It’s hard to find time to coach the talent.  Program Directors these days are busier than ever.  Let me try to help you.  Here’s the coaching starter kit, from my perspective…

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At industry functions or during market visits, I’m often asked “Where do you start?” Especially by young air talents.

Here’s the answer: It’s not the Control Room Show. It’s the CAR show. That’s where the listener is. Picture his or her environment, then place yourself IN it.

Little tiny things can destroy that feeling. Here are just three examples…

Saying “out there” (like “out there in Plano”) or any “there”-type references, like “up in x” or “down in x.” This just tells the Listener that he or she is somewhere ELSE, and you’re in a little room, miles and miles away.

Talking “plural”. This takes away from you and me, in the car. Examples: “For all the listeners,” “if any of you,” “some of you…” etc. Talk to ME. ONE person.

Generic Content. I don’t CARE what happened to someone in Wyoming unless I live in Wyoming. As the great Lee Abrams points out, no station seems to be claiming the city, like “Chicago’s…(name of the station)” anymore.
I can’t understand why anyone would give up the local connection voluntarily. Be from HERE, and be PROUD of that.

And be right here with me, in my car…or not. Your choice.
(Choose wisely.)

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2019 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Consider this:

The people who seem the most joyous, and that love their jobs, are the ones we want to listen to.

By and large, we don’t tune in to be bummed out.  And you don’t even have to be funny; just happy.

Look at it this way – you get paid for moving AIR around.  You SHOULD be happy about that.  (Other people actually WORK for a living.)

We got into radio because it seemed like it would be fun, and it seemed easy.  No one thinks “Let me find the hardest, piece-of-crap job I could possibly do, and then do THAT for the rest of my life.”  We all pretty much move by “lines of least resistance.”

You’d be surprised at how many people would gladly swap jobs with you right NOW.

The first thing out of your mouth when you open the mic often determines how long someone will listen to you – or if they’re hearing you at all.  Almost instantaneously, the Listener will either connect with you… or not.  So here’s a tip that almost every air talent ignores:

MATCH THE MUSIC to automatically glue yourself to the Listener’s ear.
If the song is slow and quiet, but you come out loud and blasting words, that’s TOTALLY WRONG.

Fast song = upbeat delivery that matches that rhythm.
Slow song = “right in the pocket” delivery that matches that song’s pace.

Second level thought:  Feel the Emotion of the song, and start right there, as if you’re into it.

From that beginning, you can go anywhere else you need to go.  But DON’T start like you just threw your headphones on because the song was ending.  If you sound like you were just texting or looking at your Facebook page one second ago, you won’t get the result you want.

The listener can feel when you’re engaged and in the moment… and when you’re not.

And remember that you CAN’T feel if the listener is engaged or not.  Pull that person toward you by being a PART of what he/she is hearing first.

Being entertaining – which should be every air talent’s #1 goal – isn’t about punch lines.  It’s about how you see the world.

George Carlin saw the world as a series of oddities worthy of comments.  “A house is just a place where you keep your stuff… while you go get more stuff.”

Jerry Seinfeld sees the world analytically:  “What is it with Grape Nuts?  No grapes; no nuts.”
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There’s a lot of buzz nowadays about “being authentic.”  Some stations even state it as a concrete goal, but come nowhere near it when that mic opens. Here’s why:

Even if you think you’re being authentic, that isn’t determined by YOU.  It’s determined by the Listener.

Actors stuck in soap operas, who would love to star in feature films but never get offered any, think they’re being authentic.  But of course, they’re only ACTING authentic.
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Great radio stations are different from just “radio stations where people work.”  Great stations know who they are, who the listener is, and have air talent that competes with each other on who will have the best “moment” that day.

They also root for each other to have their own memorable moments, too.  Being the best player on a team with only one or two good players – well, there’s no real joy in that.  We should want to lift each other up and challenge each other to do really good radio.  Every day.

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The saying is that “Everyone has a story.”

That may be true, but the problem is that most people aren’t very good at TELLING it.

That’s why you have to EDIT them.

It’s Beginning > Middle > End.

What it should NOT be (but we hear way too often) is “Meandering” – Beginning > Middle that’s too long > Ending that’s predictable, or something being repeated that was said earlier in the story.

TAKE OUT what’s nonessential.  When you eliminate unnecessary details and nebulous “side roads,” and you don’t try too hard to either make it “meaningful” or to somehow get to some punch line that just comes across as silly or insincere, you’ve left more room for Emotions.  And that – the Emotional Core at the center of a story – is what impacts the listener.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it also made for great musicians, explorers, writers, painters, and radio staffs.

When you have a bunch of people who are all continuously curious about how to get better, you have lightning in a bottle.  And you can feel it in the hallways.  It shows on the air.  And people listen to you simply because they WANT to.

You don’t have to dangle a lot of incentives in front of them, although contests are fun.  You don’t have to pander to them and compliment them all the time – especially not for their good taste in listening to you.  And you don’t have to worry about what your competition is doing, because if you’re talented and still working to get better, the other guys are already dead men walking.

Give me the people who come up with ideas for better systems, who want to try something on the air they haven’t done before, and want to have FUN doing their jobs.

But here’s the deal: every person you have who doesn’t think like this holds you back.  Hire wisely.  Interview the person, not the job posting.  Find the ones who want to help you do GREAT radio.  Then coach them up.

“And I was like…”
“Then she was like…”
“So I was like…”

Like what?  Like someone who never passed seventh grade English?

“She was TOTALLY not going there…”  (Could she partially go there?)  “I’m SO doing that…”  (Well, all I can say is “You SO sound like a dolt.”)

Look, I’m all about “street language” and I definitely don’t think we should speak “The King’s English” – but we need to sound like we’re not 14-year California airheads.

Here’s why: Someday, a plane might fly into another building.  Or another “quiet guy” is going to walk into a mall and start shooting people.  And when that happens, you want people to take you seriously if you’re going to comment on it.  Radio is about having fun, and being topical; but at times, it’s also about being CREDIBLE.

Note to anyone in California: feel free to do all the Texas and Louisiana jokes you want.  (Louisiana is my home state.  Texas is where I spent the majority of my adult life.)