Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #385 – Demo (Aircheck) Guidelines

Something I get asked about a lot is how you make a great demo aircheck.  Knowing how the people doing the hiring tend to listen to these, here are the best tips I can give you:

1. Put your best thing FIRST.  Don’t make me wait to get to it.  Hit me with something great right off the bat.

2. Show what you do well, then show another thing you do well.  An “A” side, and a “B” side.  If you don’t have both, you lack depth.

3. Three to five minutes is probably enough.  Even shorter can work.  I once got hired by a PD in Chicago after he only listened to ONE break on my aircheck.  If you’ve got that spark, it’ll show.  If they need to hear more, they’ll ask.

The good news is that we now have more ways than ever to share or display air work – we just send mp3s, or post the audio on a personal website or Sound Cloud. A friend of mine recently posted his stuff on YouTube.

Hope this helps.


Tommy Kramer

Tommy has spent over 35 years as an air talent, programmer, operations manager and talent coach - working with over 300 stations in all formats. He publishes the Coaching Tip

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