I’ve been talking about “camera angles” for decades, born out of an acting and performing background, and a brilliant teacher I had in college while taking film classes.
Frost Advisory #652 – Programming Lessons We Can Learn From The Super Bowl
The “leaky bucket.”
That’s PPM-talk for stations losing listeners by tuning away or turning the radio off. The traditional thought is that it is easier to keep listeners than to get them back. And darn logical that is, I reckon’!
But that’s only half the story. Or, should I say, two-thirds.
A recent study of 37 million listening occasions conducted by Coleman Insights and Media Monitors found that…
Continue reading“Nearly two thirds of radio listening occasions are the result of a consumer turning on the radio, listening to a station and turning the radio off.”
Inside Radio
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #505: Show Prep Starts at Home
By far, the thing I get asked about the most in coaching sessions is Show Prep.
First of all, if you use a “prep sheet” service, throw it away. Generic subject matter, getting generic (if any) response is fool’s gold. And unfortunately, it’s rampant. People sitting at the computer trying to choose a subject and somehow “make it matter” is lame and boring. Continue reading
Frost Advisory #651 – Can We Be Friends?
In a world before computers, my classmates and I would gather by a bulletin board in the school hallway to find out our class assignment.
Did we get the good teacher or the one nobody liked? Did we get the teacher that would allow you to have some fun or the one that was strict? (My fifth grade teacher Mrs. Lay actually invited us to her house to watch the World Series. Those were different times, don’tcha know).
Seeing which teacher we got wasn’t the real goal of checking the bulletin board. No, we wanted to see if we’d be with our friends. I wanted to be with Rodney, David, Buddy, and Julian. And just maybe that pretty girl Marlene.
Continue readingTommy Kramer Coaching Tip #504: A Good Lesson from a Bad Source
This is something to learn, albeit from a bad source. The next time you’re watching TV, turn the sound off. Now just watch the person onscreen.
You’ll be amazed at how much “over the top” acting is evident. Exaggerated facial expressions; flamboyant, overstated physical movements; “surprised” reactions that almost look like you’re watching some ancient silent movie.
Frost Advisory #650 – What’s Your Station’s Emotion?
Happy drivers make better drivers.
A recent campaign by Hyundai Sonata ignored the usual data drivel typical of automobile advertising. Instead, it captured an emotional moment that most of us have experienced while driving: singing along to a song on the radio.
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #503: Your Greatest Hits
After one of my recent tips came out, my associate and friend John Frost sent me an email saying: “When I was at KHTR in St. Louis, I hit a little slump in my on-air performance. My Program Director suggested that I create a “best of” tape and listen to it every day on my way to work. That way, I would have an objective reference point to what I did well, and it would help build my confidence since I was listening to my own work.” The thought was “Yes, I can do this because I’ve done it.”
Frost Advisory #649 – My Grandmother’s Couch
There are sights and smells from our childhood we never forget. I grew up in the home my grandfather built.
I can still remember the sound of the grow ups talking downstairs while I was upstairs pretending to go to sleep. I remember the sound of the grandfather clock at the bottom of the staircase chiming every fifteen minutes and chiming the specific number of times on the hour.
My grandmother also lived in our hometown. The sights and smells of her home are just as vivid.
Continue readingTommy Kramer Coaching Tip #502: Talk to the Eyes, not the Ears
Konstantin Stanislavski was the father of “method” acting. Practically every actor since Marlon Brando in the 1950s has read and/or studied his writings and techniques.
One of his main tenets is “Talk to the eyes, not the ears.”
It’s all about making things visual. If I can visualize it, I can crawl inside it, emotionally. But if it’s just “ad copy” or doesn’t bother to engage me visually, it just goes by unnoticed. Or it’s noticed, but not in a good way. It’s just noise.
“You can have a family member flown in for Christmas” is sort of generally visual, but “Imagine eating Grandma’s recipe with Grandma…” is very visual. Then, “We’ll fly her in!” adds another visual component.
Think “what does this situation (or this behavior) look like?” and you’ll be on the right track to stand out in the sea of disc jockeys reading crap off a computer screen.
Frost Advisory #648 – Where Ideas Come From
Writing every week for 648 weeks is not for the faint of heart. That’s every week for 12-½ years for those scoring at home.
I’m often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”
Fortunately, that’s the easy part. My answer is, “Everywhere.”
In those 648 weeks I’ve also learned where ideas DON’T COME FROM.
Continue reading