CCM Coaching Tip #37: Quips, Comments, And Stories

by Tommy Kramer, KramerMedia.net

The primary ingredients of any really good talent in a music format are Quips, Comments, and Stories. A little more about each...

A quip: Years ago when did the morning show at KLTY in Dallas for a short time with the great Jon Rivers, he came out of a Gary Chapman song with "KLTY...with several nice, obligatory Li-Dee-Di's..." I answered "They ARE Li-Dee-Di's, aren't they?...and you know, there's a Li-Dee-Di shortage nowadays..." to which Jon responded with that big, warm chuckle of his. You kind of "had to be there", but it showed in just a few seconds that we were determined to have fun, and to not take ourselves too seriously.

A comment: a remark about something that may or may NOT be funny, but it is YOURS. Comments can't be in every single thing that you do, but there should be a healthy dose of them in each show. Friendships are formed through the exchange of opinions. If you don't HAVE any, we can't be friends.

A story: I think of stories as "little plays" about "adventures" we have. Note: Please avoid the "Christmas newsletter" mentality. Make sure that the listener CARES about the subject, or you're just a car going as fast as it can toward an oak tree.

These three things, along with the more "plain vanilla" Content - promoting things, sponsor liners, whatever - are pretty much all you're going to do, and they should be balanced. And remember, there's an art to making "plain vanilla" stuff stand out and be different from the last time you talked about it.

If you know what arrows you have in your quiver, you won't waste your time trying to use something else.