Revitalizing Radio: How AI Technology Could Transform The Future of Broadcasting

I had a history teacher who was fond of the expression: “those who do not learn from history are condemned to re-live it”. The phrase first appeared in 1905 in George Santayana’s work “The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress”. ?I am reminded of this phrase whenever I consider the rise of AI.

When it comes to AI and its impact upon the radio broadcast industry, I hear a lot of doomsayers predicting that it will destroy our medium. AI will replace real people. When I hear this, I wonder where these doomsayers have been.? That ship sailed a long time ago.? Most of the “real” people exited our industry a long time ago.

Trying to do more with less is the paradigm of the radio broadcast industry today. One of the biggest challenges for those of us left in the industry is how to create good radio while doing seven or eight different jobs.

Back when I was corporate PD for a small broadcast company with stations in 4 markets, I often laid awake at night trying to figure out how I could oversee and, in most cases, outright program, over a dozen station brands singlehandedly.? Conscientious programmers today know when it comes to serving listeners and advertisers, there are things that just can’t get done properly with the current lack of manpower.

Many of the good managers left in our industry understand that this is a factor that drives down listener satisfaction with our medium. The ability to be local and to provide what streamers cannot, local connections, is impacted by the utter lack of people power.

With that in mind, unlike the doomsayers of the world, I am viewing the rise of available AI technologies as an opportunity for radio. AI provides a lot of possibilities for our already depleted industry. Using AI as a tool, savvy broadcasters might be able to achieve better results with the smaller staff we have been burdened with.

In the hands of talented professionals, AI tools can help find and prep local content for on air and digital platforms and curate a killer social media strategy that adjusts in real time to ever-changing algorithm.? AI text-to-speech will get to the point where it can generate production voices that are indistinguishable from real people. ??

If you haven’t already, try out the limited AI speech-to-text features now being offered by Benztown and ReelWorld for listener sweeps and station testimonials.

Doomsayers are already lamenting the fact that AI-generated voices might be able to replace real dj’s. This is already being done with very limited results. Even here, I see the proper deployment of these AI technologies as an opportunity for radio, but with a caveat.

AI will always be challenged to replicate the emotional connections that can be achieved by human beings. Combining AI with direction from a human writer, editor, or producer, could deliver optimum results.? AI announcers would be like characters created for stage or television. Local human writers would edit and create content presented by the “AI talent” in a way that would be more lifelike and compelling than if generated by AI alone.

Think of the ways AI could be used to assist sellers in producing customized multi-media presentations faster for clients that utilize complicated sets of data points to help them deliver the optimum results.

I’m just spitballing here, but the essence of what I’m suggesting is: AI if used as a tool could be effective in assisting an already downsized radio industry to deliver a higher-quality product with limited resources. The ends justify the means.? ?If we can increase radio’s ability to do what it traditionally did with a cast of thousands utilizing AI as a tool, it could reinvigorate our industry.

I think there is a path to utilizing AI to create success and possibly even new jobs for our industry. While the doomsayers resist this technology and panic about its implications, successful professionals of the future are already using it to create exciting new paradigms.? Think of all the times successful entrepreneurs of the past utilized emerging new technologies to create amazing opportunities.

I’m again reminded of the words of George Santayana, when it comes to AI, learn from history or be condemned to relive it.