Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #699: A Dual-Purpose Tip

This is kind of a two-fer tip – a reminder, or 10,000 mile checkup:

First, forget about your voice. Trying to have a deep voice, or anything forced, is not fun to listen to. Be you. Thousands of air talents have been wildly successful with no “radio voice”.

Second, talk to a specific person. Ideally, you should have a listener profile that “draws the picture” of who that target listener is. You probably know someone who matches that. (For me, it was simple. When I was in a male-targeted format, I talked to my cousin Ricky, who was more like a brother/best friend to me. When I was doing a female-targeted format, I just talked to my wife.) Note that this is singular. Talk to ONE person, not “listeners”.

I’ve had dozens of stations put a picture of a specific person in the Control Room, on the back of a chair or somewhere you can SEE him or her. If not a photo, visualize that target listener. The minute you talk to “people”, you’re not just talking to me anymore. The intimacy is gone.