Note: Since I totally forgot to post a tip last week (I plead Christmastime madness), I’m doing two this week. Here you go…
One of the reasons I still watch “Survivor” on TV is because of how it defines connecting with the audience.
Category Archives: Tommy Kramer Tip
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #651: The Importance of Timing
There’s a good lesson to learn from the World Series. Or the Super Bowl. Or the NBA Playoffs.
They all have one thing in common: It’s about doing the right things.
But not just that. It’s doing the right things at the right TIME.
It’s the same, in any music format, for what you say on the air when you make a comment. First, did you cut off the very end of that last word in the song’s vocal? Is that because you’re too anxious to talk? (Would you do that if you were the emcee for that artist’s live show? Chances are, the crowd would boo you, and the artist would never want you to be the emcee again.)
Patience.
Timing.
A sense of rhythm.
These things are essential to a great air talent.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #650: The Non-Competitive Pitch
If you’re not familiar with baseball pitcher David Cone, here’s a cool fact:
On July 18, 1999, he threw a perfect game (that’s 27 batters in a row,no hits, no walks, no runs, no errors). Pretty cool.
But even more notable was that it was “Yogi Berra Day” at Yankee Stadium, with Yogi and the pitcher of the only perfect game in World Series history, Don Larson, in attendance. (Yogi was the catcher in that 1956 game.)
David Cone is now an excellent baseball analyst. And one of his terms really stuck with me; what he calls a “non-competitive pitch” – a “waste pitch” that a pitcher will sometimes throw that’s out of the strike zone. It doesn’t make the batter do anything. No adjustments need to be made. No fielders move to field it. No baserunners try to advance on it.
As it applies to radio…it’s kind of the same when you do a break that’s just some “click bait” thing that you’ve added a punch line to.
SO predictable.
Nobody goes, “Oh wow, I’ve never heard that before.”
You have to search for what matters to your listener today. Don’t settle for anything less than that. It cheapens the whole listening experience.
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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2025 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #649: There’s Only One Choice
Master Marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout say that “every race becomes a two-horse race.” McDonald’s versus Burger King, for instance. Coke versus Pepsi in the Cola wars. Rawlings and Spalding instantly come to mind if you want a baseball glove. Chocolate versus Vanilla. You get the idea.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #648: Two Talk Tips
Some people say that 99% of the tips I write are for MusicRadio stations. That’s true, but I’ve worked with a LOT of Talk stations, too, and I can’t even count how many individual Talk Radio air talents.
Two of my main “rules” are actually the same as in MusicRadio. Talk is just a different format, in terms of how much time you have to talk.
But… Continue reading
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #647: What Do You Want Them to Say?
My smart friend and associate John Frost posted a tip recently titled “What do we want them to say?” using baseball as an example.
Specifically, the opening of Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The question was “What do we want fans to say when they are leaving the ballpark?
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #646: The Giant Stop Sign to Pay Attention To
This is a recurring theme that I’ve dealt with before, but it seems to be metastasizing…again. It’s this thing; this all too typical “tease”….
“Listen up – this is something you’ll want to hear.”
No. I already don’t want to hear it.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #645: More “Reveals”
After you get to a certain stage in your career where you’re confident in what you’re doing, you have a certain “flavor” that you bring to the show – and it’s working; you’re successful – how you get even better is when you show more dimensions.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #644: They Own the Cameras
Years ago, the great comedian Norm MacDonald was fired from doing the “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live. It was because one of the higher-ups at NBC was friends with O. J. Simpson, and he demanded that Norm stop doing jokes about the ex-football player and accused murderer.
After that, Norm was on Late Night with David Letterman, wondering and griping a bit about getting fired. But Norm also quoted something that Letterman had told him about the bosses of network TV –
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #643: Every Good Player Knows…
Major league baseball runs a commercial during a change of innings that says, “Every good player knows the value of a coach.” And that’s true, but I think the opposite is true, too – every good coach knows the value of a great player.
A lot of good coaching is just staying out of the way, or just gently carving at the edges of things – because…they’re good. They don’t need a lot of, “This is how we do this.” In radio/TV/Voice acting, it’s more about “This plays to your strengths more,” or “It’s better if you stop here instead of adding one more thing.”
Coaching is a two-way street. Hard to do on your own.