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 #37 – Words that “push the Listener away”

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“Out there,” (as in “the streets are wet out there”) “over there,” “up there,” “in here,” “there in x,” “out in,” “over in,” “up in,” “there in,” “out by,” “over by,” “up by,” “there by.”
People hear these words all the time—but they shouldn’t.

Those words “push the Listener away” by telling her that she’s somewhere else.
Listen. I’m not “there.” I’m right here, in my car or in my office. And you’re right here with me. So if you constantly use wording that tells me that you’re not, you’re arbitrarily throwing away radio’s most precious aspect—the one-on-one connection to the listener. I can’t understand why anyone would want to do that.
Better word choices are the way to pull people toward you, instead. Example: Say “in Richardson” (instead of “out there in Richardson”). This is easy to correct. Catch it now before it gets too deeply embedded.

Radio isn’t “Where’s Waldo?” because you—Waldo—need to be where I am.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #36 – Before NOW doesn’t matter

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You hear so many jocks these days say things like “Off mic, we were talking about x….” or “Before we got on the air, we were talking about x….”

As a listener, I don’t care what you did off-mic, off the air, or even just one minute ago before I tuned in. (I didn’t hear it.) Time only flows in ONE direction for the Listener—from right now—this moment, forward.

This same mentality applies to resets. Instead of those “backward references” like “a few minutes ago, we were talking about x…” just set the subject up now, as if for the first time, and then go ahead with whatever else you have to say.

This is how you welcome in new listeners, and by definition, you have better forward momentum.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #35 – The Challenges of having a BIG Voice

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Hundreds of years ago, when I first got into radio, the easiest way to get hired was to have a BIG, DEEP voice. The guy with the biggest set of “pipes” was always the one most in demand. He got the best jobs for the most money, advanced up the ladder quickest, and got tons of voice work to make outside income.

As radio got more real sounding, those guys were simply described as “pukers.” And today, there are distinct negatives associated with the old-school big “radio” voice. Having worked with hundreds of “big pipes” guys over the years (and several Voice Actors that you hear everyday on national spots and movie trailers), some new conclusions have emerged.

In today’s radio, especially in female-targeted formats, big huge voices can easily come across as either tired or angry. So if you’ve got one of those giant voices, work on staying in the upper half of your vocal range all the time. Try to avoid “bottoming out” or the “growly” sound. Having a nice voice is a great gift, but in the modern era, it’s about resonance, not depth, like a great guitar. We’re not out to scare small children here.

Your “radio voice” doesn’t impress anyone except other disc jockeys. Get over it, and just talk to the listener like you would over lunch together.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #34 – Know when to Stop

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Whenever a talent tells me that something “lit up the phone lines for two hours,” my response is always, “Well, I hope you didn’t run calls for that long.”

A lot of Air Talents won’t stop. For them, phone calls are like heroin. They’ll continue to take—and air—them as long as they keep coming in. This is almost always a mistake.

As you plan your show, think “two breaks”—one to set a subject up and one for a phone call response. Every call past that point has to EARN its way onto the air by contributing something new to the discussion.
Talk radio should streamline, too. By the time you do a good job of putting a topic on the table, you might take one “yes” call and one “no” call, but then you’re probably done.
And even the hottest topic should never go longer than an hour on the air, and never cross the top of the hour. Beating a subject to death isn’t the way to have Momentum.

Yes, there are exceptions…disasters. 9/11, Columbine, a flood or tornado in your area. But that’s about all I can think of. Your “weird food combinations” bit isn’t one.

Better to leave the listener wanting MORE than to be like a ham actor that keeps taking bows to diminishing applause.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #33 – Use short sentences

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Using too many words will poison a break. People are busy. They have lives. So don’t ramble and waste their time. Being concise is a challenge for most jocks. Talk show hosts in particular get really longwinded. We all know that person who uses 200 words when 40 would do. That’s not the guy we want to have a conversation with.

Use short sentences. FEWER words make it clear, not more words.

Here’s an example:
“Some people taking Viagra will experience side effects, some of which can be severe. Consult your doctor or qualified health professional before taking Viagra, and make sure that you’re healthy enough for sexual activity. If you experience an erection lasting for more than four hours, call a doctor.”

Blah, blah, blah. All they needed was “Ask your doctor before you take Viagra. There could be dangerous side effects.”

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #32 – Things that are “interesting”

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I actually heard a jock the other day do this:

“Name the first four American presidents.”

Why? What’s in it for me? If there’s nothing specific, it’s just “please do my show for me.” That’s been the tone of way too many shows for way too long. Plus, when you do something like this—something that isn’t relevant, or that I can ask Siri and get the answer in three seconds—I always wonder what you’re not doing to make room for this kind of stuff.

Stay top-of-mind. Talk about what the listener is already thinking about today. If it’s not in his or her Top 10, blow it off. Your show matters when your Content matters to the listener.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #31 – The Person Who Just Tuned In

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Here’s a little reminder of something a lot of air talents forget: At this moment, as you start this break, you’re not only talking to one of your P-1 listeners; you’re also speaking to the person who just tuned in…maybe for the first time.

If you think this way, you’ll be more welcoming, and always be inviting in more cume. More cume means a better chance for a diary or PPM device to go to one of your listeners.

This doesn’t just apply to what the jocks do or say. It’s important for a PD to embrace this, too, and design things accordingly. For example, the other day I heard a local station do a “Complete the lyric” contest—where the idea was to pick up where the song clip the jock played left off, and sing the next line.

I’m sure that on the drawing board, this looked great. But to me, it’s just one more station ‘preaching to the choir’—talking exclusively to the listeners they already have. If I’m new to the format, I don’t KNOW the lyrics to the songs you play yet. Since the most important factor in any contest is for me (as a listener) to believe that I have a real chance to win, this is a swing and a miss. I give up, tune out, and you miss an opportunity. (However, you do get to give yet another prize away to one of the 30 people who win every contest you ever run.)

If what you do is more open-ended, you’ll get more listeners to pay attention. Aim at the target listener, but don’t exclude anyone. McDonald’s targets women with kids, but that doesn’t mean men can’t eat there.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #30 — Be Untypical

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If you’ve never seen the great movie “The Sting” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, it’s worth watching for one scene alone. Charles Durning, who plays a cop from Chicago on the trail of Redford, unknowingly intrudes on an FBI investigation. Taken to a big warehouse, he’s introduced to the head guy, who asks him a simple question. Durning gives a flippant answer, to which the FBI man says “Sit down. And try not to live up to my expectations.”

There’s a lesson here for you: The worst thing that can happen to your career in radio (or anything else, for that matter) is to be typical, to be only what the average person expects from a radio jock.

Being untypical is what makes great painters and photographers, great musicians, great character actors, and most of all, an INTERESTING person.
So the next time the mic opens, try to say something that’s not typical. Or try to do whatever the break calls for in some way that’s not the same old/same old. Being untypical is how you get noticed, instead of just going by unheard in the background.

There’s an art to being untypical. Everyone can do it, but it takes breaking down barriers (both real and self-imposed) and finding out what you have that’s unique.

That’s where a coach comes in. What you think you’re good at, you may not be good at. What you think is just nothing may be the very thing that we can take, nurture, and grow into the key ingredient that makes your mark. (Or just keeps your job when someone is going to be let go.)
I believe the phone number of a Talent Coach is below…

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #29 – The Emotional fuels the Technical

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The great actor Dustin Hoffman talked on Inside the Actors Studio about a key moment in the movie Midnight Cowboy. In the scene, his character “Ratzo” Rizzo is talking with Jon Voigt’s character on a New York street when a traffic light changes. As they step off the curb, a taxi almost hits Ratzo.

This was a “stolen” scene, shot on a real street in New York with real people all around, using a hidden camera. Hoffman says they had to try it several different times to get the timing right, and obviously the cab almost hitting him was NOT in the screenplay. So in reacting to almost being pulverized, he pounded on the taxi’s hood, and what he WANTED to say was “Hey, we’re working here! We’re shooting here!” But being totally devoted to staying in character, he said “Hey! I’m walkin’ here! I’m walkin’ here!”—a defining moment for Ratzo’s aggressive attitude toward the world around him, and one of the most memorable scenes of Hoffman’s career.

The Emotion of the scene fueled the technical side of what he did—banging on the hood and shouting that line to the idiot driver.

If you really want to become something special on the air, instead of just a disc jockey or analytical Talk host, embrace the thought that while technical and organizational skills are a great foundation, sometimes what you FEEL should guide what you say.

If you have trouble with this, maybe you need a coach. I know one you could call.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #28: Interview tip – Fit it into the show

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It’s such a sell-out when someone on a music station has an interview with an artist, and all of a sudden, the radio station and the host just turn into shills for the recording industry. Nothing is more boring than those “So, when does the new CD come out?” and “Where’s the next stop on your tour?” questions, and their lame, predictable answers.

Don’t settle for that pap. Make sure that your interviews have the same entertainment and personality elements as the rest of your show. Have FUN with the interview.

Here’s an example: One time when I was doing a Morning Drive team show on a Country station, my partner and I learned that a singer we were interviewing had a dog that would “sing” along with him, baying and howling while he sang. When we had him on the show a couple of days before he played in a station-sponsored concert, we made sure to have him go get his dog while we had him on the phone, and got the two of them to “sing” together on the air! It was a hoot, and gave the Listener a reason to really like him, since it was so human; so real. It was revealing, and more importantly, it was anti-music business “hype.”

Another thought: If you have something going on that hour, try to get the guest to fit into what the show’s already doing. Bring the guest in as a sort of “co-host” when you can. I used to write things for the guest to do within the framework of the show. They always loved it. (Think about it. They don’t usually get to do that sort of thing.)

Give your listener something to remember when you have a guest on. (A by-product of this is that the artist has fun, forms a little positive opinion of you that he or she files away for the future, and then looks forward to being on with you again the next time.)

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.