Tommy Kramer Tip #101 – Articulate the Popular Rage

There’s a great line from the movie “Network” where old-line newsman Howard Beale (Academy Award winner Peter Finch) is told by his new show developer (Faye Dunnaway) to “articulate the popular rage.”

Now this movie, written by Pulitzer-prize winner Paddy Cheyevski—was made in 1977, so “rage” was at its core. You may remember Beale’s famous scene where he urged people to shout out their windows “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!”

The thought of ‘articulating the popular rage’ is still valid—although I would modify it to be “Articulate the Popular Emotion.” Rage is only one emotion, and you don’t want to be a one-trick pony. But the idea is to be the voice of what your listener is thinking. Joy, sadness, grief, silliness, disbelief, patriotism, skepticism, being thankful—all these (and more) make up the palate from which you can verbally “paint” the Content of the show.

Never settle for something that’s not based on an Emotion.

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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.

A Love Letter To Your Team

“After my family, the people I love most are the one’s I work with.” – David Salyers, Author, Remarkable

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“Wow, I thought, that’s an amazing point.” I was watching David Salyers, Vice President of marketing for Chic-Fil-A at the 2014 CMB Momentum conference. He was talking about the culture of his organization, which puts a huge emphasis on including living it every day. And that culture has everything to do with people.

He told us how Chic-Fil-A puts an emphasis on going beyond thinking about what we want from our people, to what we want for our people. I read the “love letter” he wrote to his employees, and again bells went off in my head. They let their people know, every day, by how they act, that they love and respect them.

“How do my people think about me?” I wondered.

Believe me, I’ll be making that line of thinking a part of my leadership.

I hear about “culture” from a lot of radio stations, but none of them have ever come this far in designing the organization around the culture. Culture means “how you will act,” not “how you will be.” It’s about behavior, not about a way of “being.”

Chic-Fil-A cultivates a culture that isn’t meant to be just for “Chikin’” but instead for any organization that wants to be…well, Remarkable!

Frost Advisory #255 – The Top 10 Reasons Stations Aren’t Successful, more stuff

On last week’s show I listed the first of 10 reasons why stations aren’t successful. I just made these up, so perhaps you’d like to make up your own. It’s fascinating how many notes I’ve received from those saying, “Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening at our station.”

In the words of Casey Kasem, and now, back to the countdown…

#7 – Lack of encouragement

Too often people are thrown into jobs, left alone, and spoken to only when they need correction.  How much more rewarding our work would be if we were encouraged in the things that help the station fulfill its purpose and achieve its goals.  We know this as human beings and as parents but we often fail to encourage at work.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel.  If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

“The more I’m exposed to the inner workings of other high capacity teams, the more I see the consequences of encouragement given… and encouragement withheld.  Support matters.” – Mark Beeson

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#6 – Lack of training

For the last several years at CMB’s Momentum I have participated in coaching a handful of talent that desire to grow in their craft.  Without exception each one begins by sharing they get little help at their local station.  They are hungry to learn and grow.  My friend Nelson at The Fish in Portland, a 20-plus-year veteran of Portland morning radio, told me he had learned more in his first years at The Fish than all his many years in mainstream radio.

“In life we must be willing to coach and be coached, either one alone will leave us empty.” – David L. Cook “Golf’s Sacred Journey”

“It is impossible to learn what is outside ourselves from inside ourselves.” – Joseph P. Battaglia

#5 – Silos

The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.  I’ve heard of one station where programming decisions are regularly made without the program director even present.

“Functionally, silos form and operate when the people in one area simply want to do what they do, the way they want to do it without thinking about whether what they’re doing is going to effect anyone else. Or how. They just act, irrespective of what the impact may be outside their own workspace. And it’s happening at every level.” – F. John Rey

I know of one organization that would be transformed if only one simple thing changed – that the people most qualified to make a decision in a certain area actually made that decision.

Stay tuned net week for more fun…