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.

– – – – – – –
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.

Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:
1. How is today’s show different from yesterday’s (or tomorrow’s)?
2. Is what you do so generic that it could be a show from any day of the week?

Now take it one step further: Is what you do so generic that it could be on any station, or only on your station?

“Plain vanilla” may still be #1 in ice cream, but it certainly isn’t in radio. Today’s relevant content has a different “flavor” than yesterday’s. It’s your job to find what today is about and put it on the air. Sameness is the enemy of performance. (This is why so many so-called “benchmarks” aren’t benchmarks at all.)

Remember, there’s a huge, tangible difference between consistency (which is a good thing) and predictability (which is the kiss of death).

So if you’ve got stuff that you’ve kept around for “when you don’t have anything else,” THROW IT AWAY. It’s as outdated as last month’s tomatoes.

– – – – – – –
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.

Music stations seem to forget that they’re about music. We spend a lot of time on jock Content, what Promotions work and how to do the promos for them, how Contests need to be exciting but still organic, and Imaging.

But none of that matters if you have the computer on “auto” and your Traffic bed, for example, crashes right over the final word of a song that ends “cold.”

The solution is one that I’ve mentioned before: run any break where you’re going to talk MANUALLY. The listener has to feel that you’re listening to the music too (whether you are or not), and that you care about his or her being able to hear the end of one of their favorite songs. We don’t want dead air, obviously, but wait for those cold ends and develop FEEL, instead of just letting the machines do it.

Remember that computers are just idiots with great memories. They count time, but they don’t FEEL timing. We have to respect the music.

– – – – – – –
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.

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.

– – – – – – – – –
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.

Hopefully, you listen to your show regularly, so you can hear yourself more like the Listener hears you. So take a tip from how a lot of great Production Talents work—listen at a fairly low level, often through a small cue speaker. (Same thing with many recording engineers and Producers.) They may mix at “blast,” but then they’ll play it back at “background” level.

There are good reasons for the Low Volume Test:
• You can really hear the levels, to tell if background music for a break you’re doing—or a spot or a promo—is too loud or too soft. (Or whether it fits the mood and cradles the subject, or it’s just thumpy-thumpy noise.)
• You get a much truer read on whether you sound natural and real, or you’re just another booming, “announcing” radio guy, over-inflecting and “selling” too much.
• You get feedback more at the visceral level about pace and momentum.
• You not only can, but DO instantly decide, subconsciously or even UNconsciously, whether the person you’re hearing is interested in what he’s saying, or is having any FUN.

You want to listen at about half the level most disc jockeys usually listen at. So YOU can feel the momentum, interest level, and fun factors, instead of putting every little thing under a magnifying glass all the time, but not really learning anything about the Voice Acting part of your craft.

Once you hear yourself this way, you’ll never hear the show the same way again.

It’s like being in a room, with a movie playing on the TV in the next room. A bad actor reads lines. A great actor IS that character he’s playing.

– – – – – – – – –
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.

TK Tip 4 – The 4 Requirements of a great Air Talent (click to hear mp3 version)

There are four fundamental requirements of a truly good air talent:

(1) Be a good ambassador of the format. Each format has its unique qualities. Country is different from Album Rock. Contemporary Christian is different from Smooth Jazz. HOW they’re different is part of what you’re here to show. Consider the difference between Classic Rock and Oldies. They’re NOT the same.

(2) Be a good “tour guide” for the station—its features, artist pool, website stuff, Promotions, Contests…all that it has to offer.

(3) Be a good deejay (in music formats). That means [A] being patient, not trying to cram too much in, or doing more than one main subject in each break; [B] “riding the wave” of the music by matching each song’s tempo and emotional vibe; and [C] fitting each song, which means not trying to do ultra-serious Content over a “happy” song, or sounding like the music doesn’t matter to you, or like you’ve just been waiting impatiently for the song to end, so you can talk.

(4) I have to learn something about you, and not just what you think. I also want to know how you FEEL; what’s in your heart.

Now ask yourself if you’re doing these things every day. If you’re not, maybe you need some help.

– – – – – – –
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.