Tommy Kramer Tip #41 – Listeners don’t listen…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by tommykramer

The great singer Harry Nilsson once said “Everything’s the opposite.” There are examples of this all around you. “Call now to get your free gift. All you pay is shipping and handling.” (But shipping and handling charges are NOT free.) Chesterfield cigarettes used to offer “Proof of no adverse effects to the nose, throat, and sinuses.” (Throat cancer apparently didn’t qualify as an ‘adverse effect’.) I’ve actually heard radio station sweepers where the station voice says “Less talk, more music.” TALKING to say “less talk!”

The people that use your station are called “listeners.” But “listeners” don’t actually listen all that much. As much as we’d like to not believe this, to a large extent, the radio is an appliance, like a light bulb or a microwave oven. We can’t really expect them to listen intently to everything we put on the air. Although putting it this way may sound weird, Listeners don’t listen—until they do.

They do when you provide what they CARE about, and then attach your call letters—your “brand name”—to it.
(It works like this: Nike = Michael Jordan = successful and athletic.)

Don’t do something just because you want to talk about it, or just because you thought of a funny line about it. It’s not about YOU. It’s all about creating a connection in the Listener’s mind between your station and what he or she (1) already wants to hear about, or (2) needs to hear about. That’s why we do Weather and Traffic reports—because people care about them.

Air Talents (and show Producers) should work hardest on the selection of what things to do on the air. If the Listeners don’t care about them, they won’t hear them.

– – – – – – –
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.

Tommy Kramer Tip #32 – Things that are “interesting”

Posted on January 8, 2014 by tommykramer

I actually heard a jock the other day do this:

“Name the first four American presidents.”

Why? What’s in it for me? If there’s nothing specific, it’s just “please do my show for me.” That’s been the tone of way too many shows for way too long. Plus, when you do something like this—something that isn’t relevant, or that I can ask Siri and get the answer in three seconds—I always wonder what you’re not doing to make room for this kind of stuff.

Stay top-of-mind. Talk about what the listener is already thinking about today. If it’s not in his or her Top 10, blow it off. Your show matters when your Content matters to the listener.

– – – – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #31 – The Person Who Just Tuned In

Posted on January 3, 2014 by tommykramer

Here’s a little reminder of something a lot of air talents forget: At this moment, as you start this break, you’re not only talking to one of your P-1 listeners; you’re also speaking to the person who just tuned in…maybe for the first time.

If you think this way, you’ll be more welcoming, and always be inviting in more cume. More cume means a better chance for a diary or PPM device to go to one of your listeners.

This doesn’t just apply to what the jocks do or say. It’s important for a PD to embrace this, too, and design things accordingly. For example, the other day I heard a local station do a “Complete the lyric” contest—where the idea was to pick up where the song clip the jock played left off, and sing the next line.

I’m sure that on the drawing board, this looked great. But to me, it’s just one more station ‘preaching to the choir’—talking exclusively to the listeners they already have. If I’m new to the format, I don’t KNOW the lyrics to the songs you play yet. Since the most important factor in any contest is for me (as a listener) to believe that I have a real chance to win, this is a swing and a miss. I give up, tune out, and you miss an opportunity. (However, you do get to give yet another prize away to one of the 30 people who win every contest you ever run.)

If what you do is more open-ended, you’ll get more listeners to pay attention. Aim at the target listener, but don’t exclude anyone. McDonald’s targets women with kids, but that doesn’t mean men can’t eat there.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #24 — The 5 Subjects: How to choose Content

Posted on November 6, 2013 by tommykramer

No doubt about it; the thing I get asked about the most is Content; what to talk about each day. Choosing the right Content is crucial to doing a great show, no matter what your radio station’s format is.

Some of your Content is provided for you with station promotions and events, contests, special listener “clubs” that give feedback on the music, stuff like that. And in a music format, there’s always stuff about the artists, concert dates (if they apply to your market), and whatever special musical features you provide.

But that’s only about half of what you need.

Here’s a good “default setting” list of The 5 Subjects that will always work:

1. The Economy—specifically Job Stuff. Money is the #1 motivator. Not enough money, you’re unhappy. Plenty of money, you want to protect it and make sure it doesn’t vanish overnight, so you can put your kids through school or have enough to retire someday. So job stuff is always something to pay attention to. And there’s always comparing our jobs to other people’s jobs. Take working at Walmart, for instance; that’s worse than being the President of a bank, but a lot better than being a javelin catcher.

2. Entertainment. We’re an Entertainment-driven nation. Whether it’s “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” hoping Miley Cyrus will have that tongue-shortening operation she so desperately needs, or just paying attention to the movies and TV shows your listener likes the most, the Entertainment world is ripe with stuff you can use. However, stay away from being obvious or salacious with it. And you can’t just read a bunch of stuff from websites. It has to be the same kind of conversation you’d have with a friend over lunch, or at a backyard barbecue.

3. Relationships. It’s all about relationships, really, whether it’s our friends, families, or co-workers. Relationships—good or bad—shape everything we do.

4. “The Buzz.” The thing today that everyone seems to be talking about should ALWAYS be on your radar screen. To not talk about it is to be an ostrich, with your head stuck in the sand, and there’s a real danger in seeming like you’re not aware of it. There’s one exception, however, and that’s if the Value position of your station means that you should avoid talking about it, like maybe something that people wouldn’t want the kids in the car to hear, for instance. In that case, you might want to make a point of saying that you’re NOT going to talk about it—and why.

5. “Things that grow out of the show.” As your career develops, you’ll find things that are unique to you. Use them. For example, one guy I work with, Don Godman, made a wonderful little feature out of his son’s adventures, called “The Gavin Report.” It’s delivered—by Gavin—like a child’s news magazine, with something like going to a museum or the State Fair being an “episode.” It’s the single most remembered thing about Don’s show. His audience feels like they’ve watched his son grow up on the radio.

If what you want to talk about doesn’t fit into one of these categories, I’d strongly recommend that you just toss it. Even Politics should “qualify” by being “the buzz” or looking at how the issues affect people’s lives and relationships.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #12 – Interesting versus Relevant

Posted on August 14, 2013 by tommykramer

Often in coaching sessions, I hear something that laid a giant egg on the air justified by an air talent saying “Well, I just thought it was interesting.”

“Interesting” is okay, but remember that “interesting” is not the same as Relevant.

Relevance is the starting place. If it’s not relevant to the listener’s life, just being “interesting” won’t save it.

When your show Content matters to the listener, he or she tunes in again. When it’s just “interesting”—or even worse, just little odd stories or innocuous “fluff” Content—that’s a roll of the dice. Save the dice for Las Vegas. You don’t always need to make the listener gasp, or laugh. As a listener, the most important thing to me right this second might be just knowing if it’s going to rain, so I can keep my kids from getting pneumonia while they walk to school. Your doing “The ‘Um’ Game” or “Brain Teaser Trivia” just isn’t relevant to my life while I’m waiting to see if my kid needs to wear 14 yards of bubble wrap, his Darth Vader helmet, and rain boots. (It’s a long story. Suffice it to say that if you lose your raincoat, you get to start early on being seen as the Class Clown.)

Look at everything through the “Is this relevant?” lens. Throw out anything that’s not relevant to the listener’s life.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #10 – The Cone

Posted on July 31, 2013 by tommykramer

The great Neil Young once introduced a song by saying: “Here’s a song guaranteed to bring you right down. It’s called ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down.’ It kind of starts off slow, then fizzles out altogether.”

Pretty funny, but now think about how many times you’ve heard something on the air start in a fairly interesting way, but it just doesn’t go anywhere.

That’s usually because the jock didn’t really give any thought to the Subject expanding or contracting. It just kind of sat there. So frustrating.

You’ve probably heard the old saying that Content is King, and that’s true to the degree that you can’t make something matter to the listener. But once you have a solid piece of Content, PERFORMANCE is King.

Try looking at each Subject like a cone—big and wide at one end, small and pointy at the other end. The big, wide end of the cone is the global perspective, the subject that’s on everybody’s mind. From there, you want to bring it down to a very personal place—the small pointy end of the cone.

Or you can do the opposite—start with something very intimate and personal, and then show how it applies to everyone.

George Carlin used to describe this as “big world” or “little world.” I think those definitions are good, but the whole idea is that one leads to the other.

The “cone” concept always works, and it’s really easy. If you’ll try it, I think you’ll be amazed at what it does to your air work.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #8 – The 2-Question Content Filter

Posted on July 17, 2013 by tommykramer

TK Tip 8 – The 2-Question Content Filter (click to hear the mp3 version)

Years ago, I wrote a tip called “The 3 Questions,” basically about thoughts to “sift” something through before you put it on the air. But one of them had to do with being local, which doesn’t really help someone on a network, or doing a syndicated show. So here’s an even more whittled down version that I hope will make things incredibly easy for you.

There are 2 questions to ask yourself about anything you want to put on the air:

1. WHY is it on?

Just because you think something is funny, for instance, doesn’t mean that it’s Relevant. (We’ve all heard enough “Stupid Criminal Stories.”) Just because your station’s listener profile says that your target is a 35-year old soccer mom with 2 kids doesn’t mean that every little thing your brat—uh, I mean your “little angel” does is worth talking about. And a huge thing to remember is that “interesting” is not the same as “compelling.” If all you do is talk about stuff the listener has a passing interest in, the station that talks about what’s most top of mind—what matters most to your listener TODAY—is going to take that person away from you.

2. Where are you going with it?

There has to be some sort of “destination” or “resolution” that you reach with everything you talk about, hopefully with a “reveal” or surprise element at the end that I couldn’t see coming. If you just end with some tired platitude, or you always try to come up with a funny punch line, you’re not going to raise the bar even one inch.

I always thought “What will I say that not everyone else will say?”

Eventually, that thought got even more refined, and became “What can I say that ONLY I WOULD SAY?”

Now, after having taught this technique to over 1700 people on over 330 radio stations. The ones who ‘got it’ have become extremely successful. The ones who didn’t are still trying to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Dan Aykroyd, Steven Wright, Jerry Seinfield, Larry David, Rush Limbaugh—each of these comedians has a unique “take” on things, and you should, too. (And see, even in that, there was something that not everybody else would say.)

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #7 – You SECOND

Posted on July 10, 2013 by tommykramer

The most important part of any Content is how you begin it. There’s a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between “I love it when he shares stories about his life” (which is good) or “All he ever does is talk about himself” (which is bad…very bad). Like almost everything in radio, it’s all about the language you use.

If you want to engage the listener right from the get-go, take the words “I” and “me” and “my” out of your vocabulary in that opening sentence, and do one of these two things:

1. Start by referencing the Listener in some way, THEN talk about whatever it is or tell your story. Or…

2. Start with the Subject, THEN serve up your thoughts about it.

Subject or Listener first. You…SECOND.

Yes, this is different from real life, where we often begin by talking about ourselves. But that’s because in real life, we’re talking to friends, family, or acquaintances. It’s a little different in radio, because you have to assume that someone just hit the “scan” button and landed on your station—someone who doesn’t know you. If the perception is that you’re only capable of seeing the world in terms of how it affects you, that’s not going to be nearly as powerful as the “connective tissue” of putting the Subject first or referencing the Listener first. You want to “pull up a chair” for the listener, then reveal your thoughts.

For example, let’s use the Aaron Hernandez story, the former NFL star accused of orchestrating a murder…

“I was thinking about this Aaron Hernandez story…” is just you talking about you.
But “If you’ve been keeping up with that Aaron Hernandez story” is about ME (the listener). Now go on ahead and give me your “take” on it.
Or “The Aaron Hernandez story is getting stranger every day…” is about the Subject. Now that it’s “on the table,” tell me what you think about it.

It’s counter-intuitive, I know, but man, it works like a charm. And your show doesn’t sound like “Now I’d like to talk about me” every time you open the mike.

Tommy Kramer

Radio Talent Coach & Voiceover/Imaging Actor and Writer

Category Archives: Content key