Frost Advisory #585 – Stuff That Really Matters: A Lesson We Can Learn From The World Series

It’s baseball’s biggest stage. These games mean it all. The dream of every kid who’s ever hit a baseball in his back yard. And yet, at this penultimate moment in a millionaire player’s career they are willing to stop the game. And hold a cheap handwritten cardboard sign.

What in the name of Abner Doubleday is going on here?

“Major League Baseball, Stand Up To Cancer and MasterCard conducted a special in-game moment, with players, umpires, coaches and fans all pausing to hold up placards with the names of loved ones affected by cancer.”

MLB.com
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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #438: How to do Weather

So let’s talk about the weather…

The typical scenario nowadays is to have some local TV weather person come on to “play” with the morning show and do the weather, or – even worse – to have someone from a weather service read the forecast in a boring monotone, with way too much information.  “Clear to partly cloudy today with a thirty percent chance of showers or thundershowers, and a high in the mid-fifties.  Southerly winds 8-10 miles per hour.  Then it’ll become mostly cloudy and windy overnight with a sixty percent chance of more precipitation, and a low around 32,” etc.  Ugh.

We should do the weather, but ultra-short-form.  “Some clouds today with a chance of rain.  High of 54.  Tonight, no rain, low near 32.” Continue reading

Frost Advisory #584 – It’s Not Going To Get Better Later

We’ve all done it.

Waiting through the first part of a boring movie. You hope it will get better.

Sitting down at a restaurant. The waiter is slow to come over. Minutes tick by without giving your drink order. You hope it will get better.

In a world of instant gratification, a better choice is only a push of a button, a click of a mouse, or an “Alexa” voice command away.

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Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #437: No News is Good News – and Here’s Why

We can probably all agree that ideally, everything you do on the air should play to a strength.  If not, it’s probably best to eliminate it.

I feel sorry for air talent with no training in News writing or delivery being forced to do headlines.

Really, except for All-News or NewsTalk stations, News – I’m talking about actually doing a newscast – seems kind of outdated, to me.  Not that many people come to a music station for News these days, because there are so many other sources to get it from.

Please understand that this shouldn’t mean that you ignore the News.  But what I’m recommending is that if there’s a significant story, you just do a break about it when you stop down, without the formality of a News structure.  It’s my opinion that we turn what’s likely to be a liability into a true strength this way.

Obviously, this is something that Programming has to okay.

We’ll address another so-called ‘service element’ – the Weather – in the next tip.

Frost Advisory #583 – People Love What Is Familiar And What Is Familiar Is What We Love

“Everyone’s favorite radio station is the station that plays their favorite music.”

I cleverly put this sentence in quotes because it is the first thing I say when talking to a new station. After more than two decades in our format I can honestly say that NO ONE understands this fully at the beginning of the journey. However, all understand it later. If they are successful.

Why does this matter?

It matters because people love what is familiar, and what is familiar is what we love. And we work in a format that plays mostly unfamiliar music to the very people we’re trying to attract.

A few weeks ago we went to our first live concert in more than two years. Gosh, it was fun to be experiencing live music again.

The group is from Russia. Most of them don’t speak a word of English. Over 2,000 people packed the auditorium to hear them… a group that had NEVER had a hit record and hardly spoke the language.

What’s the deal?

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