Recently, I started coaching a new member of a Talk show about cars (getting a great deal on one, not how to repair one).
This guy has one of those “cannon” voices – the God-given kind of deep, resonant voice that used to be what every Top 40 Program Director looked for.
But that was then.
Continue readingMaybe 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 readingThe 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.
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 readingIf 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.
In the last couple of weeks Hurricanes Helene and Milton have upended lives and property in the southeast USA. Having lived in the Sunshine State for over three decades I know how Floridians can transform into amateur meteorologists binge watching The Weather Channel. It’s never a good thing when you see Jim Cantore standing in your front yard.
We can learn a lot from The Weather Channel…
Continue readingContent is definitely what I get asked about most in sessions and in radio seminars. And since it takes a long time to get people who haven’t seen how easy it is to catch on, many times I give them an overview – a lesson I learned from watching the great comic and actor Steve Martin over the years.
Continue readingBelieve it or not we’re just a few weeks from radio stations flipping their programming upside down by playing some amount of Christmas music. The logical thinkers dip their proverbial toe into Christmas music like thoughtful grown-ups. Others jump in whole-heartedly like adolescents into a frigid lake.
Christmas music programming. Is it good or bad? Right or wrong? Harmony in the hallways?
Continue readingAn interesting point came up in a recent session came from an air talent I’ve worked with for years. She was talking about how a break can go wrong if you’re not sure of how you’re going to start. This was my feedback…