Tag Archives: radio

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

March 8, 2017 Tommy Kramer 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

March 6, 2017 Alan Mason 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.

Tommy Kramer Tip

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

February 28, 2017 Tommy Kramer 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.

Tommy Kramer Tip

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

February 22, 2017 Tommy Kramer 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

February 20, 2017 Alan Mason 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?

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #193 – Just The 3 Of Us

February 15, 2017 Tommy Kramer Leave a comment

This is a team show tip, and there’s a special bonus prize included.

Okay, let’s say that you’re in a 2-person team show. Here’s how the listener sees it: It’s just the three of us, over lunch together (or over breakfast, if you prefer), and once in a while, a caller joins us.
Just like in real life, the third person at the table (me, the listener) may not be saying anything, but I’m still here.

Now here’s the Easter egg – a hidden secret from my vault:

You can have an exchange between the two of you with me at the table – but you can’t ever IGNORE that I’m at the table.

Read that last point again. The minute it feels like you’re JUST talking to each other, I might as well leave.

– – – – – – –
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

And Then I Heard Someone Say Radio…

February 13, 2017 Alan Mason Leave a comment

“It’s a habit of mine now, noticing labels, logos, shoes.”
~Michael Jordan

It was my birthday and we were sitting in a restaurant with family. We were talking about who was doing what, the menu, the view, kids, and grandkids…

And then I heard the word “radio” at a table on the other side of the room.

It’s funny how our minds are attuned to filter out almost everything except what’s relevant to us. We can be in a crowded ballroom buzzing with people and still hear our own name. It gets our attention and pulls us in.

It’s a good lesson for radio talent. If you’re talking about what’s relevant to the listener, you’ll draw them in. If you’re talking about what’s irrelevant to the listener they’ll never hear you at all. That’s why there are so few true personalities, they’re too busy talking about what’s trending instead of what they have in common with the listener.

Like Michael Jordan, you’re attuned to your own interests.

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #192 – The Relationship Between Ego And Confidence

February 8, 2017 Tommy Kramer Leave a comment

Over the last two decades of coaching hundreds of radio stations, I’ve rarely heard this dealt with, except behind closed doors. (Usually the GM or PD questioning me about a “difficult” talent.)

If you really want a better daypart, a raise, or even just genuine respect between yourself and your boss, it has to be earned. Many, many times, a jock has told me that he or she would like to be given a shot at a drive-time slot or maybe being an APD. My answer is always the same: Make yourself the best CANDIDATE for that position.

But if you drill a little deeper, you’ll see that the reason the “higher-ups” haven’t given you that opportunity is actually in the same ballpark that getting the listener to bond with you lives.

Here’s what it boils down to:

Ego without Confidence = no.
Confidence without Ego = yes.

A closer look at this:

We all have egos. A healthy ego is fine, but DISPLAYS of ego are off-putting.

Confidence is what you want to exude. Ego works against that. We all follow the most confident person, but we rarely ever just follow the person with the biggest ego.

Mason Morning Minute

How Leadership Is Like “Call Of Duty”

February 6, 2017 Alan Mason Leave a comment

Call of Duty

“True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.” ~Norman Schwarzkopf

The latest version of “Call Of Duty” is coming out, and you can hardly wait. Finally, you get your copy and rush off to play. It gets you out of the real world and into one where you have control. Or does it?

At this point there are several things you can be assured of when the new version comes out:

You’re going to get shot. It’s a new game and you don’t know it as well as others, so it’s going to happen. Just like in real life leadership. Unfortunately, like COD, it’s ever evolving and becoming more difficult. The higher you go (the difficulty settings) the more challenging it gets. If you accept these setbacks as short term, rather than fatal, you’ll be better.
It’s easier with allies. People to watch your back and be a team of people with a common goal. We all do better as a part of a team than we do as a leadership maverick. That stirs emotion in the souls of those who always have to win, and thereby never learn. They probably operate in single player mode anyway.
There’s always something new. If there weren’t new features there’d be no sales. You’ll run into road blocks in leadership too. You’ll encounter tough areas and new challenges on a regular basis. But players don’t give up or ignore them, they keep learning and trying until they master them.
There are do-overs. Like the game, you can try again when you have a real life setback. It doesn’t have to be the end of your life or your career. You may have to go back to the beginning of that scene, but with renewed information about how not to die.
You’ll never be done. After you’ve worked your way up from novice, a new version of the game comes out, and you start all over again.

Alright, let’s go play.

Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Tip #191 – Ratings: Turn the Page

February 1, 2017 Tommy Kramer Leave a comment

By now, you’ve probably seen the latest ratings. Often, if they’re not what we hope for, it’s easy to sink into “the sky is falling” mentality that tends to dominate the hallways when a station has a down “book.”

Yes, it does look like the political climate, the clownish debates, and the election process and aftermath hurt a lot of formats. While many Country, A/C, CHR, and Contemporary Christian stations got slapped around a bit, the clear beneficiary was the News/Talk arena.

So what do you do now? Here’s what I’m telling my non-News/Talk stations:

It doesn’t matter. Turn the page. Assume that TODAY is the day ratings start (or end). The point is, EVERY break we do has the potential to make a listener either [1] come back or stick around for a second helping, or [2] hit another button because we didn’t give them a reason to stay.