Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #197 – Quips, Comments, and Stories

Leave a comment

The primary ingredients of any really good talent in a music format are Quips, Comments, and Stories.  A little more about each…

A quip:  My morning show partner years ago in Dallas, Rick “the Beamer” Robertson once came out of “Billie Jean” with “Well, what can you say about Michael Jackson… that hasn’t been operated on.”  (I don’t even know that this made sense, but it was just plain funny.)

A comment: a remark about something that may or may not be funny, but it is YOURS.  Comments can’t be in every single thing that you do, but there should be a healthy dose of them in each show.  Friendships are formed through the exchange of opinions.  If you don’t HAVE any, we can’t be friends.

A story:  I think of stories as “little plays” about “adventures” we have.  Note:  Please avoid the “Christmas newsletter” mentality.  Make sure that the listener CARES about the subject, or you’re just a car going as fast as it can toward an oak tree.

These three things, along with the more “plain vanilla” Content – promoting things, sponsor liners, whatever – are pretty much all you’re going to do, and they should be balanced.  And remember, there’s an art to making “plain vanilla” stuff stand out and be different from the last time you talked about it.

If you know what arrows you have in your quiver, you won’t waste your time trying to use something else.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2017 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Mason Morning Minute

Want To Be An Ace?

Leave a comment

“Explicit disagreement is better than implicit understanding.”
~Douglas Stone, “Thanks  For The Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well“

I have so many books on my reading list that it’s almost overwhelming.  So I love it when we can bring someone into EMF to talk to us.  A recent person was Elaine Lin, an amazingly brilliant woman to talk about the book, “Thanks  For The Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well.”  Too long to encapsulate here, it’s a book about giving, and as important, receiving feedback.

A part of the presentation was about being an ACE.  Which means three kinds of the feedback you can give: appreciation, coaching, and evaluating.

Appreciation is showing that your teammate knows you notice them and that they matter.  Coaching is helping them improve, and Evaluation lets them know where they stand.

Two things struck me about this idea.

First, that we’re not exactly rock stars when it comes to appreciation.  Letting people know you notice and value them on an ongoing basis.  Mostly we’re so busy we forget, but also because we’re not intentional about giving appreciation.

Second is that the authors separate coaching and evaluation.  Typically I’ve seen them as linked.  “Here’s how you’re doing and here’s how to fix it.”  But it makes more sense to unlink them so they’re two different parts of the employee discussion.  I think it’s better to help them get better at one point, and then evaluate them at another.  Focus is always a good thing.  I know that I’d be more open if they were separated for me in my performance conversations.

Elaine’s presentation moved the book up my priority list, and I expect it to help me both give and receive performance feedback.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #352 – There’s No Time Like The Present

Leave a comment

It’s the simplest idea.  But it is an idea missing from every bad radio station.

TODAY

No one reads yesterday’s news.  No one watches yesterday’s game.  No one talks about yesterday’s plans.  (Even when we talk about what happened yesterday we talk about it from the 24 hours later perspective of today).

New President today

But here’s the catch;  TODAY has to be designed in.  TODAY doesn’t happen by accident.  In fact, the generic – any time, any place – is precisely what happens by accident.

My talented friend Keith Stevens of KTIS recently said to me, “I can’t track today.  The sun is out!”  That perspective comes from Keith’s understanding of TODAY… that when the sun comes out during a frigid Minnesota winter it changes how people feel, and he wants his station to reflect that.

Today creates common ground.  It is the neighborhood that allows us to be neighbors.

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #196 – A Deeper Dive into Camera Angles

Leave a comment

One of the two of three most game-changing tips I’ve coached over the years is “camera angles.”  It grew out of film classes in college, and a lifelong love of great movies, directors, and actors.  In short, it’s about the perspectives you gain – like the Director of a movie decides – from a different point of view.

But, as with everything that’s artistic at its core, there are layers and colors inside that technique.

So here’s another way to look at it that may help you:  It’s not just where you put the camera.  It’s about what you SEE when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  It’s Emotional, rather than just technical.

It’s not a fact-finding mission.  It’s a way to see inside something from a perspective that can tell a different story.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2017 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Mason Morning Minute

It’s All About The Story

Leave a comment

“No, no!  The adventure first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”
~Lewis Carroll, author

On the CBS TV show, “Sunday Morning,” recently there was a “short,” on one of those films shown before a movie, usually a kids movie.  This one is called Piper, and you may have seen it just before the movie, “Finding Dory.”

So what’s the big deal?  Besides the Academy award it won?

First, this short, entertaining movie from Pixar, is a great example of the paramount value of a story.  The technology was great, but without the story, the technology would be useless.  Sometimes we’re so excited about the technology we use in radio that we put the story second.  The fact we can use or create the technology takes over our imagination.  Not the story.

The second thing that got my attention was the credits.  I couldn’t believe the team, and I suspect teamwork, that went into those 6.5 minutes.

Technology is a sexy distribution, but only a distribution channel.  Don’t be seduced by the “cool” that you forget the story.

See Piper yourself.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #351 – A Programming Lesson From Donald Trump (A Never-ending Series)

Leave a comment

So, there he was on national TV.  A man who has been described by some as impulsive, combative, and egocentric.

But there he was.  And Tuesday night he had millions of us in tears.

“Trump became president of the United States in that moment.  Period.”
~CNN contributor Van Jones

“The most stirring moment of Trump’s speech – and his presidency – came when he spoke directly to Carryn Owens, the widow of Navy Chief William ‘Ryan’ Owens, who was killed in the military raid in Yemen that Trump ordered shortly after taking office.

“Trump led a 2-minute, 11-second standing ovation as Carryn Owens stood, crying and clasping her hands.”

So… what can we radio folks learn from this?

In your news they are not “consumers,” “taxpayers,” or “citizens,” they are real people who spend real money on real stuff.  And sometimes they are just scraping by.

In your traffic reports they are not “motorists,” they are real people who have real jobs and have to get to work and school on time.  And sometimes they are late.

In your promos they are not “contestants,” they are real people whose lives might be made just be a little bit better because they relate to your station.  But sometimes the line is busy.

Here’s the big idea:

Beginning tomorrow exorcise all generic references to real people.

Instead, go tell the important story…

“Focus on the one, not the many.”
~Mother Theresa

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #195 – Laughter, the Best – or Worst – Medicine

Leave a comment

There used to be a thing in Reader’s Digest called “Laughter, the Best Medicine.”

But often, at least to someone my age (I was a kid then), it was lame.

Think about this, as it applies to radio.

Genuine, “can’t help it” laughter IS great “medicine”.
But laughter that comes across as some sort of “default setting” reflex, or that icky “trying to MAKE me think it’s funny” laughter is POISON.

People can tell when it’s real. Go ahead and argue if you want, but it’s true.
I tell people to try NOT to laugh, so when you do, it’ll be genuine “snot bubble” laughter.

George Carlin once said the goal in school was to make the guy next to him at the lunch table laugh so hard that he snorted an entire cheese sandwich up his nose.

Listen to some audio of your show and ask yourself this: “Did the laughter sound real?”
(Hint: If you really need to ask that, it didn’t.)

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2017 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #350 – They Think We’re Selling Fish

Leave a comment

It was an innocent enough question, I thought.

Do people you run across seem to know about the station?  The lady hired to drive the station van around the city all day long responded, “No.  They think I’m selling fish.”

Selling fish

We’re consumed with ourselves.  Everyone we know knows our station. “The Curse of Knowledge” puts us in a position where we can’t even comprehend what it is like to NOT know what we know.  It’s that “imagine the world without the color blue” thing.  We can’t.

“Almost no one visits your restaurant, almost no one buys your bestselling book, almost no one watches the Tonight Show…

We think we’re designing and selling to everyone, but that doesn’t match reality…

Growth comes from person-to-person communication, from the powerful standards of ‘people like us.’  And it comes from activating people who are ready to be activated.”
~Seth Godin

I know of a radio station that achieved an historic #1 ranking in Women 25-54 in part by an influx of quarter hours from new people in the ratings panel.  Those weren’t new listeners mind you, they were just new panelists.  In other words, they weren’t listeners that we manipulated, they were already fans ready to be activated.  And they were fans for a reason.  They were fans because that station mattered to them.

We can’t adjust our tactics in an effort to manipulate our listeners into changing their lifestyle for one more quarter hour.  They don’t even know what a quarter hour is, AND they think we’re selling fish.

You can’t manipulate your way to number one.  There are no short cuts.

You have to do things that matter.

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #194 – THE Role Model for Team Shows

Leave a comment

Often in coaching, I find that the best examples may lie outside the radio arena.  A lot of the techniques and strategies I teach come from movies, music, and Sports.

At one station I work with, finding the right partner in a team show has been an ongoing issue.  Having worked with literally hundreds of team shows, I was brought into the discussion of “what to look for.”

My example had nothing to do with radio:  John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Here’s why…

Lennon was primarily known for aggressive, edgy songs like “Revolution,” “Day Tripper,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Help!,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” etc.

McCartney was mostly known for pretty songs, like “Yesterday,” “And I Love Her,” “Let It Be,” “The Long and Winding Road,” “Hey Jude,” etc.

But Lennon also wrote beautiful songs:  “In My Life,” “Girl,” “If I Fell,” and “All You Need is Love.”  And McCartney wrote some really powerful, straightforward rockers, like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Helter Skelter,” “Back in the USSR,” and “Drive My Car.”

And THAT’S what you want in a team show:  people who may be defined by ONE thing each of them does, but they CAN do other things.  Picture the Olympic rings – slightly overlapping circles with a common area they share, and a larger area that’s unique to each.

Two people who are nothing alike can result in a tug-of-war on the air.  Two people who at least have SOMETHING in common, but come to that only once in a while to join forces – well, there’s that “extra dimension” that you should be looking for.

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (iPhone)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2017 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Mason Morning Minute

The True Meaning Of Leadership 

Leave a comment

“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
~Herb Brooks, Coach for the U.S.A. Men’s Ice Hockey, 1980.

Water Challenge

It was a sunny day at the Blue Lagoon in Nassau, Bahamas.   A bunch of us were laying out on the beach in front of the lagoon when it came time for a water challenge to see who could get across and through the obstacles first.   It began with a young man on the cruise none of us knew, and Bill Corbin, leader of K-LOVE‘s pastor team.

They both jumped, ran and climbed, but it became clear Bill would win, and he did.

But then he jumped back in the water and swam to where his “competitor” was still struggling and began to encourage him through the rest of the obstacles until he too had completed the course.

It was an incredible demonstration of the value of leadership.   Bill didn’t do an arm pump and take a victory lap, he turned back to encourage.

We think of leadership in directive terms, telling people what to do, and often how to do it.   We’re very good at being “corrective”, too, but we don’t think as much about encouraging our own team members, cheering them on to their own victory.

Leadership isn’t just about finding difficulties and correcting them, that’s management.   We can always find something wrong, and it’s easier than being the encourager, which is leadership.

Sometimes it seems that way back in the darkest parts of our minds the “corrector” lives, ready to pounce.   But, like all good leadership, it’s a choice.   One seems easier than the other.   One gives you temporary short term improvements, and the other allows you to help the other person grow and accomplish long-term, valuable growth.   One creates a better employee, and the other creates a better, more motivated person.

Which one do you think is most apt to help you achieve your goals?