Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #638: Teases – the Wrong and Right “Stuff”

Posted on August 27, 2025 by tommykramer

A very talented woman I’ve coached on and off for years faced a challenge recently with a station’s Program Director wanting the air talent to do “teases” of what they’d be talking about a few minutes later.

So, she reached out, asking how to handle it. Here’s part of what I sent her, with a couple of added thoughts…

“Teases” – as in “teasing” what you or someone else is going to talk about – are worthless. We don’t do that in real, everyday conversations.
“Hey, Jim, something is seriously wrong with your car! And I’ll talk about it in the next ten minutes.”
Dangling a subject out there, then yanking it away. SO stupid. And so rude, actually. Tell me NOW.

If you want to tease something, I would stick with the following:
(1) Features of the station – a special guest coming up on the morning show, for example. Or any in-show feature of a daypart. (Each show should have something unique.)
(2) Things that benefit the listener on the website or your social media. A link to an air talent’s podcast, for instance.
(3) A station event, a contest (with a prize!), or a promotion that’s listener-focused.

Program Directors: Everything else is just quacking. If you’re going to tease something, it has to matter.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #637: Why Your Station’s Formatics Matter

Posted on August 20, 2025 by tommykramer

Many MusicRadio Program Directors who were too late for the Top 40 wars really don’t understand how proper formatics work – or even what they ARE.

Example: If you wait for that last LOGICAL moment to start the next song, then talk (or where the next element, like a “sweeper” or Imaging piece should hit), you…

(1) show respect for the music,
(2) have true Momentum, not just an “upbeat” pace (which is a different thing),
(3) and you won’t sound like some idiot who just talks anywhere you feel like.

Remember that there are only two elements to the listener on a music station: music, and “things that AREN’T Music.”

So, the choice of efficient formatics can make you come across as either an intrusion, or as a part OF the music. (Guess which one works better.)

The bottom line is that a station that seemingly has no respect for the music has no respect for the ear of the listener, either. That’s why streaming music services occupy space that radio used to own. Times and technology will change, but I would think that something like not jerking the listener around with loud sound effects chopping off the end of a song would probably always be a good thing to consider.

I mention this primarily because every P. D. should want his air talent to just be able sit in the pilot’s seat and cruise along, which is what solid formatics provide. When a talent feels confident by doing the right things, that person becomes easier to coach to a higher level.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #636: Why “Good Enough”…Isn’t

Posted on August 13, 2025 by tommykramer

One of the most crippling thoughts in radio is “That’s good enough.”

The reply from the Listener’s end of the radio will often be, “No, it isn’t.”
I spent practically my whole on-air career being part of stations that knocked off the competition if they thought “good enough” would win. In particular, taking advantage of that kind of thinking was what fueled our staff in the early seventies in Dallas at KNUS, when we became the first FM station to ever be #1 in a major market. (Yes, there was a time when AM ruled. We helped establish that FM was the new sheriff in town.)

We, as a staff, were relentless. We had a sense of friendly competition amongst ourselves in who would be the best each day – who had that line or that “camera angle” that we all quoted or laughed about that night. By holding ourselves to the fire about being fully engaged in a different approach – not too laid back, certainly not ‘pukey’, but down to earth and real, instead – we simply evaporated the stations that lived with “good enough” as their stopping place.

When a station is self-satisfied, it’s easier to knock off.

Want to learn how to do that? That’s why – and what – I coach.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #635: Your Strategy Each Day

Posted on August 6, 2025 by tommykramer

My dear friend and associate John Frost and I talk to stations all the time about what their Strategy is. (Hint: “What you want to happen” is not a Strategy.)

I talk to air talent all the time about what their specific strategy is each day. And I push them to think about these questions…

“What’s today’s show about?”
“What do you want to be known for?”
“What do you want to be counted on for?”

To use a Sports reference, the best hitters in baseball don’t just go up to the plate and flail away. They’re sure about what they’re trying to accomplish, and the techniques they’ll use.

If you don’t have a real Strategy behind what you do….well, good luck with that. The best air talents are the ones who are clear-eyed about what they’re trying to do, and secure (maybe after some coaching) about how to accomplish it. That’s why they win.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #634: It’s Not What You Say You Do

Posted on July 30, 2025 by tommykramer

Radio is not about what you say you do, or what you say you are.
It’s about how you show it, and how you live up to it.

Your “Mission Statement” should really be a simple one:
Welcome in the person who’s never heard you before, and then either inform or entertain them (or both) every day.

I would add “have an attitude.” (The late, great Gordon McLendon insisted on that. It worked pretty well for him. He was a pioneer in both AM and the emergence of FM.)

I hear air talent in every format pushing their agenda on the Listener; the “We want to say this” crowd. But that has an oily residue, because it ignores the Listener’s “but I want to hear this” reply. It’s a shame, because you could be so much more.

The reality is this: The Listener comes First. Your agenda doesn’t actually matter, except in terms of what’s top of mind to your listener each day. If you can’t find a way to give an “accessible” vibe, then sooner or later you’ll fail. The world keeps turning, people have their own thoughts about things, and your job as a Program Director or as an air talent is to REFLECT what matters most to the Listener back to that person, filtered through your own experiences, observations, and emotions. This sounds ultra-simple, and it can be, but it usually takes some coaching. Focus doesn’t come naturally to most air talents.

That’s why I do what I do. There is no room for bad radio in the lives of today’s listeners.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #633: Work On Your Timing

Posted on July 23, 2025 by tommykramer

One thing stands out immediately when I listen to someone – that person’s timing. (And the station’s timing, too.) Waiting for that ‘last logical moment’ to start talking, or to hit the next element when a song ends, for example. Yes, we’ve all grown used to cue tones – but who’s creating them? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever hear the ending of a song again without some Imaging piece crashing in or the air talent talking over it.

Settle down. Wait for the right place. And PDs, watch your Imaging. Some of it is just downright annoying. Tactics don’t matter if the Strategy in presenting them is flawed. Most music stations almost seem like they’re trying to chase the listener away – and then they wonder why their ratings sag.

The whole staff should be infused with this “sensitivity factor”. Back in the day when we had giant ratings shares, we really cared about this stuff. If you constantly step on the music or BLAST your Imaging AT the listener, you’re courting an “I really don’t care to listen to this anymore” reaction.

Low ratings will inevitably mean low salaries because of diminishing revenue. CARE more.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #632: A Content Tip from Bob Dylan

Posted on July 16, 2025 by tommykramer

In the last tip, I mentioned Bob Dylan. To cut to the chase, think about his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Even if you take away the imagery and the storyline, one lyric rises to the surface over and over as Dylan starts each chorus asking, “How does it feel?”

And THAT is what you should be thinking of as you shape your Content each day. How did this thing that happened FEEL?

Without a discernible feeling, an identifiable emotion, it’s just a bunch of factoids. Incidents, maybe opinions. But what did it FEEL like?

If you can’t answer that, the idea is an incomplete thought.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #631: Cool, not Cruel

Posted on July 9, 2025 by tommykramer

There was a time when it was in vogue to be overly audacious, tricking people with prank phone calls, embarrassing people, making fun of them, etc.

I thought it really sucked, because to me, it seemed kind of cruel. I didn’t – and still don’t – get why it would be okay to demean the listener, or use that person as a “prop” for something that you wouldn’t do to a friend or coworker.

Stupid games, like getting someone to try and talk about something for a given amount of time while avoiding saying “Uh,” for example, seemed to me like squirting the listener in the face with a water pistol

But, as Bob Dylan sang, “Things Have Changed.”

You know what stands out now?
Kindness. A feeling that’s celebratory – not just phony cheering, but making us feel that you’re really glad to talk to that caller. That you’re glad they took that time to call in, you’re glad that they got their ‘moment’ on the radio, you’re glad that you were able to give them a prize. We can’t hear enough of that.

Drop the “I’m cooler than you” stuff, and you’ll actually BE cool.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #630: The Litmus Test for Your Show

Posted on July 2, 2025 by tommykramer

Once you get to a certain level, you face two issues — (1) How to be consistent in your performance, and (2) How to measure your Content.

Here’s the litmus test: is what you’re doing something that I can hear somewhere else?
If so, there’s work to do.

Way too often these days, with giant corporations pouring out the same Content on hundreds of stations across the country, it’s easy to not really “move the mark” and instead, just settle for something more typical.

Don’t. If you want a truly standout career, it’s like an actor setting a standard for his or her performances. It you’re not getting better…you’re not getting better.

Your show should be unique to you. Your observations. Your emotions. Not just something off a shared “prep” sheet or within a certain group. Let everyone else do “copycat” material. Even on what today may be a universal subject, I want to hear YOUR spin on it – and it needs to be different from what I can hear everywhere – or for that matter, anywhere else.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #629: Listening to Yourself, and Why It’s Important

Posted on June 25, 2025 by tommykramer

Shockingly, many, many times over the years, I’ve found that an alarming number of air talents never, or hardly ever, listen to their own shows.

Here’s why it’s important: You need to hear yourself as others hear you. That’s how we improve.

If you simply listen while you’re checking your email, or updating your social media, you’ll subconsciously hear when you sound rushed, or like you don’t really care about something, or if you make grammatical errors that undermine the points you’re trying to make.

Listening to your own show just once a week can and will make a dramatic difference in how sharp you stay, or how quickly you change a weak area.