Category Archives: Radio coaching tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #608: WHY Revealing an Emotion Works

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A LOT of time is spent in my coaching sessions dwelling on the Emotion behind what the Talent says, rather than what the subject matter is.

Here’s why:
Emotion is the only thing that people respond to without conscious thought.

Please read that last sentence again.
Now think about your air work. Are you just passing out information? If you do give an opinion, are you showing what you FEEL in addition to what you think?
(Remember that revealing an emotion doesn’t really take a whole lot of effort. It can be done with just the tone of your voice, or a change in volume.)

We hear the word “authenticity” being thrown around a lot these days. Well, Emotion is at the core of that, because to really connect with the listener (which is the whole point of broadcasting), you need to have the Listener FEEL something when you talk.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #606: The Howard Clark Litmus Test

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Early in my career, I lucked into having a tremendous mentor in the great Howard Clark.

My early, feeble attempts to “entertain” were a litany of way-too-long setups for what usually proved to be pretty lame punch lines.

I’ve written about Howard before. He was a brilliant talent who could just drop in a comment over a song intro that could make you laugh out loud in less than ten seconds. He was the best, most concisely funny person I ever heard on the air.

Howard embodied what I consider to be the definition of greatness: He made you turn the radio UP when he spoke.

If you’ve got that, you don’t have to worry about your ratings.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #605: A Challenge for You in 2025

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Okay, we’ve gotten Christmas and New Year’s over with, we’re all going to try to lose 10 pounds, and now we have to settle down and go to work.

So here’s a challenge for you in this next year: Try something different; something you’ve never done before.

I don’t mean skydiving or spelunking. I mean try something different on the air.
Maybe it’s creating a little feature in the Production room – a parody commercial, or a parody song, or a parody of your own show. SOMETHING that isn’t the same old stuff you have in your bag of tricks.

It could also be something you do in a different (or adjacent) format, like a blog or a podcast. STRETCH. LEARN. Take a chance, for Pete’s sake.

If you never try anything new, you’re already a Brontosaurus.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #604: How to Find What Really Works for You

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For any young air talent, the key to a successful career is simply how to find out what really works for you, so you don’t (1) sound like everybody else, and (2) you’re not predictable.

So how do you accomplish this? Pretty simple, actually: Try stuff.
Some of it may bomb. That’s okay. That’s how we learn. If something tanks, just put that in the “trash” bin, and try something else. If you have the courage to get out of the “box” that most air talents fit into, you’ll eventually find something that “clicks”. Then, add to that by trying something different. Again.

A great example for you is The Wally Show on Contemporary Christian radio giant WAY-FM, based in Nashville.

I’ve worked with Wally on and off for almost 25 years in several different formats, and I still haven’t seen anyone who comes up with more stuff than he does. He’s an idea MACHINE. And yes, he learned what worked for him by just taking chances and trying things that came out of his unique sense of humor. But he didn’t stop there. When he does something really serious, that works, too. (This was a big step in his career. No one can be funny all the time, and you need a changeup to go with your fastball.)

But as the wonderful Talk Radio coach (and my dear friend) Valerie Geller says, “Never be boring.”

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #595: The Guy with the Nice Voice

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Recently, I started coaching a new member of a Talk show about cars (getting a great deal on one, not how to repair one).

This guy has one of those “cannon” voices – the God-given kind of deep, resonant voice that used to be what every Top 40 Program Director looked for.

But that was then. Now, a Tom Hanks-type “real guy” delivery works better. (For example, Johnjay Van Es of the Johnjay & Rich show, a longtime friend I’ve worked with multiple times whose down to earth, natural approach makes people bond with him almost immediately. (He has a fine voice, but doesn’t “use it”. He’s just himself.)

I could name many others, but let me share something with you that I sent this new guy the other day after our first coaching session:

Your initial challenge is to be a bit more comfortable sounding. It’s the “I’m only 3 feet away from you” delivery instead of the “You’re 10 feet away from me” delivery. You’re not “announcing” or “presenting” as much as you’re just sharing something with a friend over a sandwich at lunch. This slightly more relaxed delivery will still carry the timber you naturally have, but in a much more absorbable way. “The guy with the nice voice” is better than the “loud guy with a big voice.”

Having a great voice is a gift, but if you sound stiff, too “official”, or insincere, that’s probably not going to get you the results you want.
You won’t be “giving up” anything. And here’s the deal: you’ll still have that God-given resonance, which is really the whole idea, anyway.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #589: A Link in the Chain

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #587: Short Breaks MATTER

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #586: Getting in the Groove FAST

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #585: It’s About How Long it Sounds

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It’s not how long something IS. It’s about how long it SOUNDS.

Too many words, too many examples, or parenthetical “side road” journeys, will automatically make you sound longwinded.
And it’ll feel long, no matter how it times out on a stopwatch.

“2 minutes isn’t that long.” Really? How long does it FEEL? Try holding your breath for two minutes right now. You’ll understand.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Tip # 584: The Starting Place When You Have a Guest On

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If you want to have a guest do a good job and want to come back, you MUST start with this…

Take a back seat to him/her/etc. It starts with how you bring them on. Don’t “give away the plot” and tell the guest’s whole story. Take ONE thing and start giving, like “So, tell us about this movie…” (or whatever the guest is there to promote).

Or with a caller…suppose she’s obsessed with the movie “Back to the Future”. (This is an example from a show I coach in Houston.) Naturally, you ask how many times she saw it when it came out, and she tells you – instead of YOUR telling us you learned something about her, then telling HER that she has an obsession with a movie. (She knows that.) When you let the guest (or caller) tell the bulk of the story, that person comes across better – and so do you.

I can tell you from experience that the guest will really appreciate it. And you build a catalog of people who’ll gladly come back on the show.

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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.