About two weeks to go, and I assumed that Bob Pittman’s infamous quote, “There’s not a spot for everyone,” would be the line that reflected the too often foul mood of particularly corporate radio in 2024. Then this week along comes Futuri’s CEO Daniel Anstandig with this one “(radio) embrace AI’s transformative potential or risk becoming irrelevant in a rapidly advancing media landscape.”
Stop the press! Just when I thought I was ready to react to that, I got a newsflash as Baltimore icon Laurie DeYoung announced iHeart is ending her show just short of its 40th anniversary as part of their ongoing cuts, allowing her a last regular show with days’ notice days before Christmas. Yes, Ms. DeYoung is receiving the grace of a public statement and final show (at a time of low risk for the company), and she says she’ll do a weekend show and events in 2025.
Could there be anything as indicative of the genocide of the radio industry by corporate radio as forcing the end of a show like the one DeYoung had hosted on WPOC (still a top station particularly Women 25-54)? If the financials are really poor, you sell the station van, cut the marketing budget, hustle the sales team, and even resort to cutting part-time hours, but you don’t abruptly kill a generationally popular content creator who is part of the fabric of the Baltimore market as crab cakes and expect some syndicated BS will do. They won’t be gone today or tomorrow, but in 8-12 months? You’ve tried to improve the quarter by killing the future.
But back to Daniel Anstandig. He wrote a piece on the importance of AI, how inconceivable it is that radio hasn’t fully embraced it as of yet, and how we aren’t all doing that very business with him.
Dan sanctioned his very own research study to create talking points, saying, “Most listeners already think radio is using AI. One out of five radio listeners said in our study that they already listen to a station that uses AI. And three out of four said that AI would improve the DJ content, music, weather, and service elements. I believe the audience generally considers the use of AI to be forward thinking”.
Wow! Dan got regular terrestrial radio users together, and they said, “the company that offers AI to radio, we must tell you, AI would improve the content on the radio.” That is world-class self-gratification.
Anstandig adds, “The best way to use AI? To create live and local content. A computer algorithm is not a living, breathing entity, so no, it’s not life, and it functions through the internet. It’s not local. But it’s here to help that big staff of DJs be live and local, NOT take jobs and duties away.”
No of course not!
Back to his study, “74% of respondents expressed comfort with AI voices in sports programming and 80% approving of their use in commercials.” Again, this is absurd. No focus group would ever be specific like that without receiving very directed, and leading questions. He ended by adding, “What is our industry going to do? Embrace AI to create a more dynamic and engaging experience. Or stand by and watch as audiences gravitate toward platforms that have more frequent and timely local content?”
Maybe our industry should take a hard look at how it operates and what matters financially to the product. There is a long list of professionals who are very much capable of not only creating timely local content but innovative content. They are people who can engage directly with others.
Dan stresses again, “Embrace AI’s transformative potential or risk becoming irrelevant in a rapidly advancing media landscape!”
Ok, Bob Pittman is off the hook for the most self-serving comment in radio for 2024. Happy holidays! Here’s to a prosperous new year that sees more local owner-operators and content creators embraced and rewarded for their talent and efforts. I’ll be here fighting the good fight with you.
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