Category Archives: Radio coaching tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #351 – The Scarecrow or The Tin Man

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The Wizard of Oz is a magical film. Ostensibly a children’s movie, it’s filled with little “morality plays” about good versus evil, the use of power, family, friendship, and the choices we all make.

To me, it boils down to The Scarecrow or the Tin Man. One wants to be smart; the other wants a heart: Brains versus Emotions.

When you think about it, the Scarecrow stands out in our minds because of what we felt about him BEFORE he got brains. The Tin Woodsman cried (which rusted him up, and made him creaky), and as children watching it, we all cried. The lesson: There’s certainly nothing wrong with Smart, but Heart matters more.

Remember this the next time you open the mic. If you’ve left your heart out of the equation, you’ve missed the boat. If I listen for an hour, and don’t learn something about how you FEEL, that was a wasted hour.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2020 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #350 – Why Positivity Matters

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With the way the so-called “News” is going nowadays, the easiest thing to do is to simply bring a subject up, then mock it or put a cheap punch line at the end.

But here’s the thing…radio – in ALL formats – owes the listener more than that. We’re primarily here to inform, entertain, or both. But I hear music formats that sound lifeless, Imaging in some formats that seems to be sneering in their delivery, “Content” that’s just celebrity gossip flotsam and jetsam, and Talk Radio shows that are just “adopting a posture” and spouting the same one-sided opinions every day.

Radio isn’t dead by any means, but it is largely lacking the one thing it should provide: Positivity. Simply put, it’s a “glass half full” undercurrent, even to things that aren’t necessarily “happy” in nature. Maybe it’s just sounding like you CARE with your delivery. Maybe it’s rejecting the easy-but-negative joke about something. Or maybe it starts with just saying the name of the station like you’re actually proud of it.

In coaching sessions every week, I push air talent to challenge themselves to not settle for the cutting comment, and to COMPEL THE LISTENER TO COME BACK FOR MORE. Even a negative emotion can be expressed in a positive way. (Example: “Normally, I’m not a huge fan of hers…but I LOVE this song…”)

That’s all it takes. So make an effort. Or just continue to let streaming services and Sirius/XM siphon off your listeners. It quite literally is up to you. C’mon, let’s have some fun!

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2020 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #346 – Never Fear Bombing

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Years ago, when I was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, I found myself sitting with an entire roomful of radio legends. All sorts of “war stories” were flying around that room, and although there was an incredibly wide range of differing personalities, it seemed like we all had one thing in common:

Never Fear Bombing.

Every mistake you make will lead to getting better, because no one wants to make the same mistake a second time.

As a talent coach, I WANT you to jump, THEN see if there’s water in the pool. “Playing it safe” is for people who don’t have very much talent.

Now obviously, you shouldn’t do something that will get you in trouble with a client or the FCC. But those are the only cautions. DO something! TODAY.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2020 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #343 – A Lesson from Author Sandra Brown

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If you’ve never read any of the red-hot thriller novels of Sandra Brown, you’ve missed out on a truly gifted storyteller. My wife and I have read dozens of her books, and since radio is essentially storytelling in microcosm, you might learn something from this comment recently in her book ‘Standoff’, which is a short book she wrote for a Book Club. She said it was daunting because most of the action takes place in a confined space, adding “With each book, I challenge myself to try something I’ve never tried before. Can I pull this off? This self-imposed fear factor is a positive thing. It stimulates creativity and urges me to step outside comfortable boundaries. It makes each book different. Most important, it keeps readers from getting tired of the same ol’ same ol’.”

YES. EXACTLY. You should ALWAYS be willing to try something new; something you haven’t done before. This is something I push every air talent I work with to do, and I usually have to prod them once or twice a year to KEEP doing.

Honestly, when it comes to Talent Coaching, this is essential. As you’ve heard from me many times in these tips, Consistency is fine, but Predictability is Death. You’ve got to turn things upside down once in a while and shake them until change falls out of their pockets. When you stop trying new things, you stop making progress.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2020 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #341 – No One Comes to the Party just for the Dip

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Recently, in a coaching session with a person who was playing it “too safe” on the air, I told him this: No one comes to the party just for the dip.

So okay, your station (and your show) has Music, News, Weather, Traffic updates, etc. The usual “basic survival kit” for broadcasting.

But now you need to add Personality, Companionship, and Things You and the Listener Have in Common.

Without those, you’re just the dip.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #337 – Like Your Job…and Win

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Consider this:

The people who seem the most joyous, and that love their jobs, are the ones we want to listen to.

By and large, we don’t tune in to be bummed out. And you don’t even have to be funny; just happy.

Look at it this way – you get paid for moving AIR around. You SHOULD be happy about that. (Other people actually WORK for a living.)

We got into radio because it seemed like it would be fun, and it seemed easy. No one thinks “Let me find the hardest, piece-of-crap job I could possibly do, and then do THAT for the rest of my life.” We all pretty much move by “lines of least resistance”. You’d be surprised at how many people would gladly swap jobs with you right NOW.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #334 – Being Authentic

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There’s a lot of buzz nowadays about “being authentic.” Some stations even state it as a concrete goal, but come nowhere near it when that mic opens. Here’s why:

Even if you think you’re being authentic, that isn’t determined by YOU. It’s determined by the Listener.

Actors stuck in soap operas, who would love to star in feature films but never get offered any, think they’re being authentic. But of course, they’re only ACTING authentic.

More accomplished actors are just being the character, imagining what they’d feel if they were that person. They’re not acting like him, they’re just “being” him. (Or her.)

Not coincidentally, almost every great actor has had at least one coach who helped him or her find “the firmament” – that place from which the real ability grows.

Ask yourself this: To your listener, are you a truly distinguishable personality, or are you just another voice saying words?

Don’t try to be perfect, and don’t be a clone. Be YOU. If you need help finding out who you are – yes, I’m serious – then get some coaching, or at the least, keep reading these tips. Because as my friend Hank Haney (golf coach extraordinaire) says, “You can’t see your own swing.”

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #333 – Friendly Competition

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Great radio stations are different from just “radio stations where people work”. Great stations know who they are, who the listener is, and have air talent that competes with each other on who will have the best “moment” that day.

They also root for each other to have their own memorable moments, too. Being the best player on a team with only one or two good players – well, there’s no real joy in that. We should want to lift each other up and challenge each other to do really good radio. Every day.

When that happens, as my dear friend “Brother Jon” Rivers says, you reach “critical mass” and your station explodes in all directions with great ideas and a palpably good morale. And an almost automatic level of success, because it’s actually easier to do good radio than it is to do lame radio. CARING is its own reward, and triggers endorphins that make you feel good about yourself, your life, and your career.

I like to think that coaching is the art of bringing this spirit alive in Talent; showing each air talent what he or she does best, and working on eliminating what we don’t do well. It’s never just about x’s and o’s and techniques. It’s about a sense of the Art of communication. So, if your station lacks coaching, here are three free “starter kit” lessons:

“What can I say about this that the listener might actually notice?” is where it all begins.
“What can I say that won’t be typical?” is the second step.
“What can I say that is unique to me?” is when it starts to really blossom.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #330 – Avoiding California Airhead Language

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“And I was like…”
“Then she was like…”
“So I was like…”

Like what? Like someone who never passed seventh grade English?

“She was TOTALLY not going there…” (Could she partially go there?)
“I’m SO doing that…” (Well, all I can say is “You SO sound like a dolt.”)

Look, I’m all about “street language” and I definitely don’t think we should speak “The King’s English” – but we need to sound like we’re not 14-year California airheads.

Here’s why: Someday, a plane might fly into another building. Or another “quiet guy” is going to walk into a mall and start shooting people. And when that happens, you want people to take you seriously if you’re going to comment on it. Radio is about having fun, and being topical; but at times, it’s also about being CREDIBLE.

Note to anyone in California: feel free to do all the Texas and Louisiana jokes you want. (Louisiana is my home state. Texas is where I spent the majority of my adult life.)

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #328 – What You Can Learn From Ron Jacobs

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Back in the heyday of Top 40 radio, there were a handful of stations that became the icons; the stations we wanted to work at, or at least have our station sound like.

One of the giants was KHJ in Los Angeles, a Drake-Chenault consulted station with the brilliant Ron Jacobs as its Program Director.

Jacobs had three primary rules:
Preparation.
Concentration.
Moderation.

Preparation: Being absolutely sure of what this break was going to be about. Working on your “camera angle”, your vocabulary, and putting things in the right order, so information or a story unfolded in the easiest-sounding way.

Concentration: No distractions, no second thoughts at the last minute, no stumbling around verbally.

Moderation: Staying “in the pocket” and not trying to do too much, or add details that don’t matter, or take too much of the listener’s time.

If this worked for some of the greatest air talents of an entire generation, it certainly can work for you, too. And these principles would be such a breath of fresh air in today’s voice-tracked, kind of distanced sound that we hear on way too many stations. WORK ON YOUR CRAFT. Radio is NOT dead – but bad radio is.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.