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.

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.

– – – – – – –
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.

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.

– – – – – – –
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.

Let’s talk about “staging” music—music that you might want to put under a break to enhance it.

First, ask yourself if you really need music for this break. It’s odd, when you think about it. If I meet you for lunch, I don’t just automatically plop a boom box down on the table and play music under our conversation. Often, jocks just reach for some piece of music with the mistaken notion that it “keeps the momentum” better. It can help momentum, but the wrong choice of music will NOT help the break, and having a music bed can make you lazy, since you’re not as sensitive to whether the break is moving along crisply or not.

Generic music = generic break. Grabbing some random uptempo cut from the Production library is silly, since it may not fit what you’re talking about. Now if you’re talking about baseball, it makes sense to “stage” it with music from “The Natural” or “Field of Dreams”, or an instrumental version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” But if it’s just some Production music piece chugging along in the background, it may not be actually adding anything.

Here’s the right way to think of it. Use music that’s either…
(1) SUBJECT-specific (Star Wars music to talk about a discovery in space, the Olympics theme to talk about the games, music from a Western movie to talk about a local rodeo, etc.)

or…

(2) MOOD-specific. Movies are full of music designed to “cradle” the emotion of a scene. (I’m not talking about songs included on a movie soundtrack. I mean the “incidental” music that helps create tension, or sets the stage for the action that will follow. And there are many scenes without music, because music would take away from what’s happening onscreen.)

If you use music wisely, your show will sound even more polished and produced. If you use it as a “crutch” habit, your show will sound more “paint by numbers” and stagey and artificial. I think the best advice would be that if you can find music that’s just right, use it. But if you can’t, then don’t use music that break.

– – – – – – –
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.

Sometimes it’s a battle of wills to get a Talent to do–or not do–something. I once had a session with a morning man who didn’t realize his tendency to do bawdy sexual content. His argument was, “I don’t see why you’re harping on this. It’s not like I’m Howard Stern.” But what he didn’t get is that his station’s Listener would perceive any sexual content as being over the line. This guy thought that “a little” racy was okay.

So I asked him to think about like this:
I go to a restaurant and order a hamburger with no onions. If I bite into it and taste even a small chunk of old stinky onion on it, it doesn’t matter to me that it’s just “a little” onion. It’s something that I didn’t want, and specifically asked you NOT to put on it. It didn’t take any extra effort—indeed, it didn’t take any effort at all—to do it right. So the next time one of my friends wants to eat there, I’ll probably tell him he shouldn’t, because “they never get my order right.”

Obviously, if this is how your restaurant is perceived, you’re not going to be in business very long.

Every station, in every format, has some form of “onion.” Some element that its Listeners don’t want. Maybe I come to your Classic Rock station to hear the music, but don’t want to hear you abruptly chop off the end of a song. Or I come to your soft A/C station not wanting to hear songs with suggestive lyrics. Or (the other side of the coin) maybe I come to your raunchy, outlandish Talk station not wanting to hear “safe” wimpy subject matter. Whatever the “onion” is, if I (the Listener) don’t want it, don’t give it to me.

– – – – – – –
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.

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…

– – – – – – – – –
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.

We’ve all heard about staying “one-on-one” with the Listener, and now it’s more important than ever. Singular terms work (iPhone, iPad, iTunes), because it’s an “I-me-my” world. Each person wants to be treated as an individual. The old “everybody out there in radio land” mentality went the way of the lava lamp and the ‘mood ring’ a long time ago. The connection with the Listener is fragile. Little wording choices make or break it.

So starting today, avoid using ‘plural’ terms like “those of you” or “all of you.” They’re not one-on-one. Those are pretty obvious, but it can get tricky. For instance…

It’s not “some of you might have seen her last night on Letterman.” There aren’t “some of me.” Instead, say “you might have seen her last night on Letterman.”

“We’ll take your phone calls” is another one. WHOSE phone calls? You’re either talking to some faceless “collective” or you apparently expect me to make more than one phone call. Instead, say “You can call now” or just “call now,” which feels like you’re saying it to me, even though you may also be including all those “other” clod….uh, people.

If you have to talk about “people,” talk to me ABOUT “them.”
Example: Instead of addressing “Everyone listening right now” or “all of you listening,” say “You, and everybody else listening right now.”

Stay SINGULAR. Talk to me. ONE person. The listener, not “listeners.” Don’t throw me in the barrel with them. It’s like the great Groucho Marx said, “I don’t want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member.”

– – – – – – – – –
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.

We’ve all heard “one thought per break” as the goal of great radio. (And if you haven’t heard it before, you have now.)

The reason for that is simple: It’s extremely difficult, maybe even impossible, to do more than thought in a break and have it work. Listeners don’t respond well to more than one thought. Two thoughts in the same break compete with and dilute each other, so the break is, at best, 50% successful. But take those two thoughts and put each of them in a separate break, and you can be 100% successful. Twice. It’s kind of like the old Saturday Night Live parody spot: “It’s a floor wax. No, it’s a dessert topping. No, it’s both!”

No, it’s neither.

But there’s more here than meets the eye, so let me give you two more guidelines.

One EXAMPLE per break. I don’t need a laundry list of examples. Just give me one good one.

And even deeper than that is something the great Bobby Ocean once said: One EMOTION per break.

Embrace these additional rules, and you’ll be amazed at the clarity it gives you. And clarity – simplicity by design – is what works best. (Think iPad. A 2-year old can use it, even though its inner workings are very complicated.)

And notice that I’m stopping there, because you only need one example to “get it.”

– – – – – – –
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.