Category Archives: Radio coaching tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #636: Why “Good Enough”…Isn’t

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One of the most crippling thoughts in radio is “That’s good enough.”

The reply from the Listener’s end of the radio will often be, “No, it isn’t.”
I spent practically my whole on-air career being part of stations that knocked off the competition if they thought “good enough” would win. In particular, taking advantage of that kind of thinking was what fueled our staff in the early seventies in Dallas at KNUS, when we became the first FM station to ever be #1 in a major market. (Yes, there was a time when AM ruled. We helped establish that FM was the new sheriff in town.)

We, as a staff, were relentless. We had a sense of friendly competition amongst ourselves in who would be the best each day – who had that line or that “camera angle” that we all quoted or laughed about that night. By holding ourselves to the fire about being fully engaged in a different approach – not too laid back, certainly not ‘pukey’, but down to earth and real, instead – we simply evaporated the stations that lived with “good enough” as their stopping place.

When a station is self-satisfied, it’s easier to knock off.

Want to learn how to do that? That’s why – and what – I coach.

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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 #635: Your Strategy Each Day

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My dear friend and associate John Frost and I talk to stations all the time about what their Strategy is. (Hint: “What you want to happen” is not a Strategy.)

I talk to air talent all the time about what their specific strategy is each day. And I push them to think about these questions…

“What’s today’s show about?”
“What do you want to be known for?”
“What do you want to be counted on for?”

To use a Sports reference, the best hitters in baseball don’t just go up to the plate and flail away. They’re sure about what they’re trying to accomplish, and the techniques they’ll use.

If you don’t have a real Strategy behind what you do….well, good luck with that. The best air talents are the ones who are clear-eyed about what they’re trying to do, and secure (maybe after some coaching) about how to accomplish it. That’s why they win.

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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 #634: It’s Not What You Say You Do

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Radio is not about what you say you do, or what you say you are.
It’s about how you show it, and how you live up to it.

Your “Mission Statement” should really be a simple one:
Welcome in the person who’s never heard you before, and then either inform or entertain them (or both) every day.

I would add “have an attitude.” (The late, great Gordon McLendon insisted on that. It worked pretty well for him. He was a pioneer in both AM and the emergence of FM.)

I hear air talent in every format pushing their agenda on the Listener; the “We want to say this” crowd. But that has an oily residue, because it ignores the Listener’s “but I want to hear this” reply. It’s a shame, because you could be so much more.

The reality is this: The Listener comes First. Your agenda doesn’t actually matter, except in terms of what’s top of mind to your listener each day. If you can’t find a way to give an “accessible” vibe, then sooner or later you’ll fail. The world keeps turning, people have their own thoughts about things, and your job as a Program Director or as an air talent is to REFLECT what matters most to the Listener back to that person, filtered through your own experiences, observations, and emotions. This sounds ultra-simple, and it can be, but it usually takes some coaching. Focus doesn’t come naturally to most air talents.

That’s why I do what I do. There is no room for bad radio in the lives of today’s listeners.

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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 #633: Work On Your Timing

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One thing stands out immediately when I listen to someone – that person’s timing. (And the station’s timing, too.) Waiting for that ‘last logical moment’ to start talking, or to hit the next element when a song ends, for example. Yes, we’ve all grown used to cue tones – but who’s creating them? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever hear the ending of a song again without some Imaging piece crashing in or the air talent talking over it.

Settle down. Wait for the right place. And PDs, watch your Imaging. Some of it is just downright annoying. Tactics don’t matter if the Strategy in presenting them is flawed. Most music stations almost seem like they’re trying to chase the listener away – and then they wonder why their ratings sag.

The whole staff should be infused with this “sensitivity factor”. Back in the day when we had giant ratings shares, we really cared about this stuff. If you constantly step on the music or BLAST your Imaging AT the listener, you’re courting an “I really don’t care to listen to this anymore” reaction.

Low ratings will inevitably mean low salaries because of diminishing revenue. CARE more.

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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 #631: Cool, not Cruel

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There was a time when it was in vogue to be overly audacious, tricking people with prank phone calls, embarrassing people, making fun of them, etc.

I thought it really sucked, because to me, it seemed kind of cruel. I didn’t – and still don’t – get why it would be okay to demean the listener, or use that person as a “prop” for something that you wouldn’t do to a friend or coworker.

Stupid games, like getting someone to try and talk about something for a given amount of time while avoiding saying “Uh,” for example, seemed to me like squirting the listener in the face with a water pistol

But, as Bob Dylan sang, “Things Have Changed.”

You know what stands out now?
Kindness. A feeling that’s celebratory – not just phony cheering, but making us feel that you’re really glad to talk to that caller. That you’re glad they took that time to call in, you’re glad that they got their ‘moment’ on the radio, you’re glad that you were able to give them a prize. We can’t hear enough of that.

Drop the “I’m cooler than you” stuff, and you’ll actually BE cool.

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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 #630: The Litmus Test for Your Show

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Once you get to a certain level, you face two issues — (1) How to be consistent in your performance, and (2) How to measure your Content.

Here’s the litmus test: is what you’re doing something that I can hear somewhere else?
If so, there’s work to do.

Way too often these days, with giant corporations pouring out the same Content on hundreds of stations across the country, it’s easy to not really “move the mark” and instead, just settle for something more typical.

Don’t. If you want a truly standout career, it’s like an actor setting a standard for his or her performances. It you’re not getting better…you’re not getting better.

Your show should be unique to you. Your observations. Your emotions. Not just something off a shared “prep” sheet or within a certain group. Let everyone else do “copycat” material. Even on what today may be a universal subject, I want to hear YOUR spin on it – and it needs to be different from what I can hear everywhere – or for that matter, anywhere else.

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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 #629: Listening to Yourself, and Why It’s Important

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Shockingly, many, many times over the years, I’ve found that an alarming number of air talents never, or hardly ever, listen to their own shows.

Here’s why it’s important: You need to hear yourself as others hear you. That’s how we improve.

If you simply listen while you’re checking your email, or updating your social media, you’ll subconsciously hear when you sound rushed, or like you don’t really care about something, or if you make grammatical errors that undermine the points you’re trying to make.

Listening to your own show just once a week can and will make a dramatic difference in how sharp you stay, or how quickly you change a weak area.

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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 #623: Whenever Another Voice Overlaps Yours…

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This is primarily a team show tip and Talk show tip – but for anyone on the air who has a partner, or interviews a guest.

Whenever another voice overlaps yours…you stop talking.
The worst thing on the listener’s end of the radio is two people (or more) talking at the same time.

So here’s how it works: when the other person interrupts you, STOP…….for a moment, then go on. You’ll never talk over each other (or a guest) for more than a word or so, and for a team show, this will lead to getting REALLY well-coordinated – fast.

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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 #620: Trying Too Hard

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Trying too hard is something that every good air talent goes through. Getting past it takes a bit of self-realization.

Looking at it in acting terms (because we are all voice actors to a degree), “reaching out” to the camera (the viewer) is the wrong perspective.

Let the camera (or in our case, the Listener) reach out to you. Overperforming is a drag. When you “reach”, it’s exaggerated.

Just settle down. Simply be there and be what you are, and let the Listener reach out to you.

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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 #616: The Death of Asking Questions

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It seems like I’ve had to explain countless times over the years why questions – especially little rhetorical questions, like “Right?” – are ineffective today.

There was a time – about 25 or 30 years ago – when Questions were in vogue. (The “Where’s the meat?” campaign is a good example. You can look up the ads on You Tube.) It was thought then that Questions produced interest in the product.

But in today’s ten-second-attention-span world, they don’t hold water anymore.

I was asked by a GM of one of my stations about this recently. Here was my reply:

Questions are the death of radio. And the death of ads. Henrik Hagtvedt, a Ph.D marketing professor at Boston College, said, “A simple declarative statement is best. Consumers don’t want to think about it; they just want simple information that they can act on. Consumers tend to experience questions as less clear communication than a statement. Hence, they have an adverse reaction.”

So, if you’re shooting for an adverse reaction, a question will get it. But, obviously, no one should want that.

Make Statements instead. They’re stronger.

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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.