In the last tip, I addressed what seems like a lack of Production skills in radio today. If you really want to make an immediate impact, let’s start with show Promos (particularly Morning Shows, but any show you want to promote).

The Kramer Rules:

Let go of promoting what will happen on tomorrow’s show, unless there’s a special guest or big “event” happening. What works best is a quick intro (“Charlie and The Beamer…”), followed by a good audio clip FROM the show, then a tag that tells me their name again and when they’re on, ending with the name of the station. Stay away from trying to define the show for me. (“She’s the smart one. He’s goofy, but lovable.” Ick. And please no “the perfect way to start your morning” crap.)

We should dive a little deeper into this “plugging tomorrow’s show” thing, too. I don’t WANT to feel like the whole show for tomorrow is planned already. I want some sense of a show being live, working without a net. Why…something might actually SURPRISE us!

The clip you use in the promo should be well-edited, but not SOUND like it’s edited. And it should have some appropriate “staging music” under it, not just be “dry voice”. It’s a promo, but it’s not being compared to what else is heard on radio. In the listener’s mind, it’s being compared to Hollywood movie trailers. So step it up.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

One area we haven’t discussed in a long time is Production Skills.

What we used to refer to as “board op” mistakes happen now simply because the computer ‘runs the board’ most of the time, and it lacks feel.

WE have to instill that ‘feel’ element.

In a nutshell, you want the next element to fire not too quickly, not too loose. There’s a “last logical place” in every song – even ones that fade or hold a chord out for several seconds – so put the tone in the right place, instead of chopping it off just a hair too soon, or crashing the next song over that hanging last chord. (And when you open the mic, don’t talk over a “cold” ending. When you do that, people want to strangle you. I want to hear that last word; then you talk.)

Production skills give you the ability to put something special together – editing a music bed, or making a montage of song clips or audio clips if you’ve got a guest coming on, for example.

Show promos sparkle when they’re perfectly edited. But if they’re sloppy or indulgent, they can bore people to death. (More on this in a future tip.)

And the “watchdog” mentality created by getting good at Production “works backwards” in that you start hearing “only the good parts” AS you talk to a caller. Then BOOM…a “decent” call becomes a GREAT call. Or your ears perk up when something happens on the show that you know would make a good promo with just a little editing.

If you’re intimidated by the Production world, just dive in. These digital Production tools are easy to use. And this is a marketable skill. When you’re good at it, everyone who isn’t stands out – in the wrong way.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

It would be hard, if not impossible, for any comedian to even remotely approach the vast volume of material that George Carlin had. One of his pieces is a real lesson for radio (which is where George began his career, in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana). The routine was about “saving the planet,” with George pointing out that “The planet will outlive you, and will heal itself.”

But he had an interesting take on how that piece affected his performance, saying “That piece was very thoughtful, and very interesting, and I loved it, but I had to learn that there were times in the show when it was okay NOT to get laughs. Because one of the jobs I have besides getting laughs is to engage the imagination. If I make them laugh along the way, that’s part of the deal for me.”

That’s part of the deal for you, too.

If all you have to offer is “funny,” you’re going to be one-dimensional. If a plane flies into a building again, no one’s going to turn to you for your thoughts on it. A show needs changes of gear and depth, at least some of the time, to become great.

I was fortunate to be half of a team show in Houston (“Hudson & Harrigan”) that was known for laughs – lots of them – but we could do sincere and down-to-earth, too.

If you don’t have those elements, you need some coaching.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

In coaching young air talent, there’s always that moment when you assess what their specific gift is – that one thing that stands out about each person – and you have to find a way to broaden their vision.

That’s when the first challenge is issued – to become more consistent. Anyone can have a good hour or a good show, but getting that to be EVERY hour, EVERY day, is “the first step up.”

Some people think the work is done with a good week, or a good month. But that’s just scratching the surface. Take any TV show that runs for years, and you see this challenge met. The first episode hopefully makes people like the show, and want to see it again. But it also sets a standard of what the viewer expects FROM the show every time they tune in.
It’s the same in radio, and “raising the bar” is the first hurdle. And it all starts with Content. Since you can’t do the same thing every day (“benchmarks” aside), you have to reinvent how you approach the show. The Beatles didn’t just stop with “She Loves You.” Only three years later, they did the “Sgt. Pepper” album. Then along came further experiments, instrumentation, and nuances. There’s a huge distance between “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

So…work on your craft, EVERY SINGLE DAY. As my friend and associate Alan Mason says, “Good enough….isn’t.”

You want to be Consistent, yes, but you also want to be consistently GOOD.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

One of the offshoots of trying to read something on the air is that since ‘print words’ are not the way we actually talk, it erodes your authenticity. Where I live, Louisiana, there are tons of local commercials on radio and TV, and way too many of them have the owner of the business – usually a balding guy with a golf shirt on, wearing a 32-inch belt over which hangs his 40-inch waist – telling you that he’ll give you the best deal on “America’s most popular midsize SUV luxury brand” and that his dealership is “Rated number one in customer service in a survey of repeat customers.” Blah, blah, blah. Words that he would never say – maybe no human would ever say – in a real conversation. And we’re then obliged to see his wife, small children, and their dog SHOUT his name. (Except the dog. He barks. He’s the best part of the spot.)

…or we hear some radio station disc jockey try to read something, and treat it like he (or she) just thought it up.

Listen: Authenticity is self-revealing. So is the lack of it. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t fake it.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2021 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.