Frost Advisory #248 – It’s All About Adding Value

March 15, 2015 John Frost Leave a comment

It’s the essence of programming. Each element needs to add value.

For a music station it begins with the music. That means that every song you play has to ADD value. The songs that add the greatest value are the songs that have the most value; the ones that are most loved.

For everything else it is about the value of that which interrupts the music. On one hand we can argue that if people come to us for music we should never interrupt it. On the other hand if we don’t add value beyond the music there is no reason to choose our station above Pandora, Spotify, or Slacker.

Add Value

Successful radio is, and always has been, about a meaningful shared listening experience.

“Success is a by-product of creating value. Happiness is a by-product of creating value. Significance is a by-product of creating value. Fulfillment is a by-product of creating value.”

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #93 — The 3-second Rule

March 11, 2015 Tommy Kramer

You might need some help with this one from your PD, if you work at a station that thinks it’s good radio to backsell more than one song, or to talk about a song that played before the one you’re talking out of.

I’m sure you’ve heard of “the 3-second rule” that a lot of people use when they drop food on the floor—that if you pick it up within 3 seconds, it’s still okay to eat it. (I call this the “how to get ptomaine poisoning” rule.)

Let’s borrow that and make our own version of the 3-second rule. My buddy Randy Brown, when he was a great PD in Dallas, says that often back then, he’d have a friend or date in the car with the radio on, and when a jock’s break finished and they went into a stopset, Randy would ask his passenger “What was the last song that played?” NO ONE ever remembered. And that was the song that had JUST FINISHED PLAYING, not one from two or three songs ago.

“But I’ve got a ‘bit’ I want to do about the song before last.”
Tough. Either just let it go, or save it for another time, when it makes sense to do it.

“But that song three songs ago ties into my promoting a station event with that artist.” Then your PD should allow you to move it, so you’re not, in effect, saying “the group that did the song you didn’t hear eight minutes ago is coming to town soon.”

I’ve said this before: Time moves in only one direction, from now…this moment…forward. This is the definition of True Momentum, and a huge key to sounding logical and organic.

Live by the 3-second rule, or die by it. Your choice.

– – – – – – –
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.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #247 – The Spirit of the Volunteer

March 8, 2015 John Frost Leave a comment

My friend Carol couldn’t stay away any longer. Her retirement lasted only a season before she was back among her friends and the shared experience of a place she loves – the ballpark. Although she gets paid a little something my guess is that she would do it for free.

“To spend so much time in a space that fills night after night with tens of thousands of fans who love a team deeply, and to grow up surrounded by people who, at every pay level, love where they work, was beautiful.” – Emilie Miller

Value isn’t determined by the amount of money you’re paid, it is created by how much you give, according to Chick-fil-A marketing guru David Salyers in his book “Remarkable”. No one knows that better than those who give of their time without getting paid.

My wife volunteers at the hospital where she used to get paid. Although a licensed medical professional, she now spends her time helping patients and their families, and assisting the nurses when needed. She feels like she’s using her gifts to really make a difference. So does everyone else she works with.

“Volunteers are not paid – not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.”

While certainly no one gets into Christian radio for the money the spirit of a volunteer sets people apart from those who view it as “just a job”.

Twenty years ago my friend Randy began as a volunteer because they couldn’t afford to pay him. The morning they signed on the air he had been up all night dealing with last minute technical problem. All that before going to work at his real job. Just yesterday Randy had emergency quintuple bypass surgery. Randy’s passion is undeniable, and his hospital room will soon be filled with his co-workers that share that passion.

How many people at your station have that kind of passion?

Too many hallways and cubicles are quiet, not one radio on. Talent go on the air unprepared and untrained, wasting precious opportunities to touch people’s lives. Stations remain essentially invisible in their communities because investing to reach people is not a priority. My friend Jim Hoge is intolerant of that attitude, investing well into six figures every year through marketing and major events at two of the world’s most public places – Walt Disney World and Sea World.

How many people are so devoted to your station’s mission that they would still want to be involved if the paycheck went away?

Love your work

If the spirit of a volunteer can be found at a ballpark and a hospital, perhaps it could be just as evident at a Christian radio station.

“A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under which they will never sit.” Greek Proverb

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #92 – Demo “Do and Don’t” list

March 5, 2015 Tommy Kramer

You can’t be your best if you aren’t on the air. Let me tell you a story.

I got an aircheck some months ago from a female talent who had recently been let go from a rock station in a major market, and she wanted me to give it a listen and see if it gave her a good chance to be hired as she searched for the next job.

It didn’t. It started with a “here is my aircheck” narration, which just meant that it took even more time to get to her work. And as for the work itself, even though there were a couple of good things on it, the demo seemed like she went out of her way to be “attitudinal” and included a couple of pretty coarse bits. Not exactly the way to make the best impression.

Also, her resume was “padded” with things like a paragraph with the heading “fulfillment of work week.” (Whatever that means. My eyes were glazing over as I read it.) Now I know this young woman, and she really is a good talent, but what was on her demo was unlikely to get her the results she wanted.

So here’s a short “do and don’t” list for your demo:

(1) Start with your best stuff. Don’t make me wait for it. I’ve seen way too many PD’s listen to a demo for about 40 seconds, and if something doesn’t grab them, they just toss it (or delete it).

(2) List your last three jobs on your resume, no more. I don’t care where you interned, when your duties included “scheduling of guests for Public Affairs interview show.” If I want more info, I’ll ask for it when I call you.

(3) Don’t try to shock me, impress me with some celebrity interview, or do some generic “topic and phone call” bit that everyone has heard before. What any really good PD is looking for is what you do that nobody else does. And remember that attitude is not a substitute for Content.

(4) This is really important. The PD has to get someone else to sign off on hiring you. Make it easy. No PD is going to tell his GM or National PD “Yes, she only wears beekeepers’ outfits and army boots, and she has Tourette’s Syndrome, so we’ll need a seven-second delay, but I think she’d be terrific on middays.”

Seriously, all you want to do is show your talent, your heart, and your work ethic.

– – – – – – –
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.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #246 – Why People Listen

March 1, 2015 John Frost Leave a comment

It’s a fundamental question that we seldom ask – what are the main reasons people tune to our station?

If you don’t know, ask them. If you think it’s not important enough to ask them (see: research) at least put your ear to the ground and hear the rumblings. It’s likely that you’ll hear some reoccurring themes.

If trivia, celebrity birthdays, obituaries, children’s radio theatre, and the Southern Gospel hour aren’t why people tune to your station, you may have a problem.

The more you do the main things for which your listeners come to you the more successful you’ll be.

Or you could just do like Arby’s and think that people come to you for fish.

arbys

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #91 – Be The Guy Who Would SAY That

February 26, 2015 Tommy Kramer

I don’t know whether this is true or not, but the story goes that when the great actor Marlon Brando was doing his first movie role, after an early scene, the Director brought up a couple of concerns. He was having a hard time getting a full-on shot of Brando because Marlon didn’t mug for the camera like a lot of actors in that era, and (as we all know) Brando mumbled. Supposedly, Brando replied by asking him if he had a camera operator, to which the Director said yes. Then Brando asked “And you have a ‘boom’ guy—the one who can move the mike?” The Director answered that he did, and Brando said “Well, tell them to move ‘em. I’m just bein’ the guy.”

He was just “being the guy”—the guy who would actually SAY whatever the dialogue was.

If you’ll embrace this simple concept, you’ll become much more natural and believable than ever before. Whether it’s personality Content, a station event you’re supposed to plug, a commercial, or the weather forecast, sift everything through the “be the guy who would say that” filter.
Example: No real person meets a friend for lunch and says to him, “A recent study says that 29% of Americans are buying red cars this year.” But he might say “Lots of red cars on the roads lately. I never noticed until I bought one. Now I see them everywhere.”

The “real guy” read is everywhere in the voice acting world right now. Big-voiced “announcers” are so 1970.

You always want to use down to earth, authentic language. Real words, not “print” language. If you have something to read that’s written poorly, rewrite it. If you think you’ll get in trouble for it, ask permission. No good PD will mind your not sounding stiff or implausible.

– – – – – – –
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.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #245 – He Saw Billy Joel and It Didn’t Go Well

February 23, 2015 John Frost Leave a comment

Glenn Beck is a huge Billy Joel fan. He has all his albums. He’s seen him five times.

Here’s what Glenn had to say about a recent concert experience:

“Left Billy Joel early. Disappointed. Was it the fact that he was 90 minutes in before he played one of his real hits? Maybe but all his music is good. Was it that he meandered and seemed to talk to the band more than the audience? … Was it that with all of those things I wished I were home with my wife and kids instead? Yep. There are too many demands on our time and things are way too expensive to stay for someone who, as good as he is, seems to be phoning it in. … Michael Bublé loves his audience, loves to perform, and once you stop liking the audience you should stop performing,” Glenn said. “I didn’t feel any gratitude, any affinity for me at all.”

Sure, it’s easy to look down our noses at the Piano Man and chide him for his uninspired performance, but perhaps we should first look at the log in our own eye…

…to see if we’re no better when one of our talent does a break that is rambling and ill-prepared? (Many stations have more people listening at that very moment than are at a typical Christian music concert).

…if we’re no better when a listener shows up at our concert tent (if we have one at all) and are treated like a stranger or an inconvenience.

…if we’re no better when a potential donor can’t get their calls answered (This has really happened at a station I worked with!)

…if we’re no better when we question the station’s ratings when we’ve not made it a priority to invite people to tune in.

It’s worth saying again. Once you stop liking the audience you should stop performing.

*Inspired by my talented friend Brian Yeager.

Glenn Beck’s post on glennbeck.com

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #90 – IF is the Magic Word

February 18, 2015 Tommy Kramer

In the words of the great Constantin Stanislavski, the father of ‘method’ acting, “IF is the magic word that makes all things plausible.”

When you think “If I were in this situation…” you see yourself IN the scene, and start imagining how you’d feel and what you’d do. This changes your view of it from simple reporter to participant—a whole different ‘camera angle’.

And “If” has a great secondary use, too—replacing those phony-sounding questions that air talents constantly ask.
“Would you like to win tickets to Brad Paisley?” OF COURSE I would, Burpey the Love Spoon. Just tell me how and when.

But saying “If you’d like to win tickets to see Brad Paisley, you’ll have a chance at 7:45” makes you more concise, and it’s a better call to action when you take out the fake ‘rhetorical question’ dance.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #244 – Beware of Common Sense

February 15, 2015 John Frost Leave a comment

It’s not common sense to warn someone about using common sense.

But that’s the point.

Successful principles of business, leadership, or programming aren’t common. They are the exception. Otherwise, all stations would have high ratings, there would be no leadership challenges, and we’d all have dated the prettiest girl in town.

There are 11,000 business books printed each year. I looked it up. If these principles were merely common sense there would be no demand for these publications.

Recently I had the privilege of sitting with leadership guru John Maxwell when Bill Hybels interviewed former GE CEO Jack Welch for the Willow Creek leadership summit. Nothing he said was common sense. Every morsel of wisdom was counterintuitive and eye opening. He used himself as an example:

“I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re a leader and you’re the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.” Jack Welch

Successful principles can seem out of whack or counter-intuitive. Leading is about serving. Programming to reach a wider audience is about focusing narrowly.

I’m told there are stations where cranky e-mail writing listeners, board members or family relatives that influence programming decisions without ever having programmed a radio station. After all, it’s just common sense.

Today you will likely face a decision about your radio station where it would make sense to use common sense. Before you react, I suggest you look for a similar situation and try to learn from that success story. Develop a culture that values, not resists, expertise and experience that may not be common.

After all, who would want a surgeon who simply strived for consensus from those who had never performed a surgery?

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #89 – Make the Caller the same size

February 11, 2015 Tommy Kramer

Actor Bill Murray talked recently in an interview about living in Paris for a while, and going to see a series of silent films. And how even in a movie with no words spoken, he clearly understood the plot and could feel for the characters. I think radio at its best is the other end of the seesaw. Anything we do on the air – without pictures – should be able to stand on its own merit, too, and engage people.

He also talked about how the most important thing he learned in Second City, the famous improv factory in Chicago, was to not try to be larger than the other person in the scene. Murray learned to give the other person what they needed to just settle down and be the part they were playing—to “make the other person the same size,” instead of mugging for the camera or trying to dominate the scene.

Besides guests or co-hosts, this also applies directly to phone callers. We’ve all heard “Make the caller the star.” Well, that sounds good, but a lot of talents just aren’t willing to give the caller what he or she needs. And sometimes you can give too much, and it runs off the rails because callers are real people, not trained personalities or entertainers.

So a better thought might be to just make the caller the same size as you, to take out the pressure and competition for “the moment”. The caller will either make it on his own, or there will be a place that you can save it. And remember, unlike improv, we can edit the phone call before the listener ever hears it.

Look, radio is more than just saying words or selling your “brand” (which is only a name if there’s no Value in it). Shoot for higher than that. Be someone, but also be willing to share the sandbox.