Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #525: Hubie Brown and Your Dollar

The great NBA coach Hubie Brown, also a master “color man” for NBA games for years, has this great saying, “He gives you his dollar.” (Think Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, etc.)

That means the player gives you everything he has every game, a “dollar” rather than, say, 40 cents.

I’ve helped many stations in the search for air talent over the years, and that ingredient is always what we look for. I feel that a good talent who doesn’t give it a full-out effort every day is cheating the station – and himself/herself.

All the “flash” in the world can’t make up for a lazy work ethic. Give it your “dollar” every break, every hour, every day you’re on the air. You never know when someone who could change the course of your career might be listening.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2023 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #524: A. I. versus Your Demo

Well, it’s here. A station in Portland has an A. I. (artificial intelligence) “air talent”. A sign of things to come? Well, as the renowned football coach Bill Parcels used to say, “Let’s not get out the anointing oil just yet.”

When a station needs a new talent, your demo will possibly land you the job. But obviously, it’s now possible that a faceless nonperson might get it instead. So think about how you come across on your demo.

Two thoughts for you: Editing. And Personality.

If you can’t edit your demo well, it won’t carry much impact. And if you have Personality out front, you’ve got a great shot to not lose out to a robot voice.

And (note: editorial) any station thinking about using an A. I. “jock” is basically just taking the cheap way out and doesn’t deserve listeners. Period. Shame on them.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2023 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #523: Did You Get Noticed Today?

Times have changed. Local stations often don’t sound local. Syndicated shows tend to talk about generic subjects because they can’t be specific to a certain city or state. Huge radio companies are so weak in coaching the talent that many air talents have never had a coaching session.

So let’s start your process with a basic question: Did you get noticed today?
And while we’re going there, if you missed work today, did any listeners notice?

Every day, you have a chance to carve out the same kind of career as a Paul Harvey or Howard Stern or Bobby Bones or anyone else you want to name. So…who are you? What’s your brand of humor? What emotions do you show on the air? And most importantly, what do you have in common with me (the listener)?

I tell people all the time to “crack your chest open and show us what’s in there.” THAT is how you get noticed.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2023 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #522: Radio versus Social Media

It’s come to my attention that a lot of people actually take Twitter, Facebook, or other social media comments seriously. Imagine that – someone you don’t know makes a comment, and you actually care. I knew this day would come when they took the cocaine out of Coca-Cola. (According to Facebook.)

I shudder to think – well, I don’t actually shudder; to do that, I’d have to stand up, and I can’t type very well standing up. Anyway, I’ll ask Siri to remind me to imagine shuddering at the notion of a generation of people who have a real need for some sort of validation from strangers.

Okay, done mock-shuddering now. All that came to me was, “Bless their pointed little heads.”

Seriously, if you actually find yourself paying a little too much attention to “social”, remember this: most people don’t have 20,000 Twitter followers, but if you’re on the air in a large market, you probably do have 20,000 listeners at any given moment. VOICES are almost always going to be far more powerful than mere ‘postings’.

Celebrate that! Do the best you can, every day. Ignore any negative comment from someone who’s not your boss or your coach. And to quote the Dean of Science Fiction writers, Robert Heinlein, “Be who you are. And be it in style.”

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2023 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.