life IS show prep.)
2. One thing that somebody else told you about. (The reason for this is that other people have different “camera angles” from yours.)
3. One thing you read. (But don’t read it to me. Just tell me about it.)

This will assure your having three solid things to talk about each day. If you’re in a two-person team show, you’ll have six things to talk about. When you add in the Content that the station provides—features, contests, website stuff, etc. the “empty page” fills up fast.

This process divorces you from the all-too-typical “crutch” material like “This Day in History”, Celebrity birthdays, or stealing lines or “bits” from someone else (which never sound like you), And because those 3 things you bring in will be different every day, your Wednesday show won’t just be a repeat of Tuesday’s show.

Jocks tend to think in terms of “benchmarks,” and build a list of things they do at certain times every day that can freeze you into an “autopilot” mentality. There’s room for benchmarks, but you also have to find ways of maintaining or generating that creative “spark.” The “one thing—one thing—one thing” method is an easy way to keep from growing stale, and stay interested in the non-Control room world….you know, the one your listener lives in.

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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.