Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #10 – The Cone

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.

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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 #9 – TELL Me

This was the way I used to start my seminars: I just got restless listening to the station that was on my radio, so I hit the ‘scan’ button. It landed on your station. I don’t know what the station’s call letters are, what the format is, what the dial position is, or who you are.

If you’re in a female-targeted format, you should know that SEVENTY percent of women say they find their new favorite station by hitting the scan button. Not by seeing a billboard. Not by seeing a TV spot with your morning team – whom I don’t know – standing in front of a “money machine” spewing out cash. Not by hearing about it from a friend. Just by hitting the scan button.

I don’t have the data yet on what the percentages are for men, but if you think of how most guys flip around on the TV remote when they search for a show, it should be obvious that every single time you open the mike, you’re probably talking to someone that hasn’t heard you before, or hasn’t heard you for a while.

Make it easy for them to come into the fold. To paraphrase the old Motel 6 TV ads, “Leave the light on for them.”

Never assume knowledge on the part of the listener.

“Here’s Toby…”

Toby who? Toby Mac, the great Christian artist? Toby Keith, the great Country artist? Toby Maguire, the guy who played Spiderman? (I didn’t know he could sing.)

TELL me.

“We’ll play the Family Name Game at 7:30.”

And what is that? Do I have to guess someone in your family’s name? (I don’t even know all MY relatives!) Is this about my kid? How do I get in?

TELL me.

“Later on, we’ll give you a chance to win free groceries for a month.” When is “later on?” Ten minutes? Next? At 7:40?

TELL me.

Anytime you assume that I know what you’re talking about, you’re just asking me to hit the scan button again. But if you’ll just make it easy for me to get my arms around it, I may come back again tomorrow.

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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

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.)

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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 #7 – You SECOND

 

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.

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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 #6 – How tall is King Kong?

TK Tip 6 – How tall is King Kong (click to hear mp3 version)

In the wonderful 1980 movie “The Stunt Man,” where a fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt guy, the kid keeps getting surprised by how different the movie world and its special effects make things appear onscreen that don’t exist at all in real life. The wonderful Peter O’Toole, as the Director, keeps asking the new stunt man, “How tall is King Kong?”…the point being that the model of the “giant” ape in the original movie was only three and a half feet tall, but we were made to believe that Kong was SIXTY feet tall.

It’s the same in radio. Our “King Kong,” whatever that may be—a contest, a station event, a Promotion of some sort online—is, to us, only three and a half-feet tall. It’s OUR JOB to make it sound larger than life to the Listener.

I hear jocks every day that take contests and Promotions for granted, and sound less than enthusiastic or even bored as they talk about them.

But if you’re not really interested in it, why should I be, as a listener? I’ve even heard Talents put these things down! They’re “too hip for the room,” and have lost sight of the fact that for the listener, winning something or going to some event is a BIG DEAL.

This is all part of my “Camera Angles” technique (Tip #2 in this series). If you can’t find a way to make that contest or station event sound as tall as King Kong—the 60-foot version—you might want to find a big box to empty the contents of your desk into, because you’re going to be leaving soon. (“I’ll bet you make THAT sound big when you talk to your friends about getting fired.)

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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.