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Tommy Kramer has spent over 35 years in radio as an on-air talent, Programmer, and Talent Coach, and has worked with over 100 stations in all formats, specializing in coaching morning team shows. He was elected to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. Contact
Tommy Kramer Coaching Tips The oddest thing seems to be happening both on TV and in radio these days. The phony, insincere, pukey deejay delivery is rearing its ugly head ... (read more - Tip #1) A lot of Program Directors, in trying to coach an Air Talent, jump too quickly to the second phase of coaching -- getting an aircheck, playing samples of "things done wrong," and making the process an uneasy one for the Talent right off the bat. No "foreplay." (read more - Tip #2)
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""Mine ... mine, it's all mine"" Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #3 (listen to the MP3 audio version of #3 by clicking here) Think of how many times you’ve heard an Air Talent say--more often than not, with the sound of rustling paper or a page turning in the background--"I was reading an article in this magazine yesterday," or "I saw in the paper this morning that...." My problem with this sort of thing is not just the little alarm going off in my head that says "Danger, Will Robinson....lame, predictable punch line coming up!," but also that it credits the knowledge to the magazine or newspaper, and, as a result, tips the Listener off that the Air Talent is about to read to them. Only people with cataracts want to be read to. The late, great sports broadcaster, Howard Cosell, had the right idea thirty years ago. You'd hear Howard say, "Tommy Lasorda, the Dodgers manager, told me over lunch today that he's thinking of moving Ron Cey from third base to shortstop." Well, in reality, at the "lunch" there were about four hundred other sports guys there, and Lasorda was seated at a dais, taking questions. But Cosell made it seem like it was privileged knowledge, that only he and Lasorda were in the room, and that he was letting you in on something that no one else could tell you. So when you did hear that item again later in the day on the local sportscast, or see it in the paper, your first thoughts were, "Yeah, I knew that. I heard Howard Cosell say it. That's where they got it." Have your Talent take ownership of things, or at least not give the credit to someone else. Let the listener think that the Talent is the authority, the information source, that will keep the listener up to date on the interesting stuff. And don’t READ it to me, just TELL it to me--just like real people might say to each other in the hallway at work, or over the water cooler, or at a party. What a concept--actual natural-sounding conversation.
© 2006 Tommy Kramer
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