Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #499: The Faceless Name

In the old days, we got listener reaction on the phone. But now, with social media, a lot of input comes from Facebook, etc.

The result is hearing “Jim says…” or “Samantha said…”
Faceless names.
I know nine people named Jim. Which one is he?
I’ve known three women named Samantha. Is this one of them? Is this the one that dumped me for that idiot that played quarterback in High School?
More importantly, did someone named Jim or Samantha actually respond, or are you just making a name up to give the impression that someone posted something about what you said?

I don’t even get the point of mentioning a name. Why not just tell us what was said?

But okay, here’s a cure – give the person’s name and city or area. “Jim from Plano” tells someone in Dallas where Jim’s from. It also says “We’re your station” to Jim, and everyone else in that area. Simple. Now, instead of just a name floating by like a balloon, we have some firmament. And we get a chance to have that name serve a purpose by being connective.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #498: When Repetition is Good, and When it’s Not

Radio is all about telling stories. But I keep hearing people repeat things all the time on the air. What a drag.

IF you repeat something because you’re pounding a point home, that’s okay. (It was a huge part of George Carlin’s act. Chris Rock does this to good effect, too.) And repeating things is a good tool to use if you’re talking to a 3-year old.

But repeating something just because you’ve forgotten that you already said it, is NOT okay.

As anyone who took a first-year Speech class in college knows, unconscious repetition is a bad habit. Saying things ONCE is the best and most efficient way of telling a story.

Tighten it up. You might – dare I suggest this – actually rehearse it beforehand, instead of just fiddling around hoping it all just magically works out somehow.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #497: Not Sounding Like a Moron, Part 1 – The Echo

Little things matter, because the listener is continuously forming an opinion of you as he or she listens.

One overlooked deejay thing is what I call “The Echo” – where you say the title of a song the last thing out of your mouth, then the song begins by singing that title. “Why would that matter?” you may ask. Well, that could send the message to the listener that you somehow didn’t know how the song began, or maybe you forgot – otherwise, you wouldn’t have put it back-to-back with the vocal repeating what you said.

Centuries ago at KNUS in Dallas, various members of the air staff would get together casually and listen to airchecks of each other. It was good-natured; we all liked each other. When the “echo” thing came up once, I stopped the audio and said to my friend, “That kind of makes you sound like a moron.”
He replied, “I wouldn’t say that.”
I teased, “I know YOU wouldn’t say that, but…” – and we all burst into laughter. But then we all agreed that we would consciously avoid “the Echo”. It became one of dozens of “rules” we formed in order to not sound like every other ‘asleep at the wheel’ station.

We all did things a certain way. Or avoided doing certain things as a group. I truly believe that tiny threads of connection among an air staff will inevitably end up being a zillion tiny threads of connection with the listeners. A great talent or station is like that cool club you want to be a part of. That’s the way we felt, and all the members of that staff tried to instill that vibe throughout their radio careers. (Oh, and fyi, KNUS became the first FM station to be #1 in a major market.)

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #496: Turning Print Words into Spoken Words

As air talents, we get handed some pretty unwieldy things to put on the air sometimes. Even with the best of intentions, sometimes a contest or promotion is written up as awkward sentences that no human would ever say to a friend in a real-life conversation.

So let me help you with two thoughts – one from the great voice acting coach Marice Tobias, and the other from the amazing British character actor Charles Laughton. Here they are, in reverse order:

The starting place is to take the copy and figure out that one word in each sentence that matters the most. Laughton said that you hit that word and just toss the others out there. This is really important. “Announcer”-types and bad disc jockeys try to “hit” too many words, so it comes out hype-y and unnatural.

And Marice Tobias uses the thought of just “noticing” a word, rather than “inflecting” it. That’s a very cool way to look at it. More subtle.

Following these two simple guidelines will turn “print words” into spoken words that are more comfortable and genuine-sounding. The goal is to inject natural emotion and purposefulness into the copy.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2022 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.