Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #282 – Your Show’s Dual Purpose

Your show, no matter what format you’re in, has a dual purpose:

First, to talk to the person who just tuned in; and second, to talk to the person who’s been listening to you for a few minutes.  Their needs are different.

If I hear two breaks in a row on the same subject (like a reset to get into a phone call), I don’t want to hear redundancy or repetitive wording, because that’s boring.

And if I only hear ONE break, you can’t just abruptly continue something you did in the previous break, because I DIDN’T hear that one.

So it’s all about the reset – specifically about the language you use.  You can’t just use the same “intro” you used the first time, or the listener who heard the previous break will just think you’re on autopilot.  And you should word it so NO prior knowledge is required for someone who just joined your show to understand what you’re talking about.

It’s an art, and one of the main things I work on with people I coach.  You’d be surprised how many people don’t even hear themselves blathering out the exact same setup in a follow-up break – or even worse, they DO hear it, but just take the easiest, most mindless road possible.  That’s a good way to lose listeners.

Frost Advisory #429 – The Less People Know, The More Stubbornly They Know It

Say it isn’t so!

My cousin, the brilliant surgeon, told me of the time that a hospital board member barged into the operating room during a gall bladder surgery and told him they should remove the patient’s kidney.  He had done the Google search, you see.

It’s a joke, of course, but…

“We would never consent to surgery from a surgeon who hadn’t been to medical school, and perhaps even more important, from one who who hadn’t kept up on the latest medical journals and training.  And yet there are people who take pride in doing their profession from a place of naïveté, unaware of or unfamiliar with the most important voices in their field.”

Seth Godin

Radio stations would simply be transformed if only those most qualified to make a decision in a certain area were the ones that actually made the decision.   

On next week’s show I’ll tell you the story of ‘666,’ introduce you to a man named Noel Burch, and invite you to play along.  That’s a tease, don’tcha know?

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #281 – Less is More, and More is Too Much

Note: This is a music radio tip, primarily.  However, there is an application to Talk radio that I’ll do in another tip someday.

It’s a terrible thing to say, but honestly, I’ll bet 90% of the breaks I hear are too long.  Sometimes just a word or two too long.  Sometimes an entire paragraph too long.  In severe cases, an entire additional Subject too long.

Who has time?

Continue reading

Frost Advisory #428 – A Cup Of Coffee And A Programming Lesson

If I were to eavesdrop on a programming conversation around the coffee machine at your station what would I likely hear?  Would it be about the music and deejays, the promotions and contests, and that complaint from that listener.  In other words, the things closest to you.  Like coffee.

While these elements are important to the station’s design and must be done well, they are not transformative.  Why?  Because those things are all about us.  And the closer things are to us the more important they seem.  To us.  Like coffee.

Continue reading

Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #280 – What You’d Say to Your Best Friend

The old saying is “Content is King.”  And there’s no doubt that Content HAS to be relevant and memorable to make people want to listen to you more today, or again tomorrow.

But Content isn’t “King,” PERFORMANCE is.  If you sound like a game show host, or have that “disc jockey delivery,” you’re becoming a Deejaysaurus Rex, an extinct species.

Continue reading