Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #331 – The Best Thing You Can Hear…and Do

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it also made for great musicians, explorers, writers, painters, and radio staffs.

When you have a bunch of people who are all continuously curious about how to get better, you have lightning in a bottle.  And you can feel it in the hallways.  It shows on the air.  And people listen to you simply because they WANT to.

You don’t have to dangle a lot of incentives in front of them, although contests are fun.  You don’t have to pander to them and compliment them all the time – especially not for their good taste in listening to you.  And you don’t have to worry about what your competition is doing, because if you’re talented and still working to get better, the other guys are already dead men walking.

Give me the people who come up with ideas for better systems, who want to try something on the air they haven’t done before, and want to have FUN doing their jobs.

But here’s the deal: every person you have who doesn’t think like this holds you back.  Hire wisely.  Interview the person, not the job posting.  Find the ones who want to help you do GREAT radio.  Then coach them up.

Frost Advisory #477 – I Love Everything We Do. But That Doesn’t Make It Right

It was an innocent enough question, I thought.

My friend Val and I were talking about life at his new job. “What has most surprised you?” I inquired.

He then began to cite some things that I couldn’t have predicted. He saw things through new eyes; a fresh perspective, not yet tainted by personalities, biases, and heuristics.

“The longer you’ve served where you are and the longer you’ve done what you are currently doing, the more difficult if will be for you to see your environments with the objectivity need to make the changes that need to be made. The shorter version: Time in erodes awareness of.”

Andy Stanley, “Deep and Wide”

I know of a station that was excited to show to show off their promotional van’s new colorful logo design. After one such event I asked the promotions person if those at the event were aware of the station. She replied,

“No. They think I’m selling fish.”

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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #330 – Avoiding California Airhead Language

“And I was like…”
“Then she was like…”
“So I was like…”

Like what?  Like someone who never passed seventh grade English?

“She was TOTALLY not going there…”  (Could she partially go there?)  “I’m SO doing that…”  (Well, all I can say is “You SO sound like a dolt.”)

Look, I’m all about “street language” and I definitely don’t think we should speak “The King’s English” – but we need to sound like we’re not 14-year California airheads.

Here’s why: Someday, a plane might fly into another building.  Or another “quiet guy” is going to walk into a mall and start shooting people.  And when that happens, you want people to take you seriously if you’re going to comment on it.  Radio is about having fun, and being topical; but at times, it’s also about being CREDIBLE.

Note to anyone in California: feel free to do all the Texas and Louisiana jokes you want.  (Louisiana is my home state.  Texas is where I spent the majority of my adult life.)

Frost Advisory #476 – The Power Of Simplicity

This may be the most simple Frost Advisory you’ve ever read. But simplest doesn’t mean easiest.

I’ve learned that every bad radio station has three things in common:

  1. They take too long to do stuff
  2. The stuff they do isn’t very interesting or meaningful
  3. They take too long to do stuff

I reckon’ you see this played out in your radio station every day.

That meeting you just attended will inevitably result in doing more stuff.

That music meeting? You’ll play more stuff.

That promotions meetings? More stuff.

Our systems are set up to habitually add more stuff, but we almost never talk about taking stuff away. Like barnacles on a ship our radio station begins to slow to a one share. (That’s fewer people hearing our stuff that takes too long).

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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #329 – Check Your Online/App Streaming

Here’s a question for you: Have you listened to your station’s online streaming lately?

Chances are, it pretty much blows.

Most of the time, I record station audio to use for coaching sessions.  And it’s amazing how many stations promote how you can “take us to work with you” or “keep up with us with the app” when in reality, the signal crashes without any warning whatsoever.  Or the app makes us jump through hoops, pushing multiple buttons or wading through “join our music team” come-ons, before we finally just get to what we want – the audio.
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Frost Advisory #475 – What Does Your Station Own?

Your radio station didn’t create the music; the artists, composers, and producers did.

Your radio station didn’t distribute the music; the record company, the music store, or iTunes did.

If you base your station’s success on things that aren’t yours to begin with, you’re in for a bumpy ride unless you have no competitor.

“There are countless factories vying to sell generic products to the companies that own the customer relationship. Perhaps 90% (sometimes 100%) of the profit goes to companies that make the sale, not the ones who actually made the product.”

Seth Godin

So, what does your station own?

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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #328 – What You Can Learn From Ron Jacobs

Back in the heyday of Top 40 radio, there were a handful of stations that became the icons; the stations we wanted to work at, or at least have our station sound like.

One of the giants was KHJ in Los Angeles, a Drake-Chenault consulted station with the brilliant Ron Jacobs as its Program Director.

Jacobs had three primary rules:
Preparation.
Concentration.
Moderation.
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Frost Advisory #474 – A Programming Lesson From The Brady Bunch

“Here’s the story of a lovely lady…”

Those seven words from a TV show more than 40 years ago instantly trigger a song in our heads and a time in our lives.

The press release promotes it as “the biggest show HGTV has ever done,” and it is no wonder. It is the most familiar project they’ve ever done.

Every new thing, whether a TV show, a restaurant, or a new radio format (that’s us to most listeners), is faced with a fundamental challenge; how to create passion for something that is unfamiliar.

HGTV has solved that problem.

“The Brady Bunch house might be the most famous home in all of television. From its faded tan exterior to its kitschy interiors, it’s absolutely iconic. Now, HGTV is making it real. The network’s new series, A Very Brady Renovation, partners all six of the original Brady Bunch children with HGTV all-stars…”

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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #327 – A Shoe Store With No Shoes

My friend and associate John Frost and I have one huge pet peeve – when we walk into a client station and can’t hear it playing in the building.

When we ask why this is so (and we do), we get these really lame answers:

“People are working, and the music distracts them.”

“We want people doing their jobs, not just listening to the radio.”

“The people in the office can’t talk to each other if the station is on.”

And the one I found most insane – “You can hear it in the bathroom.”  (Wow!  Let’s all go in there!)

No one wants to walk into a shoe store that has no shoes.  If I can’t hear your station in the lobby or in the hallway, apparently you don’t have one worth listening to.

Frost Advisory #473 – Bring Your Best

They say it is easy to parent someone else’s kids. It’s not so easy to parent your own.

It’s a great privilege for me to be inside many of the most successful stations in the country throughout the year. One of my favorite sessions to do is what I call “Bring your Best” where we order Whataburgers and Yoo-hoos for the entire air staff and bring them together for one huge coaching session.

Sure, it’s a little awkward at first, (after all, no songwriter wants to hear you didn’t like his new song), but I’ve found it quickly transforms into a team of like-minded people working together on their craft. Frankly, some of the best times of our lives have been when we’re a part of a team effort for a singular purpose.

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