Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #688: Modern so-called “Positioning” – and What That Means to Coaching

One of the things that makes it hard to coach people is when their whole on-air position is just a catch phrase. A TV station in my hometown uses “On Your Side” as its ‘positioning’ statement. It’s in all their stupid promos. But it’s meaningless.

“On my side” for what? A lawsuit? A basketball game at the gym? A street fight? My political affiliation? My battle with every restaurant to not put onions or garlic in my food?

Their “position” is actually prone (as in “lying face downward” or “lying flat,” according to the dictionary).

Radio stations are plagued with “Positioning” about things that people don’t really care about anymore. Take music, for example. Those old, outdated claims — “The Best Music, or “The Greatest Hits of the 80s, [song clip] 90s [song clip], and Today [song clip]” (also still used on a station here). So silly. Music is everywhere, people. Sirius/XM, iTunes, Amazon Prime, Spotify, etc. etc.

What’s unique about you, and why does that matter to me? The relevance ship seems to have sailed.

Hint: What do people think about you that’s positive? THAT’s what you should Position.* THEN, it’s valuable to have some coaching on how to live up to that on the air.

*(You might want to do some research, instead of just making something up.)

– – – – – – –
Tommy Kramer
Talent Coach
214-632-3090 (mobile)
e-mail: coachtommykramer@gmail.com
Member, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
© 2026 by Tommy Kramer. All rights reserved.

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #832 – Just Take It Away

When the great artist and sculptor Michelangelo was asked how he created his famous 17-foot-tall statue of David he responded, “It was easy. I just took away everything that didn’t look like David.”

That profound simplicity could be a nifty way to approach fine tuning your radio station.

If people come to your station to be encouraged just take away the stuff that doesn’t do that.

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Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #687: Presence

When I listen to the radio, the first thing is – I want to feel a human being there. Not just some quacky-voiced announcer who’s sitting there playing Wordle on their iPhone during the songs. And certainly not someone in the Talk arena who sounds like their every remark is prepared. (BE prepared, but don’t sound too prepared.)

It’s bad enough these days with robotic-sounding voice-trackers and AI voiceovers all over the place. I miss presence.

Relate. Be unique. As I always say, “Crack your chest open and show us what’s in there.”

Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #831 – Sure, Your Station Says It, But Do You Promise?

It all started with a spam call. At least I thought it was.

“I’m reaching out because as a part of our brand promise we mentioned that we would contact you anytime we saw an opportunity to further improve on your overall finances…”

That one line helped change my perspective. It wasn’t a spam call at all. I realized that I had an existing relationship with this company, and they were attempting to fulfill a “brand promise” they had made to me.

Key points:

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Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #686: The Filter

A foundational tip of mine is: Never assume that people want to hear what you have to say.

You have to earn the listener’s attention every time you open the mic – even if you’re just doing something simple like intro’ing a song (in a music format), or adding “colorful” details to a story (in any format). Your “interesting sidebar” may indeed add something – but not always.

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Tommy Kramer Tip

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #684: Give the People What They Want — Really?

There’s an old saying, “Give the people what they want.” That was the gospel.

But Volkswagon didn’t agree. People were driving huge cars when the original Beetle came out – but then millions and millions of VW Beetles were sold.

George Lucas didn’t. The sci-fi genre was pretty sparse when “Star Wars” came out. Hollywood moguls said people didn’t want that. They were, uh…wrong.

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Frost Advisory

Frost Advisory #828 – Unfortunately, And Fortunately

Unfortunately, ours is a format where most people in our town don’t know the music nor have a favorite song. That’s a real dilemma since the foundation of every successful music format is hits and stars.

Fortunately, the music in our format can be life transforming. Every listener has a story. Every person at your radio station has a story. And there is no such thing as an unfamiliar story if it gives perspective that God is in our story.

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