Recently on a station I work with, a contest winner call led to a dramatic and touching story. My wife was listening to it with me, and tears came to her eyes as she heard the winner talk lovingly about his son, who has several serious medical issues.

As a coach, I saluted the morning host, Dave Arthur, because people don’t just open up to someone like this unless they TRUST you. However, from a time standpoint, the call could’ve used a couple of edits. There was a lot of medical talk—many ailments (with those Latin names), and we always have to guard against the mediocre audio quality and partial dropouts that are indigenous to cell phones and could force a listener away. I showed him where an edit or two could’ve cut some of that out, and allowed him to wrap it up with both congratulations on the win, and a hopeful and heartfelt thought Dave had offered to the dad.

Then we went on to how things can serve Double Duty. I would have run the edited call on the air, then put the entire call on the website (or link to his Facebook page). Now you’d have the opportunity to promote that different door to the station with something like “There was a lot more to that call that we didn’t have time to air, but you can hear the whole call at ktsy.org. It’s amazing.” Re-purposing it that way could have created two related but distinctly different “moments” for the listener, and spurred some traffic on the website.

Many stations don’t have the savvy (or sadly, the work ethic) to do this sort of thing, and it results in missed opportunities. I’ve worked with several syndicated shows where website visits are the currency for clients.

Two lessons from this:
1. Don’t EVER waste the listener’s time on the air. Hard decisions have to be made sometimes in order to accomplish this.
2. Your website has to offer something of VALUE besides just lists, promotional items, and “USA Today”-type lifestyle stuff. (We’ve seen enough recipes for your special combination Hungarian/Mexican goulash tacos.)

My friend and colleague Alan Mason says “Everything matters.” He’s right.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

On June 9th, 2014 at the Paley Center in New York, Jerry Seinfeld talked to David Letterman about his “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” web series.

About 19:25 into the interview, Letterman comments on the incidental music that moves “CICGC” from one point to the next. That’s where you see coffee being poured, Jerry and the guest walking into the diner, etc.

Jerry then compares using music in this show to using it in the “Seinfeld” TV show, saying “If you put music under a scene that has actual written narrative, it ruins the scene. But since this has no drive, no point, the music doesn’t fight with it and it just seems to kind of carry…(it) fills in the little gaps.

Now I don’t think that’s 100% true for radio, because our medium is a little different; we don’t have video to engage the listener. But I do think there is something to be said for asking yourself “Do I have a narrative?” “Does it need music?” “Am I talking over music when I should be just talking?” On a lot of stations, it’s almost getting to where jocks CAN’T talk without a music bed under them. Some stations even require it. (Bless their pointed little heads.)

I recommend using music when it’s appropriate, like a John Williams movie soundtrack – to heighten the mood or the drama of a given ‘scene’. But if it’s just generic uptempo Production music, used as a crutch to create an artificial sense of momentum (which it doesn’t actually do), you’re just trying to cover up the fact that you don’t have a narrative; you’re not telling a story.

Now that I think of it, maybe that would be a good bit in itself, taking real life, semi-boring or technical conversations about brake shoes or roof repair, and putting ridiculous music underneath them.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

We all know it’s about sharing stories on the air, if you want your show (and your station) to be more than just information and ‘plain vanilla’ breaks.

One key is to watch getting too ‘left brain’ and filling a story with so many stats, numbers, percentages and facts that it bogs down the momentum.
I constantly hear air talents referring to studies, polls, and surveys, followed by a slew of statistics. Those things live in the left side of the brain—the analytical, organizational, “accountant” side. You know, the boring side.

We want to live in the right side of the brain, the home of passion, empathy, dreams, and art.
So purposely reduce the amount of numbers and percentages. You can also frame them a different way. Instead of “60 percent of people look at a person’s waistline first,” say “Look at five people around you. Three of them stared at your stomach when they first met you.”
Yes, those are still numbers, but they’re more visual that way, and you pull me INTO it, rather than just talking about it analytically, from a distance.

There are specific ways to handle Time Lines, Weather forecasts, and Contest verbiage, too. (Call me if you need help.) You’ll be amazed at how fast being more ‘right brain’ will build a bond with your listener. Even if you’re talking about the same thing everyone else is, you’ll sound different if it’s more about colors, shapes, and feelings than it is about measurements and numbers.

Think about this: Even the poem that starts with “How do I love thee; let me count the ways…” has no numbers in it.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

This tip was originally one that I used in doing, then coaching team shows. But it actually applies to any on-air conversation, like a contest winner call, for instance.

Here’s the key to having it all unfold the right way:
It’s like playing “leapfrog” as a child. Each thing said by you or the other person should move the subject forward—just like one person leapfrogs the other in the kids’ game.

Add to this the mentality of the 2 most basic Rules of Improv. They are:
1. YES.
2. “and…”

1. The answer to any premise is always “Yes.” (This doesn’t have to be spoken. It can simply be understood. The buy-in is what matters.)

2. Then you add your point, moving things along. For example, in Improv, if you say “I’m trying to grow a third arm,” I should answer with something like “Cool…!” then add something like “It’d be great if you could grow it out of the back of your neck. Then you could drive and scratch your back at the same time.”

The “Yes, and…” principle guarantees momentum. You’re constantly adding something, rather than simply agreeing with what was just said, or repeating it in slightly different words. (Remember, true momentum isn’t about pace. It’s about always moving forward, and in as straight a line as possible.)

You can apply this to solo work, too. Try to never let it bog down or repeat yourself. Once you master this, you make everyone else sound like they’re just rambling or babbling.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Ah, another morning of listening to a team show. Waiting for the ‘biggie’—a break in their biggest hour, when they have the most cume. Here it comes. Will it be the two of them weighing in on something everybody is talking about today? Will it be something really inventive, that only they would do?

The song ends, I turn up the volume, and hear…“Things that are supposed to be bad for you, but really aren’t.”

“Filler” material, total B-grade stuff. At best, just mildly interesting. Certainly not compelling. It wasn’t top of mind, it didn’t say anything unique about the show or the station, and there was no local tie-in. So why do it?

When you “shop” for Content, stay in the meat section, not the tofu aisle. As a listener, if I don’t care about what you’re talking about, it’s easy for me to just not listen.
The less generic you get, the more definable you get. There’s a huge difference between asking someone to go see a spy movie, or asking them to go see a James Bond movie. I don’t care about a nameless, faceless spy, but if it’s a new Bond movie, let’s go early so I can get a hot dog and some popcorn.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Think of how many times you’ve heard an Air Talent say–more often than not, with the sound of rustling paper or a page turning in the background–“I was reading an article in this magazine yesterday,” or “I saw in the paper this morning that….”

Or there’s the “attribution” thing of “This morning in the Dallas Morning News…”

Listen, it’s not 1995. Information was once the most valuable thing on Earth. Now, in the era of smart phones and social media, it’s the cheapest commodity there is.

So OWN the information.
The late, great sports broadcaster, Howard Cosell, had the right idea forty years ago. You’d hear Howard say, “Tommy Lasorda, the Dodgers manager, told me over lunch today that he’s thinking of moving Ron Cey from third base to shortstop.” Well, in reality, at the “lunch” there were about a hundred other sports guys there, and Lasorda was seated at a dais, taking questions. But Cosell made it seem like it was privileged knowledge, that only he and Lasorda were in the room, and that he was letting you in on something that no one else could tell you. So when you did hear that item again later in the day on the local sportscast, or see it in the paper, your first thoughts were, “Yeah, I knew that. I heard Howard Cosell say it. That’s where they got it.”

Oh, and don’t READ it to me, just TELL it to me—you know, like real people might say to each other in the hallway at work, or by the coffee maker, or at a party.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Not long ago, I heard this so-called “story” in a newscast:

“They did a study letting dogs just hear someone yawn. They responded with their own about half the time. But when the canine heard a familiar person like their owner yawn, it happened five times more often.”

Who cares? If you asked ten people what mattered most to them that day, I’d give you 1000 to 1 odds that dogs yawning wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of that list.

When I asked the air talent about this, the justification for it was that it was a “human interest” story.
I don’t see the Interest. (Plus, saying “the canine” is that stilted old newsy language, like saying “the five-foot-eight-inch male was spotted running away from the scene.” No one would EVER say this in real life.)

Yes, I keep harping on this, but I’ll stop griping about it if you stop boring people to death. What do you not get about the fact that you’re in competition for the listener’s time with every other station, hundreds of TV channels, social media, audio books and gaming?

Don’t let your SHOW be the thing that makes the dog yawn.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

It’s hard for me to believe that people are still doing trivia questions on the air as a contest mechanic. Trivia is LAME, man.

Here’s what happens:
5 people call, so jocks think it works “because the phone lines lit up.” Meanwhile, 90 people tuned out because they’ve heard enough “brain teasers” and “impossible questions” to last several lifetimes. (In my seminars, I always say “No one cares what the gestation period of the female aardvark is.” Oh, and it’s seven months. My, that’s exciting.)

Think about it from the other end of the radio. It’s usually just a bunch of “No, that’s not it, but thanks for calling” stuff leading to the one nerd who guesses right or looks it up. Boring.
If you Google “trivia questions and answers” (which I just did), you’ll see over 67 MILLION websites full of this cra….uh, stuff. It’s kind of hard to be unique when you’re doing something that I can find in 67 million other places. And you’re forgetting that it’s not 1990 anymore. Today, I can just ask Siri, and have the answer in five seconds.

You can be better! You just need some coaching. Start with just scratching Trivia off the list – permanently. Let everyone else do that stuff, while you do something more relevant instead. Then call me, and I’ll show you ways to give stuff away that generate great phone calls and will actually engage the listener, not just feed more radio tofu to the same thirty people that win 90% of your contests.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Amazingly, I still hear people on the radio doing celebrity birthdays, “This Day in History” stuff, trivia questions, and “News of the Weird”-type stories that they find on the internet. (They should be looking up “hackneyed” in the dictionary.) It’s strange how many air talents think of mere habits as “benchmarks” that people listen for. Anything done too often or for too long will eventually become old hat. For example, David Letterman’s Top Ten lists turned into dinosaur bones a long time ago. He should have gone to Top 5, and just done one a week, say on Friday night.

If you do have something that you believe is a benchmark (for a while), you have to hold dear the concept that it’s not enough just to do it regularly. It has to be GOOD—every time. As long as you’re working hard to keep it fresh and not settling for subpar material, it’ll probably work. Just keep in mind that although you do want to be known for a certain style and a set of clearly identifiable qualities, you DON’T want to be known for just doing the same old things every day.

Reassess things regularly. If something even begins to feel like there’s a “Hey, is this milk still fresh?” element to it, throw it away. No benchmark lasts forever, and just like great actors, writers, or musicians, you want to keep coming up with fresh material.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.