Tommy Kramer Tip #41 – Listeners don’t listen…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by tommykramer

The great singer Harry Nilsson once said “Everything’s the opposite.” There are examples of this all around you. “Call now to get your free gift. All you pay is shipping and handling.” (But shipping and handling charges are NOT free.) Chesterfield cigarettes used to offer “Proof of no adverse effects to the nose, throat, and sinuses.” (Throat cancer apparently didn’t qualify as an ‘adverse effect’.) I’ve actually heard radio station sweepers where the station voice says “Less talk, more music.” TALKING to say “less talk!”

The people that use your station are called “listeners.” But “listeners” don’t actually listen all that much. As much as we’d like to not believe this, to a large extent, the radio is an appliance, like a light bulb or a microwave oven. We can’t really expect them to listen intently to everything we put on the air. Although putting it this way may sound weird, Listeners don’t listen—until they do.

They do when you provide what they CARE about, and then attach your call letters—your “brand name”—to it.
(It works like this: Nike = Michael Jordan = successful and athletic.)

Don’t do something just because you want to talk about it, or just because you thought of a funny line about it. It’s not about YOU. It’s all about creating a connection in the Listener’s mind between your station and what he or she (1) already wants to hear about, or (2) needs to hear about. That’s why we do Weather and Traffic reports—because people care about them.

Air Talents (and show Producers) should work hardest on the selection of what things to do on the air. If the Listeners don’t care about them, they won’t hear them.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #40 – First Impression

Posted on March 5, 2014 by tommykramer

You only get one chance to make a First Impression. And remember that it takes twice as long to undo a first impression as it does to create it. And you have no control over whether or not you even get that chance. The Listener decides.

The natural tendency for a Talent in a new situation is to do too much, to try to show the whole bag of tricks, like an overzealous lead guitar player who tries to play every ‘lick’ he knows every time he plays a solo. Meanwhile, the old hands—Eric Clapton, B. B. King, etc.—have the patience to do only what’s just right for THIS song, knowing that the full repertoire will be uncovered over time, as more songs bring more emotions and more opportunities to express their range of skills.

Remember that trying too hard can be felt on the other end of the radio, and pushes the listener away. Your insecurities or nervousness will be magnified by the microphone.

Se here’s a simple thought that will always work: Just be of service to the listener. Then just add a little more of you in how you do that each day. It’s very rare that someone will dislike you if you’re genuinely trying to help them.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #39 – “Staging” Music

Posted on February 26, 2014 by tommykramer

Let’s talk about “staging” music—music that you might want to put under a break to enhance it.

First, ask yourself if you really need music for this break. It’s odd, when you think about it. If I meet you for lunch, I don’t just automatically plop a boom box down on the table and play music under our conversation. Often, jocks just reach for some piece of music with the mistaken notion that it “keeps the momentum” better. It can help momentum, but the wrong choice of music will NOT help the break, and having a music bed can make you lazy, since you’re not as sensitive to whether the break is moving along crisply or not.

Generic music = generic break. Grabbing some random uptempo cut from the Production library is silly, since it may not fit what you’re talking about. Now if you’re talking about baseball, it makes sense to “stage” it with music from “The Natural” or “Field of Dreams”, or an instrumental version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” But if it’s just some Production music piece chugging along in the background, it may not be actually adding anything.

Here’s the right way to think of it. Use music that’s either…
(1) SUBJECT-specific (Star Wars music to talk about a discovery in space, the Olympics theme to talk about the games, music from a Western movie to talk about a local rodeo, etc.)

or…

(2) MOOD-specific. Movies are full of music designed to “cradle” the emotion of a scene. (I’m not talking about songs included on a movie soundtrack. I mean the “incidental” music that helps create tension, or sets the stage for the action that will follow. And there are many scenes without music, because music would take away from what’s happening onscreen.)

If you use music wisely, your show will sound even more polished and produced. If you use it as a “crutch” habit, your show will sound more “paint by numbers” and stagey and artificial. I think the best advice would be that if you can find music that’s just right, use it. But if you can’t, then don’t use music that break.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2014 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #38 – Hamburger, No Onions

Posted on February 19, 2014 by tommykramer

Sometimes it’s a battle of wills to get a Talent to do–or not do–something. I once had a session with a morning man who didn’t realize his tendency to do bawdy sexual content. His argument was, “I don’t see why you’re harping on this. It’s not like I’m Howard Stern.” But what he didn’t get is that his station’s Listener would perceive any sexual content as being over the line. This guy thought that “a little” racy was okay.

So I asked him to think about like this:
I go to a restaurant and order a hamburger with no onions. If I bite into it and taste even a small chunk of old stinky onion on it, it doesn’t matter to me that it’s just “a little” onion. It’s something that I didn’t want, and specifically asked you NOT to put on it. It didn’t take any extra effort—indeed, it didn’t take any effort at all—to do it right. So the next time one of my friends wants to eat there, I’ll probably tell him he shouldn’t, because “they never get my order right.”

Obviously, if this is how your restaurant is perceived, you’re not going to be in business very long.

Every station, in every format, has some form of “onion.” Some element that its Listeners don’t want. Maybe I come to your Classic Rock station to hear the music, but don’t want to hear you abruptly chop off the end of a song. Or I come to your soft A/C station not wanting to hear songs with suggestive lyrics. Or (the other side of the coin) maybe I come to your raunchy, outlandish Talk station not wanting to hear “safe” wimpy subject matter. Whatever the “onion” is, if I (the Listener) don’t want it, don’t give it to me.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #37 – Words that “push the Listener away”

Posted on February 12, 2014 by tommykramer

“Out there,” (as in “the streets are wet out there”) “over there,” “up there,” “in here,” “there in x,” “out in,” “over in,” “up in,” “there in,” “out by,” “over by,” “up by,” “there by.”
People hear these words all the time—but they shouldn’t.

Those words “push the Listener away” by telling her that she’s somewhere else.
Listen. I’m not “there.” I’m right here, in my car or in my office. And you’re right here with me. So if you constantly use wording that tells me that you’re not, you’re arbitrarily throwing away radio’s most precious aspect—the one-on-one connection to the listener. I can’t understand why anyone would want to do that.
Better word choices are the way to pull people toward you, instead. Example: Say “in Richardson” (instead of “out there in Richardson”). This is easy to correct. Catch it now before it gets too deeply embedded.

Radio isn’t “Where’s Waldo?” because you—Waldo—need to be where I am.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #36 – Before NOW doesn’t matter

Posted on February 4, 2014 by tommykramer

You hear so many jocks these days say things like “Off mic, we were talking about x….” or “Before we got on the air, we were talking about x….”

As a listener, I don’t care what you did off-mic, off the air, or even just one minute ago before I tuned in. (I didn’t hear it.) Time only flows in ONE direction for the Listener—from right now—this moment, forward.

This same mentality applies to resets. Instead of those “backward references” like “a few minutes ago, we were talking about x…” just set the subject up now, as if for the first time, and then go ahead with whatever else you have to say.

This is how you welcome in new listeners, and by definition, you have better forward momentum.

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Tommy Kramer
Radio Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2013 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Tommy Kramer Tip #35 – The Challenges of having a BIG Voice

Posted on January 29, 2014 by tommykramer

Hundreds of years ago, when I first got into radio, the easiest way to get hired was to have a BIG, DEEP voice. The guy with the biggest set of “pipes” was always the one most in demand. He got the best jobs for the most money, advanced up the ladder quickest, and got tons of voice work to make outside income.

As radio got more real sounding, those guys were simply described as “pukers.” And today, there are distinct negatives associated with the old-school big “radio” voice. Having worked with hundreds of “big pipes” guys over the years (and several Voice Actors that you hear everyday on national spots and movie trailers), some new conclusions have emerged.

In today’s radio, especially in female-targeted formats, big huge voices can easily come across as either tired or angry. So if you’ve got one of those giant voices, work on staying in the upper half of your vocal range all the time. Try to avoid “bottoming out” or the “growly” sound. Having a nice voice is a great gift, but in the modern era, it’s about resonance, not depth, like a great guitar. We’re not out to scare small children here.

Your “radio voice” doesn’t impress anyone except other disc jockeys. Get over it, and just talk to the listener like you would over lunch together.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #34 – Know when to Stop

Posted on January 22, 2014 by tommykramer

Whenever a talent tells me that something “lit up the phone lines for two hours,” my response is always, “Well, I hope you didn’t run calls for that long.”

A lot of Air Talents won’t stop. For them, phone calls are like heroin. They’ll continue to take—and air—them as long as they keep coming in. This is almost always a mistake.

As you plan your show, think “two breaks”—one to set a subject up and one for a phone call response. Every call past that point has to EARN its way onto the air by contributing something new to the discussion.
Talk radio should streamline, too. By the time you do a good job of putting a topic on the table, you might take one “yes” call and one “no” call, but then you’re probably done.
And even the hottest topic should never go longer than an hour on the air, and never cross the top of the hour. Beating a subject to death isn’t the way to have Momentum.

Yes, there are exceptions…disasters. 9/11, Columbine, a flood or tornado in your area. But that’s about all I can think of. Your “weird food combinations” bit isn’t one.

Better to leave the listener wanting MORE than to be like a ham actor that keeps taking bows to diminishing applause.

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #33 – Use short sentences

Posted on January 15, 2014 by tommykramer

Using too many words will poison a break. People are busy. They have lives. So don’t ramble and waste their time. Being concise is a challenge for most jocks. Talk show hosts in particular get really longwinded. We all know that person who uses 200 words when 40 would do. That’s not the guy we want to have a conversation with.

Use short sentences. FEWER words make it clear, not more words.

Here’s an example:
“Some people taking Viagra will experience side effects, some of which can be severe. Consult your doctor or qualified health professional before taking Viagra, and make sure that you’re healthy enough for sexual activity. If you experience an erection lasting for more than four hours, call a doctor.”

Blah, blah, blah. All they needed was “Ask your doctor before you take Viagra. There could be dangerous side effects.”

Tommy Kramer Tip #32 – Things that are “interesting”

Posted on January 8, 2014 by tommykramer

I actually heard a jock the other day do this:

“Name the first four American presidents.”

Why? What’s in it for me? If there’s nothing specific, it’s just “please do my show for me.” That’s been the tone of way too many shows for way too long. Plus, when you do something like this—something that isn’t relevant, or that I can ask Siri and get the answer in three seconds—I always wonder what you’re not doing to make room for this kind of stuff.

Stay top-of-mind. Talk about what the listener is already thinking about today. If it’s not in his or her Top 10, blow it off. Your show matters when your Content matters to the listener.