Category Archives: Radio coaching tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #449: Another Lesson from George Carlin

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip $448: The First Step Up

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #446 — Momentum: What it Really Means

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Momentum is defined in the dictionary as “force or speed of movement; impetus,” with these examples:

The car gained momentum going downhill.
Her career lost momentum after two unsuccessful films.

I wonder whether most radio stations understand this. I hear “pace” often – but not necessarily any momentum. Pace is just going faster or slower. That’s not momentum.

Technically, it’s when one thing seamlessly flows into another. But Content-wise, it’s also about your listeners feeling that something is going on – something that compels them to hear more of your show (or your station). THAT’S when you have momentum.

I’ve learned a lot of ways to inject momentum into formatics, and the mechanics of how to construct and run the various elements so “the big wheel keeps on turning,” and those definitely do help turn stations around. But momentum as a Personality, and within a show, is a deeper dive.

That’s why concentrating on pace is an incomplete thought, and focusing on ratings is always the wrong focus. You have to create an entity that defines momentum – an inexorable forward flow – first. Then the ratings will come.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip $440: If You Don’t Know, Don’t Fake It

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #438: How to do Weather

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So let’s talk about the weather…

The typical scenario nowadays is to have some local TV weather person come on to “play” with the morning show and do the weather, or – even worse – to have someone from a weather service read the forecast in a boring monotone, with way too much information. “Clear to partly cloudy today with a thirty percent chance of showers or thundershowers, and a high in the mid-fifties. Southerly winds 8-10 miles per hour. Then it’ll become mostly cloudy and windy overnight with a sixty percent chance of more precipitation, and a low around 32,” etc. Ugh.

We should do the weather, but ultra-short-form. “Some clouds today with a chance of rain. High of 54. Tonight, no rain, low near 32.”
High today, low tonight, tell me if it’s going to rain or snow. If you want, add tomorrow’s high.
No temperature “ranges” (like “in the low thirties.” Should I bring the plants in tonight? Some live at 33, but die at 32.)
Either pick a number, or say “near 32.” NOT “about” or “around” 32. Do you KNOW, or not? We don’t want to just sound like we’re guessing. And if you say “Low near 32” but it doesn’t reach that, then God changed it. But at least we knew what it was supposed to be. 😃)

Frankly, except for “It might rain today. 86 for the high,” is all you need, instead of a formal forecast.

Here’s why:
It’s not 1988 anymore. I have the Weather Channel app in my phone – with the radar picture from RIGHT ABOVE MY HOUSE. And I can get that, along with all the other pertinent information, in about 5 seconds. THAT’S what you’re competing with.

NOTE: when there are concerning changes in the weather, of COURSE you want to cover it. I’m just talking about not pouring energy into formal, lengthy forecasts that can’t compete with an iPhone.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #436: The Learner’s Heart

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One of the benefits of doing this talent coaching thing for a long time is that you learn how to appraise talent quickly. After just a couple of coaching sessions, one thing always stands out: the person with the learner’s heart is going to get better. The person whose ego gets in the way of learning isn’t going to progress much unless that changes.

So which one are you? Are you open to suggestion, to change, to experimenting? You can still have your opinions, of course, but to have that be a closed circuit just means standing still. If nothing else, getting thoughts from a different perspective from someone you trust will make your decision-making quicker and more certain.

Lebron James has a coach. So does Tom Brady. So has every Olympic champion.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #433: Two Workshop Thoughts

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Some coaching sessions are what I call “workshop” sessions, where instead of concentrating on one thing, we talk more about the bigger picture, and how to reach a higher level.
It’s not all pie in the sky, though. Even the best air talents need foundational reminders now and then. Returning to our overall vision clarifies things and takes us out of the “critique” space. Here’s an example, an excerpt from a recap of a recent session with Dave & Tristi, the fine morning team on 89.5 KTSY in Boise:

1. Always have a solid ending in mind first. If you do, constructing the story will be far easier. Trying to tie a bunch of divergent facts together at the end is why writers and performers get stumped. Knowing that the Ending is going to resonate relaxes the whole writing (or composing in your head) process.

2. An economy of words results in fewer overreactions, phone solicitations get easier and more natural-sounding, and you weed out phrases that sound like ‘liners’. You don’t want to constrict yourself so much as just trim things down, so they make more impact.

Sessions like today’s, with two premium talents who are always receptive…well, that’s why I enjoy the ‘workshop’ environment so much. (As opposed to the actual Shop classes in school, where the instructor always seemed to be missing a finger.)

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #432: MEAN Something

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There’s this great scene in the old Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie “The Sting”. Redford’s character is questioning about the scam they’re pulling on the bad guy (played by Robert Shaw), and asks, “Do you think it’ll work?” Newman’s character answers, “Relax, kid. We had him twenty years ago when he decided to BE somebody.”

This has actually become a microcosm of the world we’re living in. Everyone hungers to “BE something” even if it’s just for a few seconds. A Twitter posting, a picture that gets “liked” by some social media throng.

Let’s apply this to radio. In coaching over 1700 air talents, I’ve found that it’s always a challenge when someone says he or she wants to ‘be’ somebody (to the listener). While you can certainly strive for that, that’s the shallow end of the pool. The real aim should be to MEAN something to the listener. When you’re the person who weighs in on what’s relevant in my life consistently, that emotional connection IS the point. You don’t just have ‘name value’; you have actual value.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #429: Turn Down the Volume

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We don’t broadcast in a vacuum. Turn on the radio or the TV (or any audio streaming service), and maybe the first thing you’ll notice is how LOUD things are nowadays. Screaming commercials, “big voice” ANNOUNCEMENTS, local commercials where some car dealership’s relative who’s never had any coaching bleats out the ad copy, commercials or promos that seem twice as loud as the TV show…Sports announcers screaming at you because the crowd noise around them apparently makes them forget that they have a microphone – it’s just an assault on the senses sometimes.

Here’s how you avoid being part of that noise monsoon: Turn down the volume. Be emotionally invested, and trust that being enough. Yes, you want to be ‘animated’ in what you say, but “energy” is overbilled. To be truly heard, you should cultivate an ear-friendly delivery.

More expression, less volume.

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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.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #424: Two Questions to Ask Yourself

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I don’t like asking questions, but here are two that you should ask yourself, whether you’re an air talent, Programmer, or GM:

1. What do you have that I can’t get everywhere else?
In the current era of “cookie cutter” formats, this is crucial. If all you are is a corporate playlist and people reading liners and crap from the internet, the answer to that question is “nothing.”

2. What do you have that I can’t get ANYWHERE else?
And remember, it has to be relevant. Just being “different” isn’t enough.

The answers to these two questions will decide your future. There are too many entertainment alternatives available today for you to expect people to waste their time listening to boring radio. Do SOMETHING…rather than do nothing.

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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.