Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #640: The Mirror

Once, years ago, I decided to audition for a Talk station in Dallas. A friend of mine said that they had an opening, and at that time, I had never done Talk.

So I fashioned a “sample plate” of subjects I thought would work, and sent it to the Program Director.

Boy, was I wrong. I had taken a detached view of “things that are interesting” and put ‘em all down on paper. In retrospect, they were horrible. Nobody would have cared, and it would have been embarrassing.

Fortunately for the station’s P. D., I “looked in the mirror” at what I had prepped, and realized how it wasn’t me at all. So I chickened out of doing an audition set for that weekend. My inner compass pointed “due nowhere” and I apologized for wasting his time.

Over the years, I did end up doing both Sports radio and some straight Talk, but only after I had rethought that incident and learned a lot from others in the format, including my dazzlingly smart friend Valerie Geller, Consultant to many, many great Talk stations.

The takeaway: “look at the mirror” with your Content. If it doesn’t “look like you”, drop it and move on.