Time for a little “basics” check.  How good are you at saying the name of the station?  There are a lot of different factors that play into this supposedly simple thing…

First of all, you should say them first – the first thing out of your mouth when you start a break.  Not just “somewhere in there.”  There’s a reason the Jif label is on the outside of the jar.  They don’t put it inside with the peanut butter.

When you say “That’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran on 92.9 KSLL” that’s about Ed Sheeran, who’s on 1200 stations, one of which happens to be yours.

But when you say “92.9 KSLL and Ed Sheeran with ‘Thinking Out Loud,'” it’s YOUR song. You own it, and that’s the kind of music that YOU play.

Ownership MATTERS.

Yes, I’ve heard PD’s say “but it sounds more conversational to just drop them in at random.” But branding isn’t about being “conversational”. It’s about branding.  (Which, by the way, is why you shouldn’t just segue two songs back-to-back without a short produced piece or a jingle between them that gives your name.   You’re just throwing away a branding opportunity.  PPM will never measure someone who doesn’t tune you in a second time because they don’t remember who you are.)

But let’s move on to the performance itself – the art of saying the station’s name. Here are just a few of the techniques I coach:

1.  As a voice actor, you have to be able to deliver it in multiple ways, with several different inflections and variations in timing.  It’s easy to just toss the name out like a robot, which always sounds like you’re just trying to get it done with so you can get on to the more “important” stuff.  (I’ve actually edited together every time a talent says the station’s name in an hour so he or she could hear the bad habits that have set in – same tone of voice every time, same inflection, always going down in pitch at the end – there are tons of them.)

2.  Matching the pace of the song.  (Fast song, uptempo delivery. Slow song, slower delivery.)

3.  Matching the emotional “vibe” of the song.  (Sad song, more somber tone. Happy song, more upbeat delivery.)

4.  Starting on the same NOTE the song is on.  (The great Marice Tobias also teaches this.)

…and there’s more, but in John Lennon’s words, “I have to have money first.”

Suffice it to say that unless you’re good at saying the name of the station – the first thing you should master – chances are that people won’t remember you, and ratings won’t be as high as they could be.  I’ve seen Arbitron entries for stations that don’t exist anymore, and air talents that have been DEAD for two years. That’s the power of good branding.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Beau Weaver was simply the best radio jock I ever heard, period.

Now he’s now a very successful voice actor based out of Los Angeles, and still one of my closest friends. We first met and worked together as babies several hundred years ago, when Gordon McLendon hired us as part of the staff at KNUS 99, the station that put FM on the map in Dallas.

We were all very young, and constantly running thoughts and techniques by each other, trying to find ourselves as jocks and Production talents. The other day, Beau reminded me of how he’d often play me a spot or promo that he’d done, and I’d keep repeating two things to him: “Don’t use your voice, and don’t try.”

Those are still the two starting places, either for young talent, or for old pros trying to update their sound to still be valid in the 21st century. Let me explain why…

Don’t use your voice.
When you “use” your voice, it sounds phony. The broadcasting world is still far too stocked with people on the air who just LOVE their own voices, and “puke” too much or shout at the listener in an effort to sound “big” or to “impress” them. (Are you listening, Kenny Albert? I’m not 40 feet away. There’s no reason to scream at me.)
Just talk.

Don’t “try”.
It’s not that you don’t want to give it a professional effort. Of course you do, but when you try too hard, you sound strident. That doesn’t bring anyone closer to you; it pushes them away. You pull people toward you by really understanding your “instrument”. Study great actors, and you see the value of LESS volume, less projection. For instance, Tom Hanks doesn’t have what radio people would call a great voice, but he can make you cry. Here’s another great example: Matt Damon at the end of “Saving Private Ryan” at that graveside, turning to his wife and softly saying, “Tell me I’m a good man.” It gets me every time.

Until you fully realize all the techniques available to you that can sway people, you’re just going to be one more voice in a sea of voices, quacking away on the air every day. (And good luck trying to be a voice actor. I’ve been to auditions where they’ve asked “Anyone in radio?” and when some people raised their hands, they were told “Thank you; you can leave.” They never even got a CHANCE to read, because the last thing anyone wants for a national spot is the “deejay” delivery.)

If you’re not in touch with this yet, you need a coach.

Oh, and go to www.spokenword.com to hear Beau Weaver’s work. Whatever he doesn’t have, you don’t need.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Especially with young air talent, it’s important to go over the basics. But the basics that are being taught today sometimes ignore the nuts and bolts of how to go about constructing each break.

Here’s where I start in the very early stages of coaching someone…

There are three parts to any break on the air—Beginning, Middle, and End. That seems pretty obvious, but here’s the part that’s not obvious: Start with the Ending FIRST. Then work on the Beginning. The ends shape the means. When you’re clear on where you want to go, you’ll be able to make the “entry” more concise. (And we know that not wasting people’s time is the biggest lesson for anyone on the air, especially someone who doesn’t have much experience.) Plus, being sure of both the Beginning and the Ending helps the Middle go in more of a straight line. (No “chasing rabbits”.)

And here’s the secret sauce: The Ending should be (1) a “Reveal”, (2) a Conclusion, or (3) a Surprise.

Try this for a week, and you’ll see how simple everything gets.

A great promo for the last season of ‘Mad Men’ said “Everyone has their own story to tell…but it only goes in one direction: forward.”

Yes, the grammar of that is incorrect, but the point is something that’s increasingly overlooked.

Unless you’re retiring today, your story isn’t what you’ve done in the past. It’s what you WILL do the next time the mic opens.

Everything you ever do on the air is like a DNA chain, a long, winding, snakelike thing that’s constantly being added to.

The worst phrase you can ever hear is “We’ve always done it that way.” It’s even worse when YOU’RE the one saying it.
Great actors, great musicians, and great writers are always trying to come up with a new wrinkle; something that they haven’t done before.

For example, each Michael Crichton book was always fascinating and mind-expanding with “What if?” scenarios, but The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park are nothing alike.

Hopefully, you’re the same way. I coach people to become Personalities, not just disc jockeys, so in our sessions, I’m constantly pushing the envelope to come up with something new. At the least, it’s invigorating, and it can be downright euphoric. When’s the last time you felt like that?

Each day, you have an opportunity to add to the DNA chain, to live out the next forward step in your story. Go for it! Never settle for just doing the same things every day.

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Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

It would be hard to imagine anyone who’s more welcome to join a party than comedian/actor Bill Murray. His “business model” is unique. He has no agent, no “handlers” buzzing around him, no business cards to pass out. But what he DOES have is that he seems imminently approachable.

You see him at the Pebble Beach golf tournament, accepting home-baked cookies from a woman, then sharing them with other people around the tee box. Then you click to another channel, and he’s at Eric Clapton’s giant “Crossroads” event, not only being an emcee, but sitting with people in the crowd, watching the artists play, just like a normal person. Then he’s in Austin for SXSW, walking down the street, eating barbecue and shaking hands with everyone.

But radio people at a remote or station event? Mostly, they’re huddled up in a corner, talking to each other. Their physical posture and manner suggest that going up to one of them just to chat would either get a perfunctory “thanks for coming” response or be downright unwelcome.

Sure, Facebook and Twitter are good ways to connect, but believe me, shaking someone’s hand makes far more impact. My friend and mentor Larry Ryan in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, is a great example. I can’t count how many times we’ve been eating lunch or just walking down the street, and someone has come up to him and said something like “Hi, Larry! We met a couple of years ago at the Mardi Gras parade.”
Larry will ALWAYS greet them warmly, and if he can’t quite place them, say “I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten your name.” Then he makes that person feel like an old friend, has a short conversation, wishes them well, and we go on.

The result? After 50 years on the air there, Larry Ryan is a legend in Shreveport, still pulling excellent ratings on an Oldies station. And I guarantee you that when he does retire, a lot of people will still be writing his name down in their Arbitron diaries. Months later, they’ll think he’s just been on vacation for a couple of weeks. (If you think that’s an exaggeration, you’re wrong. When I was Corporate Talent Coaching for Paxson Radio, we saw diary entries for one jock who had been DEAD for two years!)

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Radio guru Lee Abrams used to tell us, “It’s a SHOW, not a ‘shift’.”

This was a foundational thought, a reminder to make sure that we didn’t ever think of our air work as being like an assembly line shift worker in a factory, putting in rivets, over and over, to the point of boredom.

But there’s more to it than that, from a creative standpoint.
Since radio is an audio medium (no camera), that means we can’t divert the eye, like on TV. Everything shows on the air anyway, so the goal every day is to make sure and SHOW SOMETHING.

Show your creativity. Show your sense of humor. Show your concern. Show your empathy. Show your skepticism. Show your intelligence. Show your goofiness. Show your skill set (editing yourself well, for instance, or finding just the right music for something instead of using a generic Production music bed). Show that you’re a citizen of your neighborhood, your city, your state. Show what kind of neighbor you are.

Often, in coaching sessions, I start with “What did I learn about you today on the air?” Originality isn’t just some nebulous goal; it’s the process of revealing.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2015 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

A friend of mine is travelling from here in Hawaii to Washington, D. C. next month.  Great city, Washington.  Many things to see and do.

One thing he’s doing is taking his girlfriend to the JFK Center for the Performing Arts to see an a cappella group sing Beatles songs.

Why the Beatles?  Why not some other group or artist?  You could do folk songs, or show tunes, or the obvious for a group without musical instruments, barbershop quartet.

Well, probably because Washington D.C. is a tourist town, not just our nation’s capitol.  And more people on Planet Earth know songs by the Beatles than anyone else.

But I think it’s also because the Beatles have the most varied library of songs. Rock, ballad, baroque, kids’ sing-along, anthem, Country – you name it, the Beatles did it.  (And of course, in those songs are some of the greatest lyrics ever written.)

That’s the way your show should be – consistent in terms of people being able to tell that it’s you, but incredibly varied in its Content from hour to hour, day to day, week to week.

I KNOW that you can do it. But you may need help.  We all “get by with a little help from our friends.”