I’ve heard of an author that is willing to sit and watch his books go unsold because apparently for him that is better than changing the essence of what he’s written.
Seth Godin in his book “Linchpin” points out the author’s passion is for his craft, but has no real passion for spreading his ideas. “And if his ideas don’t spread, no gift is received. When an artist stops work before his art is received, his work is unfulfilled.”
These concepts are paradoxical.
Continue readingSo many beginning air talents think that they need a “big” voice to succeed. But they don’t.
Nobody cares about your voice.
They care about what you SAY.
Having a good voice is fine, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to more listeners. An idiot with a great voice is still just an idiot.
One of my first programming mentors was a man that had learned from Bill Drake, the man that invented Top 40 radio. Howard had worked in New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco. I had worked in Abilene. There was a knowledge gap between us that was as big as the sky in West Texas. I knew I needed to pay attention.
Howard preached to his young air staff, “Do something.” He knew that people listened to the radio station for an experience. He would not allow us to phone it in nor waste a break.
A side note, I would often do things on the air just to get a reaction from Howard.
Continue readingHere’s a quick start for any radio newcomer, as well as a reminder to broadcast veterans:
Use what’s unique to you.
For example, I’m a musician, having played guitar since I was eleven years old. And it was about that age that my mom taught me to sing harmony.
That led to doing literally hundreds of parody songs in my on-air career. And that was way before we had the technology to just take out the vocal and insert a new one. Or, God forbid, using A. I. to “write” and produce a song for you. I had to recreate the song one step at a time.
And thanks to reading MAD magazine since I was about seven years old, I had a decent sense of what would make a parody song funny. (Those people were geniuses.)
Use what you have that most other people don’t have, and you’ll stand out.
Remember back in school when you wanted that girl or boy to like you? I bet a specific name immediately pops to mind. (That’s for you, Marlene).
If I could just be taller, thinner, have prettier hair or clearer skin.
If I could just be smarter, run faster, or make the other kids laugh.
Then. Then maybe she’d love me.
A few weeks ago, I gave you a tip to generate more phone calls, or social media response – whatever you want in terms of listener feedback and participation.
I purposely didn’t address an inconvenient truth: if you’re not getting reaction, chances are that you’re just boring.
So, you need to become NOT boring.
Here’s how: be curious. Instead of blah-blah prep sheets or “bits” that are just things YOU want to do, look for things that will provoke an Emotional reaction from the listener.
It may be something as simple as why a certain road under construction is taking too long, and people are late for work as a result, for example. Something that the listener is experiencing today; not just some “click bait” article.
Being thought of as ‘interesting’ is usually just being AWARE, then articulating that on the air.
– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2026 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.
Reckon’ I hear the term “artificial” dozens of times every day. I understand why.
Artificial intelligence is the shiny new object that catches our eye, and that’s probably legit. In the next season AI will impact our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. Many of those ways will likely be positive. Some may not.
But as programmers it is important that we not allow the shiny new object to obscure what listeners really value.
That is authenticity.
Continue readingIf you make grammatical errors, like mangling the object of a preposition (“Between her and I,” instead of “between her and me,” for instance), that shows a level of education that isn’t high enough.
We’re supposed to set the standard. We’re supposed to be the one person in the group who’s the best conversationalist, that uses the fewest words to make a point, that uses the right words to express your emotions, and can generate enough friendship and excitement just to hear what you have to say – the person who’s welcome in any conversation. THAT’S the goal. Continue reading
We can all remember the first time someone said, “I love you.” (We can also painfully remember when someone didn’t).
We are created to be known. From the early playground experiences of “Mommy, mommy, look at me,” to the moment you discovered the pretty girl knew your name.
Continue readingHere’s something that was sort of revolutionary at the time, I guess, but sadly just disappeared as voice-tracking came in.
Group airchecks.
Back in the day in Dallas, the entire air staff were actually friends, and hung out together a lot.
Once in a while, we’d sit and listen to airchecks of each other, and exchange our thoughts about what we heard.
