Early in my career, working at a 50,00 watt Top 40 giant, KEEL in Shreveport, Louisiana, I got a huge break.

Although I was probably the weakest air talent on the staff, my PD made me Music Director. (I’m a musician. That helps.)

All of a sudden, I had WORTH. I controlled the music we played. It was important. I became a link in the chain of terrific jocks we had.

Knowing that my boss had confidence in me, even though I was raw and untrained on the air, spurred me on to learn as much as I could from then on. (That led to the highest ratings in Shreveport history, #1 ratings in both Houston and Dallas, and being inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. And later, to my now 25-year career as a Talent Coach.)

If you’re a Program Director, consider this. The minute someone feels like a link in the chain, the chain gets even stronger.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

In a session recently with an air talent on a station my partner John Frost and I both work with, we discussed something “under the radar” for most people on the air. As Frosty put it, “Most air talents think only the longer breaks matter because ‘I get to prepare those.’”

John and I were fortunate in that early in our careers, we had a wonderful mentor named Howard Clark, who showed us what could be done in a short break. Because short breaks matter too. (This became a real strength for each of us, and a staple of what we teach.) Howard could do a killer, genuinely funny line in seven seconds or less. You listened more closely, because you never knew when Howard would say something that would crack you up – or at least, make you pay attention.

Since you probably never heard of Howard Clark, here’s the lesson:
(1) A clever line doesn’t always need a lengthy setup.
(2) Just your tone of voice can connect with the listener. It’s the mindless “read” that simply passes by unnoticed.

My thought? Until you master the art of having short breaks be an opportunity to inform or entertain, you’re not a complete air talent.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

It stuns me sometimes that air talents sound so completely disconnected from the music. (This happens A LOT with voice-tracking.)

So, think about this little little-known technique: if you match the pace of the song you’re talking over the intro of, or coming out of, or if you match the emotional vibe of the song – or hopefully, you do BOTH – it makes a statement. You’re immediately a part OF the music. We want to believe that you’re listening to the music, too. Because, as my brilliant friend John Frost puts it, the core weakness of voice tracking is that the jock just drops in from nowhere, is not connect (or invested) in the song at all, and it’s just a voice reading a liner or a boring, mechanical intro.

Something really cool happens when an entire air staff realizes this, and thinks about stuff like this. There are dozens of little ways to be more “present” than your competition.
Great radio is thrilling and organic and surprising and connected. But bad radio is just disappointing.

Could be you’ve never thought of this. Now’s the time to do it.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Pretty much every air talent tries to establish “benchmark” material. But what, exactly, makes something a “must hear” feature?

Well, first of all, it’s about the idea itself. Back when the huge box office sci-fi movies were just becoming all the rage, my morning show partner in Houston, Fred Kennedy and I came up with a thing we called “Star Fake”. It was the cast of Star Trek, but the plot of Star Wars. (With one exception: We did keep the Princess. Kind of essential.) Each episode was highly produced and campy, with a discernible ‘soundtrack’ and at times dozens of character voices, all done by Fred and me.

We tried it out for a few weeks, one episode per week. By the third episode, we had a LOT of people commenting on it and requesting more episodes. We ended up doing 49 episodes in all. We actually had to re-run them several few months later, that time running two episodes per week.

One of the keys was that even with those familiar “cast members”, there was always something LOCAL. We purposely fit local celebrities and political figures into the plotlines.

If you can keep it fresh, add a local flavor, and people like it, it’s a benchmark. Otherwise, it’s just something that’s ‘regularly scheduled’.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

One of the things that comes up in coaching sessions with any music radio air talent is not just doing it, but “doing it well.”

It’s easy to wonder what key ingredients add up to accomplishing that. So here’s how it works:

Keep things short. This isn’t about a word count or how many seconds something takes. It’s about not adding words to sound more important.

Keep things simple. Make it easy to follow. Too many details, or parenthetical phrases will inevitably add up to unnecessary “side roads” in your Content. Always imagine the listener in the car, with his or her head on a swivel trying not to get crashed into by some distracted driver. The last thing anyone needs is something that takes too much time to follow.

Keep it short + Keep it simple = Doing it well.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.