Monthly Archives: April 2024

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #568: The “Me Too” thing for Radio

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Years ago, when I was riding my Brontosaurus to work, I was paired with a partner named Rick “The Beamer” Robertson to do a morning team show in Dallas. I drove there from Louisiana to talk to the P. D. about the gig, and met Rick for the first time when he arrived about a half-hour later. The first thing he did was to stick out his to shake, and say, “Hi, I’m Rick, your mail-order bride.”
I knew we were going to get along.

The station, sadly, wasn’t that great, but we worked hard to have a great morning show, and did well. It was a lot of fun.

But here’s where you get something to think about…

There was a galvanizing moment a couple of weeks into the job, when Rick and I had breakfast together after the show. (We did this regularly, and it’s something I recommend.) We were going over some stuff that worked well that morning, and Rick pointed out that when I talked about something personal, we got a lot of “Me, too” reactions. (And those listeners’ stories.)

Beamer was laugh-out-loud hilarious, but more performative. Over the next few weeks, we used his lightning-fast wit and a couple of performance bits, but we made a point of diving into his personal life quite a bit.

Frankly, he didn’t like this at first, but I explained it to him this way:

(1) My family and friends all knew that if they didn’t want something on the air, they shouldn’t let me know about it. Everything, every day, was fair game for Content on the air.

(2) The show couldn’t be just about us. It needed to be about ALL of us. To get people to reveal things about themselves, we talked about what we felt.

It worked really well for him, and brought out things in Rick that made him more familiar and three-dimensional.

That’s the lesson: The reaction that you want is “Me, too. That’s how I feel.”

Note: there’s a trick to this. If you just come across as always talking about yourself, that’s not good. So how do you avoid that, but still share? Specific techniques that, once you master them, lead easily to a “reveal” is a big part of my coaching. If you read these tips regularly, you’ll spot the Easter eggs.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #567: A Lesson from Bobby Flay

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“Beat Bobby Flay” is one of my wife’s favorite TV shows, and watching it the other night, a thought struck me.

The format is that two chefs compete with each other to see who then goes up against Bobby Flay. Then Flay has to make that chef’s standout dish, and it’s amazing how many times Bobby wins. (Then again, he is an Iron Chef. He was the first American chef to compete in the original Iron Chef competition in Japan, and he defeated the great Masaharu Morimoto – not an easy thing to do.)

Anyway, the interesting part came in the first round, when it was a hard decision to pick which chef would go forward to face Bobby. The person who lost, as he was exiting, said that he didn’t look at like he failed. He said, “It’s not failure; it’s learning.”

This is a thing I constantly use in coaching when I have to correct something, or point out a fundamental error. WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. But what you LEARN from a mistake determines how well your career will go.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #566: Speaking Well = Success and Respect

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Okay, this tip is for radio and TV talent, but it’s also kind of for life in general.

I wholly believe that if you want to be successful – and be respected – the key is speaking well. This will get you ahead in almost any profession, but I believe it especially applies to radio and TV.

In my work with hundreds of on-air talents, and particularly with the TV personalities I’ve coached, we stress two essential ingredients:

1. You should have a wide and expansive vocabulary. Falling back on stock phrases over and over again just makes you sound like you can’t think of another way to say something. And clichés are called clichés for a reason. Today’s cool new phrase is tomorrow’s “Okay, boomer” dismissal.

2. You should also have (or develop) the ability to choose just the right words ‘in the moment’ as you’re talking. Prep is one thing, but being live under fire is another.

No matter what profession you work in, but especially in any media format, there’s no advantage to sounding undereducated. Like NFL Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson said, “The next time I draft a dumb player, hit me over the head with a hammer.”

That’s not what you want them to feel about you.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #565: A Tip from Robert Redford

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While flipping around You Tube the other night, I rewatched the “Inside the Actors Studio” episode with the great Robert Redford. I hadn’t seen it in a long time.

At one point, host James Lipton asked Redford what he looked for in a movie that he might want to act in or direct. Redford noted three things, to which I’ve added my thoughts as it applies to Content on the radio:

1. Story. If it’s not intriguing, no one will want to watch it. (Or listen to it.)

2. Character. Is the main character – in this case, you – a recognizable, three-dimensional human being? (To become this on the air, you have to crack your chest open and show us what’s in there. Share your thoughts on stuff that your listener cares about.)

3. Conflict. In Redford’s description, he said, “…the character changes because of the conflict.” (This is something I don’t always hear on the radio. How did what you’re talking about affect or change what you felt?)

If all he ever did as an actor was “The Natural” or “The Sting”, I’d still love Redford. And his beautiful “A River Runs Through It” is my favorite film that he’s directed. Robert Redford takes his art seriously, and refused, as he put it, to just “stand there and be handsome.”

And in that last paragraph, you saw the Story (his becoming not just a fine actor, but an excellent director), the Character (Redford), and the Conflict (not being labeled as just another pretty face).

You also learned a little about me.

See how easy it is?

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.