Talking to Phil Becker, Alpha Media’s Executive Vice President of Content, will leave you walking away believing that radio’s best days are still ahead.
Recently, when I was invited on a couple of radio podcasts, I was asked what I wanted most for radio. My answer then and always is, I want to see people take some chances.
Becker is someone who is willing to take those chances and is determined to build radio’s next era on creativity, connection, and community.
“I try to remember that great performers can’t be great at everything. So, one of the things I ask myself is, okay, what can I do that is a little bit different than what others do? And I kind of am fearless, Jeff, to be honest with you.”
That fearlessness is not just philosophy; it’s a practice Becker lives by in every decision.
“No one remembers the stuff you got wrong. So, you might as well try a bunch of stuff. If I do an idea and it doesn’t work, they don’t remember that. So why am I so afraid?”
Becker believes that fearlessness is how radio survives and doesn’t have an “always done it this way” bone in his body.
“No One Else Is Going to Show Up to Save Us”
Becker doesn’t wait for change to come from outside the industry.
“No one else is going to show up to save us. There’s no magic major corporation that’s going, hey, let’s go fix radio real quick. So, we that are in it need to be the ones that push it forward.”
That philosophy has fueled some of his boldest decisions: syndicating Brooke & Jubal before they became a national brand, debuting AI Ashley, and most recently, giving Greg Beharrell a professional comedy writer, voice actor, and evening host on Rocker 95.5 KLOS in Los Angeles, a role on Country station 98.7 The Bull in Portland.
“The last thing a 42-year-old woman did was wake up this morning and go, you know, I should find a new radio station. So I have to create those marketable moments to get people to want to come back to the medium.”
Rethinking the “Throw-In” Station
When a cluster has a station pulling a 0.5 share, sales teams often treat it as a “fries with that” product, adding it to bring down the cost per point. Becker doesn’t see it that way.
“Fear really dilutes the ability for someone to create. When I used to be a GM, I didn’t ask, ‘What should we do?’ or ‘What would you do?’ I’d ask, ‘What do you want to do?’ That’s where the passion fires. That’s where ideas come from. And when you do that, they get bought into the vision of the station, and that may actually fix the sales challenge.”
Becker acknowledges the structural challenges.
“We need to acknowledge that there are just too many FM and AM frequencies in the United States. You’re going to have that .5 station unless you actually do something super interesting.”
While cluster sales teams were designed to streamline by having one team sell all stations, he sees unintended consequences.
“When we moved to cluster sales teams as opposed to station sales teams, that might have hurt us a little bit. Because now you don’t have that cheerleader from that life group out exciting clients for that specific station. And we also tend to build radio stations for Nielsen performance as opposed to building them for passion.”
Becker shares an interesting thought regarding how sales entry-level should mirror the program director’s path to entry.
“When you’re aspiring to be a programmer, you start with a smaller market, a smaller-rated station. Shouldn’t it be that way with sales? You don’t hand a first-time PD a Z100 New York. Why do we hand it to them in sales?”
Betting on Funny: The Greg Beharrell Move
“Whenever I look at a station, I ask myself where are we strong and where are we deficient. On The Bull, Bobby Bones was the connection to Nashville and the artists. Jamie Tanchyk and now B-Dub were our local dayparts, so they were the community. But we didn’t have anything that was true entertainment value. We had Nashville, we had local, but we were missing the funny.”
That’s where Beharrell came in.
“Sure, we could try to write funny sweepers and promos. But what if we just had someone on the team who was genuinely funny? Greg is a professional comedy writer. He’s written sitcoms, TV monologues, voiced Super Bowl commercials, and he’s the voice of the Impossible Burger. Funny plays no matter what.”
Becker was impressed by Beharrell’s commitment.
“He went to CRS, every panel, every artist showcase, every consultant meeting. He was investing in his career to a level that most people don’t. He’s the quote-unquote rock guy who wants to grow his offerings. If he’s willing to put in this level of work, why am I not willing to take the chance?”
AI Ashley: The First Through the Wall
Of all Becker’s moves, none made a bigger splash than AI Ashley, the first artificial intelligence-powered radio host Alpha Media introduced in 2022.
“The first thing that worked was Ashley’s attitude, the company’s attitude, and the client’s attitude. We have a three-customer model: the listener, the advertiser, and the coworker. None of them had a problem with AI Ashley. In fact, the research said, ‘Oh, I thought you guys were already doing that.’ They’re surrounded by AI content in their lives.”
The backlash, Becker says, came mostly from within the industry. “Everyone thought it was going to be, ‘Here we go, AI is going to be doing all the air shifts everywhere.’ Well, that was two and a half years ago. We never put it on anywhere else. It wasn’t a cost-cutting thing. We still paid Ashley the same.”
Ironically, he argues, AI Ashley made radio more live. “I didn’t know what it was going to say until it said it, because it was pulling real-time information and content. Meanwhile, most of us voice-track hours or days in advance. My point was, we’re more live than we were before.”
Becker learned a valuable lesson.
“It’s a line from Moneyball: the first guy through the wall always gets bloodied. Caterpillars don’t speak butterfly language, but they eventually get there. Now there are half a dozen AI radio stations. Vendors are pitching 24/7 AI stations. We were right, and it aged well.”
Beyond Fear: Why Broadcasters Should Embrace AI
When asked why broadcasters shouldn’t fear AI, Becker points out they’re already using it.
“When you schedule a log and hit F10, that’s AI. When you let the playout system segue elements, that’s AI. When your Optimod evens out your volume levels, that’s AI. We’ve already been using it.”
“Where people got freaked out was, oh no, it sounds like a human. But it had already replaced the index cards in the recipe box. It already replaced the board operator. This is the same thing. It’s an evolution, not an elimination.”
He believes the industry’s history of broken promises, from local shows that became syndicated to live shows that became voice-tracked, has created distrust.
“Because the business has often not been forthright, I think that makes everyone afraid of AI. But I don’t think you need to be. This one is different.”
“It can help us create better marketing messages, reach people we couldn’t reach before, and write better commercials that get better results. It’s not here to eliminate us. It might become the thing that can save us.
AI’s Broadcast Future
“I think the AI will be on all formats. It will be used more than just for voice tracking. I think that you will get a situation where if you’re listening, now this is level 201 here, Jeff, but you asked me where I think it’s going.”
“I think when you listen on a smart speaker, you’re going to receive different ads than I’m going to receive. Because it now knows so many things about us. Think about it. We’ve been accepting cookies in our browsers for eight years every time we visit a website.”
“It’s going to give me a different ad experience than it’s going to give you. It’s going to give me a different musical experience than it’s going to give you. And it’s also going to give me different content. So if it has learned that I find this to be funny and you find that to be funny, it’s going to alter what it says. It’s still going to be under the wrapper of X radio station, but all of the elements will be customized to exactly who we are.”
Radio’s Most Overlooked Advantage
“I don’t believe the sky is falling. I just believe the color’s changing. Our upsides as a business are to fix unit loads, bring young people back by putting young people on the radio, and fix measurement. The next great morning show is probably a Twitch streamer. If I were a Hip Hop station, I’d be figuring out a way to get Kai Cenat to do my morning show.”
And he reminds broadcasters of radio’s greatest overlooked advantage: it’s free.
“Did a radio station ever charge your credit card? No. But Spotify, Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all do. Our overt benefit is that we’re free. Why are we not talking about that?”
Creativity, Connection, Community
For Becker, everything comes down to a simple framework.
“If you run any winning station through the filter of creativity, connection, and community, they do all three. If you look at an underperforming station, it’s missing one of the three, if not all three.”
“We have to be creative to get noticed, we have to make connections so people feel something, and we have to do it for the community we serve. If we do those three things, we’ll be just fine.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
