I’m an optimist. I insist on it. I don’t like being sad or angry and I sure as heck have no right to inflict my pissy moods on you or anybody else. Nobody likes whiners.
It’s not easy being optimistic all the time, especially now. The pessimists of social and mainstream media are just waiting to dump a load of misery on us every morning.
I see a lot of this in our industry, too, especially from those who worry that Artificial Intelligence is going to end news, talk, and music radio as we’ve known it.
We need to step back and ask ourselves one question: would it really be a tragedy if radio as we know it were to change drastically?
No, far from it. It will be progress in every sense.
Everybody who’s worried about the end of radio is either currently or previously employed in the business. Nostalgia is a nice place to visit but you can’t live there. If you spend a lot of time grieving change you’re going to end up sitting on the porch watching life pass you by without bothering to wave.
Those of you still working in the business are rightly concerned about your future. You need to make plans. We graybeards on the outside looking in are saddened by the loss of our glory days, increasingly forgotten in a world reimagined.
If progress teaches us anything it’s to expect change. The only way to think outside of the box is to burn the box.
Radio as we know it can only target audiences with a shotgun. We can play music of a specific genre and aim talk topics and perspectives to specific demographics but there’s no way to be all things to anybody. You won’t like some of the songs I play or many of the topics I choose to discuss. AI radio will change that. Listeners will be able to choose the content they want to hear. We’ll all be able to make our own music playlists and select news subjects and discussions of topics of specific interests.
Choosing your music sounds something like Spotify, doesn’t it? Have you heard its AI DJ? Seriously, take a moment to read and hear Spotify’s AI deejay. It will give you an early sense of the future of radio. It’s available right now but it’s only the beginning.
Very soon you will be the programmer of your AI radio station. Who’s your deejay? You decide. You’ll select an entire lineup of jocks by dayparts if you like and they won’t all just be pretty voices created by AI. With legal approval, you might have voice-cloned radio Hall-of-Famers. Pick a celebrity, they’ll have their vocal likenesses signed into contracts.
Or, you can do mornings, yourself. You only have to allow the app to get a voice print. Oh, and don’t forget to program topics you’d like to hear on demand: Weather, for example. And traffic, of course, and local events. This is not only conceivable, it’s being developed right now.
News via AI seems like it would be complicated but omg, you’ll finally be able to hear a full spectrum of reports and views to give you a much deeper understanding of current events than we get with the limitations of radio and TV as we know it.
Pick a topic and learn to understand the difference between fact and biased implication. We’ll learn to explore our own beliefs. Once listeners get a taste of the big picture sneaky biases will be replaced by accurately labeled opinions and ignorant social media trolls will be kicked into the gutter. We’ll finally be able to discuss things nicely with a greater depth of knowledge.
Just imagine: personalized music, news, conversations, ideas, and thought-provoking philosophies will be yours for every mood and whim.
This isn’t going to be free, is it? Yes, or no. I expect we’ll have tiers of choice ranging from free with ads, to no commercials for a premium price.
But the original question still hasn’t been answered: would it really be a tragedy if news, talk, and music radio as we know it were to change drastically?
Tragedy? No. It will be bittersweet for those of us who love to remember our good old days but as listeners, it will be a nearly perfect experience. We’ll hear what we want to hear when and how we want to hear it.
We old farts will still miss the wacky deejay days but let’s be honest, those memories are more about a time in our lives than the spirited colorings of hit-and-miss deejay patter. And there’s no reason to assume that AI can’t provide personality as part of its content excellence.
Nor will live radio end altogether.
Live and local radio will survive in the world of AI information and entertainment because there will still be individual owner-operators who insist on it and will adapt their business models. The tall towers behind brick studios will be gone but live human content will be created and streamed from homes, cafes, and on the streets of Everytown, USA. It will remain a huge part of our social fabric.
After 54 years in the business, I still love driving back roads and searching “the dial” for small-town radio where I can hear local people talking about local things. Today in small towns I’m much more likely to hear the same syndicated shows airing in hundreds of markets than passionate beginners learning their craft.
Like many of you, I miss my good old days, too, but that’s how life works. We need to get off the porch and embrace progress.
Radio will never be what it once was, it never has been. It has always gotten better.
