There are two things we do when first engaging with a new client:
- De-DJ the DJ. Take talent through steps to improve their transparency through “listener eye contact.” Create and deliver content conversationally, eliminating encumbrances that prevent a true connection between talent and the listener. This is harder to accomplish than one realizes.
- Fire prep services. We find when talent develops their own content, emotional equity is higher and talent “owns” their breaks. Another impediment prep services create is hearing the same content across markets and across America. Our Barrett Media colleague Jim Ryan wrote about this two weeks ago. You’ll end up with the same content as your competition.
This brings us to the question for our talent and ensemble shows: How do you sound more connected and more entertaining in an audio world where listeners have unlimited choices? The answer – ironically – sits in the same machine where you get your prep service.
Artificial Intelligence.
A.I. tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are becoming powerful prep partners for radio personalities and programmers. They are not replacements. They are not a magic wand. These tools help talent move faster while allowing more time to work on their “listener eye contact.”
But – wait a second. Isn’t A.I. bad? Won’t this sterilize content production and homogenize the radio experience?
Many people in the news – including this writer – were initially skeptical, cautious, and openly critical of A.I. Not anymore. Here are a few examples of high-profile people who initially warned us about the dangers of A.I. and now actively use, discuss, or promote it in their work:
Glenn Beck
We interviewed Glenn on this subject over the winter. Glenn spent years warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence, often comparing unchecked A.I. to a societal or even spiritual threat. In 2023, he released content warning that A.I. could become “apocalyptic.”
More recently, however, Beck has embraced A.I. as a tool for education and media, including creating an A.I.-powered “George Washington” project. He’s also using A.I. to write a Christmas album with his daughter.
Elon Musk
Musk famously warned that A.I. was “more dangerous than nukes” and repeatedly called for regulatory pauses. At the same time, he helped found OpenAI and later launched xAI and the Grok chatbot platform. Today, Musk is one of the most aggressive public advocates for rapid A.I. development.
Bill Gates
Gates initially expressed concern that A.I. could eliminate jobs while creating social disruption. However, over the past 24 months, Gates has become one of A.I.’s biggest evangelists. He says A.I. will transform medicine, education, and office work in ways comparable to the internet explosion.
The loudest critics have moved from saying, “this is dangerous and should stop,” to “this is dangerous, powerful, and unavoidable, but we better learn how to use it wisely.”
My personal experience
Is that A.I. – across all platforms – “crawls” deeper than Bing or even Google. One small example came while researching Christmas programming for a 2025 Barrett Media piece. Google told me a St. Louis radio station was the first to go all-Christmas. A Bing search revealed it was a small-market station in the 1990s. In reality, it was a Phoenix AM station that played all Christmas music in 1989. A.I. discovered that.
One of the biggest misconceptions about A.I. and radio is that its use somehow removes creativity. The uses are endless, and your talent most likely is already using one of the major A.I. platforms. Here are a few obvious examples:
- A.I. generates conversation starters tied to culture and your local market.
• A morning show can ask Claude, “Give me five funny discussion topics about graduation season.” In seconds, talent has material to build phone topics, text interaction, and audience engagement.
- A.I. helps personalities create artist and music content.
We find listeners love stories and trivia about songs and artists. Songfacts.com is a great tool for this. A much better tool is A.I. ChatGPT quickly summarizes artist interviews from multiple outlets, identifies new music releases, and gathers touring information. Our stations use it for promotional content when writing for “Taste of Country” and “Backstage Country.”
- A.I. aids in creating promotional and imaging ideas.
Promotions departments are stretched thin. A.I. rapidly generates contest concepts, benchmark ideas, and promotional hooks.
Radio personalities are time-starved – juggling multiple responsibilities. Talent post social media content, record daily promos, edit show audio, make appearances, reply to texts, and voice-track multiple shifts. The time available for true show prep has shrunk dramatically.
A.I. can become a tremendous advantage.
When Barrett Media began building this platform beyond Sports to include News and Music, Jason told his writers, “No A.I.” We agreed. Using it as a tool to build content for you is powerful. Today, it is a different world entirely.
Great audio content is built on connection and reliability. No machine can truly replicate that. If A.I. can help talent spend less time searching for content ideas and more time delivering connected content, then music radio may have found its most useful new tool.
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Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
