The turning of the calendar to September welcomes new seasons in our lives.
It could be college football season. Or pumpkin spice latte season. Or back to school season.
And, of course, there is the political season. One that can seemingly bring out the worst in us. Even with our friends.
Continue readingIt stuns me sometimes that air talents sound so completely disconnected from the music. (This happens A LOT with voice-tracking.)
So, think about this little little-known technique: if you match the pace of the song you’re talking over the intro of, or coming out of, or if you match the emotional vibe of the song – or hopefully, you do BOTH – it makes a statement. You’re immediately a part OF the music. We want to believe that you’re listening to the music, too.
I recently went to a concert by an artist I really enjoy. I walked away disappointed.
Compare that to the first concert I went to after COVID. This was a group I had never seen before and they performed only covers from another era. The show was an absolute blast.
You might be thinking that the difference was the music. Nope, both concerts featured music I know and enjoy.
Continue readingIt’s not how long something IS. It’s about how long it SOUNDS.
Too many words, too many examples, or parenthetical “side road” journeys, will automatically make you sound longwinded.
And it’ll feel long, no matter how it times out on a stopwatch.
“2 minutes isn’t that long.” Really? How long does it FEEL? Try holding your breath for two minutes right now. You’ll understand.
I knew it would take me longer to get there but I really didn’t mind. The streets around my house would be lined with cars either moving at the posted 25 MPH speed limit, or not at all. But that was okay.
I knew Miss Shirley would be there at the crosswalk, the cheery octogenarian who last year tripped at a shopping mall and knocked out her front teeth. We didn’t see her for many months but every day the school children would ask, “How’s Miss Shirley?”
Continue readingIf you want to have a guest do a good job and want to come back, you MUST start with this…
Take a back seat to him/her/etc. It starts with how you bring them on. Don’t “give away the plot” and tell the guest’s whole story. Take ONE thing and start giving, like “So, tell us about this movie…” (or whatever the guest is there to promote).
Or with a caller…suppose she’s obsessed with the movie “Back to the Future”. (This is an example from a show I coach in Houston.) Naturally, you ask how many times she saw it when it came out, and she tells you – instead of YOUR telling us you learned something about her, then telling HER that she has an obsession with a movie. (She knows that.) When you let the guest (or caller) tell the bulk of the story, that person comes across better – and so do you.
I can tell you from experience that the guest will really appreciate it. And you build a catalog of people who’ll gladly come back on the show.
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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.
We make decisions every day. The question is how we make good decisions based upon our limited experiences, biases, social styles, and relationships? (There are probably more but I ran out of ink).
Continue reading“Few decisions are simple. In fact, simple decisions are better called choices. All decisions cut us off, separate us, from nearly infinite options as we select just one single path. And every decision we make earns us the favor of some and the disfavor of others.”
Dan B. Allender, Ph.D, “Leading with a Limp: Turning your Struggles into Strengths”
“Content Creator” may be a new title to the You Tube/TikTok generation, but to those of us in radio, it’s been part of our lives for a long time.
So, if you’re just starting out in this business, or if you’ve been around for a while and want to refresh and refine your Content, it boils down to two options:
This one will get me in trouble.
But I’m okay with that.
Almost always the question we are discussing is not the question at all. Rather, it’s a glimpse into something more significant.
Example:
Continue readingPretty much every air talent tries to establish “benchmark” material. But what, exactly, makes something a “must hear” feature?
Well, first of all, it’s about the idea itself. Back when the huge box office sci-fi movies were just becoming all the rage, my morning show partner in Houston, Fred Kennedy and I came up with a thing we called “Star Fake.”
