Frost Advisory #741 – Everybody Knows What We’re Doing! Don’t They?

My talented friend Lisa Barry shared with me a lesson she learned from a lady who does sign language in church.

“In order to ‘sign’ a song about Passover, she has to start with Jerusalem, so she signs that first even though it’s not in the song yet. THEN, she signs Jesus, which is her index finger sweeping across in front of her. So the song makes sense with Jesus walking into Jerusalem. Even though in the song Jerusalem comes second.

With sign language you have to start with the ‘what’ because otherwise, there’s no context to what you’re about to say. You start with the ‘what’ and then you can give them the ‘who’ and ‘what’s happening’.”

Continue reading

Frost Advisory #739 – What Questions Are We Answering?

Maybe you’ve figured me out. Perhaps you’ve noticed that many of my 739 Frost Advisories have centered on what is relevant in the headlines. Christmas, New Years, Mothers Day, the Super Bowl and the World Series have all been reference points for many of these missives over the last 14.2 years.

There is no larger common ground than RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. (Also the reason why ANYTIME/ANYWHERE radio falls short).

So, if the election season is the current reference point I figured I better write about it before November 5th election day.

Continue reading

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #594: The Best Conversations Are Made of SHORT Sentences

The best conversations – whether that’s between you and a listener, you and a guest, or you and a partner in a team show – are made of SHORT sentences.

The longer the sentences, the more the boredom factor is going to set in.
We live in a hummingbird-attention span generation right now. Everybody texts. (And we don’t even text full WORDS. We don’t have time to put “OK.” We can only type “K.” That extra letter just saps our energy.)

Think about this, because chances are, if I listen to your show today, I’m gonna hear you talking in sentences that are much too long and bore people to death.

Or maybe not. You could be really great. But you probably still need this tip as a reminder.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Frost Advisory #738 – Hey Gang! Let’s Change Things Up

I’m often in discussions with PDs about freshening the sound, changing things up or being less predictable. These can be productive conversations, but if you don’t know the guardrails you can end up in a programming ditch subjectively running FROM things rather than running TO things.

Conversations about “changing things up” often end up replacing something familiar and popular with something that is neither familiar nor popular. Not good.

Continue reading

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #593: The Biggest Mistake McDonald’s Ever Made, and What You Can Learn From It

If you’re old enough, you remember the ad campaign McDonald’s used with a slogan, backed up by a beautiful jingle: “You deserve a break today…at McDonald’s.”

That simple statement of BEING OF SERVICE to you – giving you a “time out” from having to go home and slog through cooking a meal – was, to me, the simplest and most effective Strategy they ever had. And suddenly, after years of imprinting that thought in the customer’s brain, they went on to some mindless fodder like “I’m Lovin’ It.” (Gee, thanks for the mid-bite review.)

You see, the thing is, people want to be acknowledged, to have worth, to be seen as more than just another customer in the drive-through line buying a fish sandwich.

So, ask yourself if your station is Being Of Service to your listeners. And then ask yourself if what you’re saying on the air or in your Imaging makes that clear.

You should want to make the listener (or the customer, if you were McDonald’s) feel like your first thought is to make their life better.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2024 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.