Opinions are easy. Emotions are…more difficult. These two things are related, but they’re not the same.
The revealing of an Opinion is fine, but the revealing of an Emotion tops that.
An Opinion is subjective. An Emotion is clear and undeniable.
So sure, let’s hear what you think. But let’s also hear what you FEEL.
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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.
My associate John Frost quoted this recently:
“The essence of branding and being worth consuming is that experience, not the ingredients which make it up.” – Mark Ramsey
If you’ve read any of these coaching tips, you know that I always think about what it’s like on the listener’s end of the radio first. So, here’s the coaching perspective…
Realize first that Experiences are emotional. “Right brain”. Non-analytical.
Mere information is pretty much just “left brain”, analytical. Not much emotion there. (Storytelling uses information – the Ingredients – of course, but only to reach the emotion at the core of the story that creates an Experience.)
You definitely should want your show/your station to be an experience.
So, ask yourself this: What will I do today on the air that people will remember as an experience?
Some examples:
• A contest, so someone wins something. (I once gave away $25,000 to an 8-year old girl in Honolulu. She and her family never forgot that experience.)
• A station promotion that would be fun for my whole family. (Dallas’s legendary KLTY’s Freedom Fest, for example.)
• Even just a thoughtful comment made about an artist or a song can be an experience, if you do it the right way.
John Frost had his Country station in Austin play “The Eyes of Texas” every day at noon. What could be more Texan?
In Shreveport once, I edited together a version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” for our minor league baseball club’s Opening Day game – with each line sung by a different little kid. (Those kids – and their parents – and the listeners – had an experience.)
My pal Johnjay Van Es (of the “Johnjay & Rich” show) with his “Love Pup” thing, which led to getting lots and lots of dogs adopted. Brilliant. And an experience to listen to.
What will you do? THINK OF SOMETHING.
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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.
Everyone should want to be really good at what they do. Really, really good.
But not everyone knows how to get there. Let me make it simple for you:
Sounding great is about being prepared, and then just relaxing into it when you get on the air — but not using more words than you need.
No one can get to the next level as a Talent until they master Editing and Brevity. These are essential skills.
The most remembered songs, speeches, Proverbs, etc. are all SHORT. Make your point, then move on. People will thank you for it – by listening to you more.
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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.
It seems like I’ve had to explain countless times over the years why questions – especially little rhetorical questions, like “Right?” – are ineffective today.
There was a time – about 25 or 30 years ago – when Questions were in vogue. (The “Where’s the meat?” campaign is a good example. You can look up the ads on You Tube.) It was thought then that Questions produced interest in the product.
But in today’s ten-second-attention-span world, they don’t hold water anymore.
I was asked by a GM of one of my stations about this recently. Here was my reply:
Questions are the death of radio. And the death of ads. Henrik Hagtvedt, a Ph.D marketing professor at Boston College, said, “A simple declarative statement is best. Consumers don’t want to think about it; they just want simple information that they can act on. Consumers tend to experience questions as less clear communication than a statement. Hence, they have an adverse reaction.”
So, if you’re shooting for an adverse reaction, a question will get it. But, obviously, no one should want that.
Make Statements instead. They’re stronger.
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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.
After hearing a couple of overly long breaks the other day on a music station I work with, this came up in the next coaching session:
Use fewer words.
There’s a reason that most famous quotes are short. Usually, the more words a person uses, the less impact it makes. (A lot of people disagree when I say that, but they’re wrong. In today’s jump-cut, hummingbird-attention-span world, being longwinded makes you sound OLD.)
So, just try to cut down the NUMBER of words it takes you to talk about something.
EVEN IN TALK RADIO shows, fewer words about each point will make more impact than just beating one point to death. And by being briefer, you’ll be able to get more Subjects into the show. The overall “bump” is that you’ll be more thorough – without being boring.
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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.
In a recent coaching session, a very good air talent I work with had chosen to do a stunningly uninteresting story about sleeping better with something called “cognitive shuffling”. I’d tell you more, but the story itself was a better cure for insomnia.
This happens a lot nowadays. A posting that you think is “interesting,” or that you can think up a funny line for, makes it through your filters and gets on the air.
I think it’s because of what I call “outside-in” show prep: looking at the outside world first, then trying to make it sound personal. Ho hum.
Here’s what I wrote in her session recap:
To me, this sounded like just another click-bait posting. (Anytime I hear “It’s gone viral,” that’s a dead giveaway.) You did your best to make it work, but you’re going to get far better traction with what you see around you than what gets posted to social media. First of all, I doubt that many people listening to that break (at 11:14am on Friday) was really thinking much about sleep tips.
But more importantly, this “outside-in” show prep method is what makes shows more generic.
The greatest show prep starts at home, because what goes on in your family, your neighborhood, your city, is always going to be stronger than just some random article or social media posting.
Posting something is just an exercise, but LIVING something is different. And by prepping inside-out (your own home first, then work out from there), it automatically results in more natural language, and being more emotive.
It’s the difference between reading something to your husband at breakfast versus actually telling him about something that you did or that you feel.
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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.
Collaboration is one thing. Sharing Content can be a whole different thing. Let me explain…
Collaboration, in terms of sharing Content ideas with a friend is fine. I’ve encouraged many people to collaborate with another air talent to brainstorm together. It can be a real healthy process, not just for the ideas themselves, but what it fleshes out through each person forming their own take on them. Often, they learn things from each other that they might not have learned on their own.
However, “sharing Content” is a different animal, and has now morphed into an area that can be merely generic and lazy.
I recently heard that a bunch of air talents even share phone call audio.
Why? Are you so boring that you can’t generate phone calls from your own area?
Do you think the listeners are so stupid that they can’t recognize an accent, or a lack of one, that says “this caller is not from here”?
When I was on the air, back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, if I had a great caller, you would NEVER get that audio to use on another station. When did we get to where we don’t compete anymore?
You want a raise? Be GREAT.
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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.
There are really only two categories of Content in terms of when you use it. There’s what’s immediate. Needs to be on NOW. Or at least TODAY.
And then there’s “anytime” Content. I’ve heard it called “Rainy day” Content or “Evergreen” Content. My translation: crap that should be thrown into the trash.
Your show should be as NOW as possible. A friend at a station in the Northwest told me that last year, they had a huge, dangerous ice storm hit – but since the Afternoon show was voice-tracked, there was no one to tell the listeners about it.
Think about that. It’s absolutely stunning. They made themselves not even do what radio was CREATED to do. (But I’ll bet it never happens again. He’s a good guy and a smart person, and this was embarrassing.)
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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.
The biggest challenge for anyone who’s on the air is the search for Content each day. Often in coaching sessions, I get asked about social media, and what its place is in show prep.
Social media is what it is. There’s an entire generation of people who’ve apparently grown up caring about what complete strangers have to say about them.
I won’t get too deep into the negatives involved in people who see their lives in terms of “likes”, but I ask you to consider a different overview, from a radio standpoint, not a social media standpoint:
Rather than falling into the habit of using social media as a main starting place for Content, see it as a place where your Content goes for feedback and discussion. You’ll get a whole different mindset, and improve your Content selection process when, instead of leaning on social to jumpstart your show, you do your show to jumpstart social.
This creates a feedback loop of its own, but with the important distinction that it starts with the radio.
Reminder: you should always want to avoid having your show sound generic. And to that purpose, show prep should always start in your own living room; then you work outward from there.
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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.
Words are what we do. Crafting what we want to say into a shape that’s relatable and connective is always the challenge. But remember, the words grow from the camera angle.
Example: If my wife and I got into an argument standing in line at the bank, how I see it is one angle, and how she sees it is the most obvious choice for a second camera angle.
But if there’s no “fruit” there, I automatically go one more step — in this scenario, what does it look like to the bank teller overhearing this? (Or to the other people in line?)
That’s the next step – the third camera angle. If #1 or #2 won’t “click” in your mind, arbitrarily put yourself in a different person’s shoes, and the subject will open up like a flower.
You’ll find, in time, that you’ll develop that inner “tuning fork” that knows when the words are right.
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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.