Radio World Ebook 0062 - Feb 2024 by Future PLC

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

New tools are bringing awesome but disconcerting capabilities. How will the industry respond?

ENCO • Futuri • Radio.Cloud • RCS Waymark • WorldCast Systems

by FEBRUARY 2024

AI and broadcasting: Behold the potential

Can the technology possibly live up to its hype? Would it be a good thing for radio?

Writer

Randy J. Stine

Many radio people believe generative AI will have a transformative influence on the broadcast industry in an increasingly digital and data-driven world. The National Association of Broadcasters calls AI the “newest tech superpower,” and many radio broadcasters are eager to explore AI while remaining wary of potential pitfalls.

Just how impactful might generative AI be on the radio industry? Bob Kernan, COO of jācapps, the mobile app development company, channels his inner Oppenheimer, likening AI to splitting the atom: “You can create enormous energy, or you can blow stuff up.”

Look for more AI to be plugged into multiple radio stacks. Disruptive tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT have made waves in creative industries including radio. Broadcasters are gaining a better understanding of applications: spec spots in minutes, smoother automation, synthetic voices, creation of copy, improved operational efficiencies, deeper

brainstorming capabilities and inventive new experiences for listeners.

But the radio industry is also asking itself a lot of questions such as the possible impact on jobs, how to protect copyrighted material and whether to identify generative AI content on the air. Many executives agree that radio needs some guardrails and guiding principles; but what does that landscape look like, and does it involve some level of regulation?

There also are ethical implications to using the technology, and broadcasters are considering the ramifications. Deepfakes like the AI-generated explicit images purporting to be of Taylor Swift involve visuals but raise concerns among people who work in audio as well. Many experts believe abusive uses of AI will only grow worse.

Broadcast CEOs and radio programmers talked to Radio World about how the industry is evaluating AI and the next steps some are taking to adopt it.

In January NAB

President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law about AI oversight. He’s shaking hands with Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

4 Artificial Intelligence in Radio radioworld.com | February 2024

Radio World’s lead news contributor

Promise of transformation

Caroline Beasley, CEO of Bealey Media Group, said AI has the potential to be a game-changer in the broadcast industry. She said AI can help to personalize content, automate repetitive tasks and improve the overall quality of content and sales presentations as well as assist broadcasters in identifying new revenue streams and monetizing their content more effectively.

“The excitement around this technology stems from its ability to transform the industry and create new opportunities and efficiencies for broadcasters,” Beasley said.

Beasley Media has been working with Waymark to roll out the company’s generative AI technology to generate video for advertisers. It also is testing and considering Futuri’s Audio AI and Benztown’s Spec AI for the creation of spec radio spots, production and other on-air content. In addition, it is using AI plugins to assist with its digital content operations, she said.

“AI also can help the sales process by identifying new customers, improving outreach, customizing sales decks and increasing our speed to market,” she said.

The company, which owns 61 radio stations in mostly large and medium markets, is still developing policies to manage AI, Beasley said.

Audacy officials confirmed to Radio World “there is

“The excitement around this technology stems from its ability to transform the industry and create new opportunities and efficiencies for broadcasters. ”

experimentation and discovery happening with AI” at the company, but said its long-term game plan is still evolving.

Jeff Sottolano, EVP of programming for Audacy, said undoubtedly there will be applications for AI that haven’t even been considered yet.

“That will be determined through democratizing access to these tools. Cultivating an environment where people feel excited about the possibility, rather than threatened by the future, will be crucial to discovering the applications we haven’t even begun to think about.”

Jeff Sottolano

radioworld.com | February 2024 Artificial Intelligence in Radio

Below Caroline Beasley and

“AI isn’t a gadget or an exhibit. It’s part of the oxygen, the foundation of so much technology today. ”

Lew Dickey and Buzz Knight

He said AI is already being integrated into many of Audacy’s tools such as Salesforce and its music scheduling platform.

“Ultimately, I think for us it’s more about how we can leverage AI to make our creators’ lives easier so they can continue to deliver more of the premium audio content our consumers love and expect,” he said.

Lew Dickey, chairman of Modern Luxury Media, expects generative AI to have a profound impact on media over the next 10 years.

“It will be a transformative technology. The greatest since the advent of the internet,” said Dickey, the co-founder and former CEO of Cumulus Media.

He believes AI has the potential to increase productivity meaningfully across most if not all functional areas of the business, including content, sales, marketing, finance, traffic, technical and administrative.

“For media companies, AI will help create a closer relationship with audiences through more relevant content and more frequent touchpoints,” he said.

“Importantly, it will also speed the shift towards the modern media model, which emphasizes content to commerce as brands increasingly look for the media spend to activate consumers.”

The speed and efficacy of this transition will depend upon the amount of resources dedicated to application development by both media companies and third-party developers, in his view.

“Media organizations will need to evolve with technology in order to remain competitive,” Dickey said. He also expects many legacy broadcast positions will become obsolete while new jobs will be created to manage and optimize the potential of the new applications.

However, while media companies should understand and embrace this transformative technology, “I would advise caution and prudence, as the earliest adopters often bear the brunt of the pain as the various use-cases are proven out.”

The radio industry doesn’t have to look far to find

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Above

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

competitors embracing AI. Spotify quickly jumped into the world of AI last year by rolling out a generative AI radio DJ, and SiriusXM this winter launched an AI-generated co-host for a show hosted by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.

Podcasting and “backend” tasks

Several experts told us they expect AI technology to be a major time-saver for broadcasters. They imagine AI taking a radio station’s on-air content, like a morning show, and quickly creating podcasts and other online audio material for websites.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group, said the audio company is looking to use AI to translate, transcribe and voice content for its podcast archives. It’s currently testing the technology.

He said iHeartMedia, the largest podcast publisher,

expects to roll out the AI technology in the second half of 2024. “It’s not just a meaningful way for the creators to be able to access audiences in the language they want, but also to actually build businesses in those territories,” Byrne told the magazine.

Townsquare Media CEO Bill Wilson told the website Channelchek last year that the company was already using AI for backend engineering and technology tasks. At the time Wilson said Townsquare was also using it for writing computer code.

“This is the area I’m most excited about,” he told Channelchek. “AI is on everyone’s mind. The implications are still not well known, but I look for this is going to be like the industrial revolution. This is going to be such a dramatic change for all businesses. Really profound.

“For Townsquare, I have no doubt that it’s going to create scalability, efficiency and so many opportunities for us to

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Above Fred Jacobs, left, with legendary Philadelphia broadcaster Jerry Lee.

continue our digital growth and transformation,” Wilson said in the interview.

The use of artificial intelligence for products, services and innovations is certainly sparking policy discussion at radio companies across the United States.

In Washington, several bills in Congress would put limits on AI and ultimately affect radio, including placing restrictions on using AI and deepfake technology to create political ads that could mislead listeners.

Experts say there also are legal questions galore about who owns what when it comes to content created by generative AI, and how broadcasters will protect their own content, much of which will likely be settled in the courts.

NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt, testifying in January on Capitol Hill, said he worries about radio and TV personalities having their credibility undermined by rogue AI that manipulates their likeness or voice. Yet he understands how AI has captivated the industry.

LeGeyt, addressing the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, said AI’s potential, including its impact on broadcasters, is just starting to be recognized, including in newsrooms.

“(AI) can help a radio newsroom generate better stories to serve diverse audiences,” LeGeyt said. Yet “the rising prevalence of deepfakes make it increasingly burdensome for both our newsrooms and users to identify and

distinguish legitimate, copyrighted broadcast content, from the unvetted and potentially inaccurate content being generated by AI.”

The second inning

Transparency is another question mark for the industry. To what lengths should broadcasters go to know let listeners know the difference between generative AI and the human self?

“I worry broadcasters will be eager to use AI voiceover in radio, for commercials and imaging, but will broadcasters try to fool listeners or be forthcoming about how they use artificial intelligence? Ultimately, the FCC may have to weigh in on this,” said Fred Jacobs, president of Jacobs Media.

He said some radio companies will likely avoid the use of AI until much of this is sorted out.

“That may prove to be a mistake if they don’t make it a point to use this moment as an opportunity to learn and test drive the technology. It is simply unacceptable for broadcasters to get caught flat-footed by AI, or late to the party,” Jacobs said.

Given that it’s just the “second inning” for AI, according to Jacobs, the industry hasn’t witnessed anything near its full capabilities.

“Radio is going to have to innovate to remain competitive, but it’s essential broadcasters don’t just

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Below Will Payne and Sam Matheny

“The litmus test will be whether AI simply results in job losses and cutbacks or true innovation. ”

jump into the fray without a better understanding of what they’re getting themselves into. And I can’t stress this enough. Radio broadcasters will need to train staff on how to use it.”

Jacobs said he explains AI’s presence this way: “How and where (AI) shows up can be illusory. It’s hard to see sometimes. As attendees at CES the last few years know, AI isn’t a gadget or an exhibit. It’s part of the oxygen, the foundation of so much technology today, whether it’s on the content or marketing fronts. It’s going to be in the DNA of many products and services going forward.”

AI advocates see quickly expanding AI opportunities for radio, similar to efforts by Alpha Media in Portland, Ore., which launched AI Ashley, an artificially cloned voice, on KBFF(FM).

Despite high-profile applications like that KBFF experiment, AI mostly is expected to allow broadcasters to increase productivity and possibly cut costs.

“It’ll cut through much of the drudge radio work we see today,” one expert told Radio World. “The litmus test will be whether AI simply results in job losses and cutbacks or true innovation.”

Talk with your audience

According to a survey by McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting company, businesses that strategically implement artificial intelligence can experience a 20% increase in operational efficiency and a 10 to 15% reduction in overall costs. Furthermore, companies leveraging AI for customer insights and personalization have witnessed a 25 to 30% improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Buzz Knight, president of Buzz Knight Media and former programmer at Greater Media, said AI will help broadcasters enhance their operations, improve content creation and optimize audience engagement.

The consultant sees uses for AI in quality control, predictive analytics, audience analytics and even chatbots online.

“Radio stations could implement AI-powered chatbots on websites or on social media platforms for immediate listener interaction. These chatbots can answer questions, provide information regarding upcoming shows, and even take song

requests. They would enhance engagement and provide a 24/7 point of contact for listeners,” he said.

Knight cautions broadcasters to embrace a guiding principle of maintaining “a human touch to ensure quality is at its highest level.” He suggests radio broadcasters move forward with AI by taking a “beginner’s mindset as you would when you have a new tool in the toolbox.”

Small-market radio broadcasters, too, are excited about AI’s potential. Some think generative AI could help level the playing field for smaller broadcasters and advertisers who may not have all the resources as bigger companies.

Will Payne, president of Payne Media Group, believes his seven FM stations in eastern Oklahoma will be able to offer goods and services more quickly thanks to AI.

“If I can get bullet points from a client, I can throw it into the program and get the beginnings of a script. Usually it’s pretty good already, but then we customize it a bit to the client. This is especially helpful to young AEs who can take spec spots to clients,” Payne said.

The company is using AI to help create scripts via ChatGPT and is considering the generative voice aspects.

“I’m very curious and continue to look at it. Imagine if you could choose from some good voices and create the commercial. You then have a pretty good commercial to start with. Better than you would without using AI. I think we will pick something like that up eventually,” Payne said.

There are experts who say AI is being overhyped, much like the metaverse was several years ago. Technological research and consulting firm Gartner ranked generative AI high on its “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies” list last year. Others say the true value of AI will take years to play out.

Sam Matheny, EVP and chief technology officer for NAB, said research suggests the real benefits of generative AI will come in roughly five years. Meanwhile, he said, we are about to enter a challenging period where businesses might become disillusioned with the realities of trying to implement the new technology.

“I offer this perspective because while I believe in the promise of AI, I also think it has become so broadly used as a marketing term that broadcasters, and other stakeholders at large, should be thoughtful in how they approach it,” Matheny said.

Generative and other forms of AI are expected to have an outsized presence at the NAB Show in April. In fact, this year’s Broadcast Engineering & Information Technology Conference will feature 10 presentations and three panels on AI. NAB is also partnering with Future Media Concepts to host a series of AI workshops with certifications at the convention. In addition, show planners are adding exhibit space in the South Upper and South Lower halls for their “Create” pillar, which will include many exhibits with AI baked in. A new Creator Lab will include sessions on the role of AI in the production workflow and other aspects of this technology.

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These tools will only improve over time

Scaglione: AI improves workflows and serves stations in off-hours

Radio.Cloud is the developer of a cloud-native automation system and a certified partner of Amazon Web Services.

Account Director Andrew Scaglione joined the company in 2022; he is former director of affiliate operations for G Networks/Gen Media Partners and also worked in affiliate relations for Envision Networks/Sun Broadcast Group.

What do you consider the most important trend in how artificial intelligence technology is being used in radio broadcasting and audio applications?

Andrew Scaglione: The ongoing development of large language models has been game-changing for artificial

intelligence in the scope of radio production and broadcasting. In the simplest version, AI can be used for inspiration. It’s a starting point for talent to generate ideas for on-air shifts and more. When you dive deeper and combine LLMs with generative and cloned voice technology, you’ll see that AI voice tracking has improved greatly over the last 12 months.

Describe the technical use of AI in your products or software.

Scaglione: With the industry-wide lack of on-air talent for night shifts and weekends, we incorporated artificial intelligence into the Radio.Cloud automation software in several different ways to solve this issue.

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Above Andrew Scaglione

The most notable is our AI voice tracking feature Voicetrack.ai. This allows radio stations to pick a voice (cloned or AI-generated), choose topics like music, news, weather, etc., and save voice track presets in their hourly clocks. Based on these presets and our complex prompt engineering, we automatically generate AI voice tracks each day when the playlist is created. Because we’re adding more prompts every week, this technology can even be used to run a fully automated 24/7 station. Best of all, each voice track is set on the ramp/intro of the upcoming song.

How widely will radio broadcasters deploy AI to replace live talent?

Scaglione: We do not see AI replacing live talent in radio. We view AI as a tremendous tool to help improve the dayto-day workflow of hosts, programmers and other radio station employees. And where AI’s true benefit comes into play is keeping local news and the station image front and center in off hours when no one is staffing the station in-person, such as night shifts, overnight shifts and weekend shifts.

What responsibility does a broadcaster have to inform its listeners that AI-based technology is being used on the air?

Scaglione: Some AI technology has been in use for years in radio. For example, we use artificial intelligence to mix and segue between songs on our client’s playlists. In instances like this where AI is streamlining technical operations, I don’t believe it’s necessary to announce that to your listeners.

In generative AI/voice content instances, I think each broadcaster should deliver some kind of announcement that at least part of the program is produced using AI. Trusting your local media is more important than ever. Playing off AI voice tracks like humans is deceptive, but telling your audience this in advance gives them the information needed.

Somewhere in the middle of those two examples lies another great usage for AI: producing local tags or short local imaging reads for network or syndicated content. With where we are currently as an industry, even if there’s just a few 2–3 second reads that are produced with a cloned version of the host’s voice I think it’s vital to announce that to listeners.

How will the development of generative AI tools change how radio managers and employees do their jobs?

Scaglione: This allows managers and employees to be more creative both in how they use AI and in how they choose to incorporate it into their on-air product. As AI develops, having “Ask ChatGPT” or “What Would AI Do” type segments for morning shows is a fun way to tell your listeners that you’re aware of AI and keeping up on trends. It’s also a great tool for generating ideas to then mold into your own for on-air content.

The other side to generative AI is using AI voice tracks and content in a specific daypart where no on-air talent is available or hard to attract. This is another tool in the toolbox for managers to decide where best to employ it. Ideally, to enhance the product and promote the current hosts.

Is the potential impact of AI in radio being overstated?

Scaglione: Absolutely not. We’re so early in the AI game that I don’t think any of us can anticipate exactly what the industry will look like in five or 10 years. But we know that AI is only going to impact radio more. There are tools already available to streamline radio sales and marketing insights, tools to create and produce custom content with a few clicks, voice cloning tools and much more. The key to keep in mind is that while some of these tools are already great, they’ll only improve over time.

Give an example of a broadcaster using your AI-based tools.

Scaglione: One of our German customers, Radio Galaxy, recently launched a completely AI-generated one-hour weekend chart show on 12 stations. All affiliates have their own localized version of the show including different music depending on what’s trending on the Spotify, Shazam and Apple Music charts for specific regions or cities. We take the main list of songs from the local music director or program director, then use AI to fill in the gaps each week depending on the charts. The AI host even does a recap of the top three songs at the end of the show in an automated hook promo format.

“We’re so early in the AI game that I don’t think any of us can anticipate exactly what the industry will look like in five or 10 years.

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AI is saving money for transmitter users

Optimized power consumption generates multiple benefits

Above David Houzé

In 2018 WorldCast Systems released its first technology with artificial intelligence for FM transmitters, SmartFM, to optimize RF power based on the audio content, in real time. The company says benefits include lower power costs, reduced cooling, less maintenance, longer transmitter life and a smaller carbon footprint.

David Houzé is a product manager for WorldCast.

In this ebook we’re asking our experts and sponsors to identify the most important recent or current trend in how artificial intelligence is being used in radio and audio.

David Houzé: We are still at the beginning of artificial intelligence in radio broadcasting but the trendiest use of AI is mainly in the studio and concerns the script generation for shows, news or weather reports.

In our daily life, most of us already use ChatGPT and other alternatives to simplify content creation based on ideas. It is logical to reproduce this new use at the job. I do like the fact that radio organizations tend to automate time-consuming tasks to focus on their core activities. We will see more and more AI in the studio with playlists being automatically generated based on music trends, speech transcriptions for articles, as well as script generation and so forth.

On the transmission side of things, which is where WorldCast steps into the picture, there are also AI innovations broadcasters can turn to.

How does the AI work in your products?

Houzé: Technically speaking, the AI integrated into SmartFM has been trained with power correction based on psycho-acoustic models tested across listeners’ panels. These models have been regularly updated based on data collected on the field. The technology is integrated into our Ecreso transmitters and is also available for other FM transmitter manufacturers looking to improve their transmitter TCO or total cost of ownership.

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The deployment of transmitters by Uplink Network in Germany is massive and described in the next article in this ebook. But what’s the most important thing a radio technologist should know about it?

Houzé: The most important advantage is the energy saved with our transmitter.

Most of the FM transmitters on the market, including Ecreso transmitters, have an efficiency of 72% to 76%. With SmartFM technology, the energy consumption can be reduced by up to 40%.

As an example, the consumption for a 74% efficiency transmitter running at 10 kW is around 119 kWh per year. With SmartFM, the figure drops down to 70 kWh per year, resulting in energy cost reduction.

Are there other notable installations of SmartFM?

Houzé: Apart from Uplink and the German market, SmartFM is being significantly deployed in Morocco, with some recent customers with 50+ transmitters from 1 kW to 5 kW. Their electricity costs are being drastically reduced with the activation of SmartFM. Of course, there are also

deployments in other parts of the world, but these are the two most notable.

Who developed SmartFM? How did it come about?

Houzé: The idea of SmartFM was invented by Daniel Werbrouck, the former president of Audemat, now advisor at WorldCast Systems. He began by analyzing the propagation of audio on FM carriers, then studied the perfomance of FM receivers, transmitters and more globally the complete chain.

His in-depth knowledge of FM broadcast over the last 30 years enabled him to think about a disruptive approach to solve an unsolved problem: how to increase the transmitter efficiency while we have almost reached the limitations of hardware.

Then our R&D team at WorldCast transformed the idea into psychoacoustic and RF studies, then mathematical modelling.

In what other areas of the radio technical airchain might AI be deployed in the future?

Houzé: One area of interest for WorldCast is the fault detection and automatic correction on any equipment of the chain.

Radio tends to limit its investment in maintenance and human resources. Our monitoring tools collect many key information parameters about the equipment’s health. It will be interesting to get, via artificial intelligence, automatic health reports with maintenance recommendations as well as automatic configuration adjustments based on the broadcasting condition.

Over the last decade, we have been gathering millions of pieces of data on our FM transmitter range, with more than 15,000 products deployed over the world. All of this information has enabled us to identify points for reliability improvements but also create a first step in the development of a maintenance algorithm that can be embedded in the equipment itself as well as in the monitoring equipment. We hope to have more information to communicate around this in the future.

How will the development of generative AI tools change how radio managers and employees do their jobs?

Houzé: I am not the best person to answer this as I mainly focus on the broadcast transmission side and not the generation of content. However, generative AI is an evolution affecting what radio organizations do. I am sure it will facilitate the creation of articles, podcasts and program schedules, and AI will be an assistant to radio employees who will be able to focus on their core activity instead of administrative tasks such as reporting or generating texts.

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Below David Houzé and colleague Hartmut Foerster visit an STL site of telecommunications firm Tusass, the national operator for radio and TV in Greenland.

Uplink Network embraces SmartFM

The company has now installed almost 1,000 transmitters with the technology

WorldCast Systems has said that a massive implementation of its SmartFM technology in Germany by Uplink Network GmbH — now approaching 1,000 transmitters — is “a major step towards the decarbonization of FM broadcast in Germany.”

The manufacturer says its AI-based SmartFM technology enables broadcasters that use its Ecreso transmitters to reduce energy consumption by up to 40%. A 10 kW FM using an Ecreso transmitter with SmartFM could save 824 MWh over 10 years compared to an older transmitter with 55% efficiency.

The tool predicts human perception of audio quality at the limit of coverage and depending on content characteristics. According to WorldCast, after a psychoanalysis algorithm qualifies the robustness of audio content to perturbations, SmartFM dynamically changes the RF output power in relation to broadcast content.

Radio World asked Michael Radomski, CEO of Uplink Group, about the large project.

What stations are served by this rollout?

Michael Radomski: Uplink Group is the market leader for FM broadcasting in Germany and supplies about 50% of the private and a large portion of the public broadcasters. We operate almost 900 FM frequencies at approximately 600 locations; among them are all large radio towers in Germany, e.g. in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf etc.

We run those FM frequencies exclusively with transmitters from French producer WorldCast Systems, ranging from 100 to 10,000 watts transmission energy. They serve private radio groups such as Regiocast Group, TopRadio Group, Hit Radio FFH, Radio NRW, ATSW Group, Metropol FM, Schlager Radio and others, as well as public radio entities like DeutschlandRadio, NDR-MV, RBB, SR, WDR and Thüringer Landesmedienanstalt.

How did it come about?

Radomski: WorldCast Systems had said that Uplink would see significant energy savings through a chargeable software update to its modern FM transmitters called SmartFM. The specialists at Uplink initially were skeptical,

since a reduction in transmission energy always has an impact on transmission quality.

We held long discussions and conducted many laboratory tests and later extensive field tests. After that there were some improvements to the software for the special regulatory requirements of the German market and of course deep commercial considerations.

At the end it became obvious that SmartFM is a real game-changer in broadcasting. Understanding this, Uplink then took on the task of convincing its customers in Germany of the advantages of SmartFM.

When was this work done?

Radomski: Uplink started an extensive and technically detailed test phase with public service customer DeutschlandRadio — in the end, representing a total of 220 FM frequencies — in July 2020. In October 2021, the

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Below Installation crew at work.

gradual conversion of other customers was started. Today most customers in Germany have switched.

Who led the technical project and who else was involved?

Radomski: On the market side, Thomas Weiner, the COO of the Uplink Group, and his team laid the foundations for the introduction of SmartFM in Germany. On the WorldCast Systems side, the key people were Gregory Mercier Diaz, the director of product marketing and pre/ post sales support, and Christophe Poulain, co-president of WorldCast Group.

Uplink established the SmartFM project in Germany as one of the first transmitter network operators worldwide. This would not have been possible without a trustful and multi-stage cooperation between Uplink and WorldCast. At the end, strong reservations of the customers and national peculiarities in regulation had to be solved together. It was a highly time-consuming process.

What would a fellow radio manager find most interesting about this?

Radomski: SmartFM offers transmitters from WorldCast Systems the possibility of subsequent optimization of energy consumption. This optimization is carried out purely on the software side and without any modifications to the hardware. The use of SmartFM significantly reduces energy consumption while maintaining the same transmission quality. Energy costs and the CO2 footprint for broadcasting are significantly reduced. The return on investment for using SmartFM is easy to calculate, with the amount also depending on national regulations, the transmission power and the type of program content.

What particular problems or challenges had to be overcome?

Radomski: The core challenge was to convince our customers that SmartFM does not entail a loss of quality. It was expected that a reduction in transmission power would automatically result in a reduction in range and quality. In the end, we were only able to provide proof to the contrary through a large-scale field test with many complex measurements. After that, the willingness of our customers to use SmartFM became very good.

In addition, the technical requirements for FM operation in Germany are particularly high by the supervisory authority, the Bundesnetzagentur, compared to those in other European countries, e.g. the multiplex power limit in Germany is 0.0 dBr. Since SmartFM has a particularly strong effect in this technical area, the average savings potential in Germany is lower than elsewhere.

One of the most interesting aspects of SmartFM is that the integration of this function is completely softwarebased. No hardware changes or work are required for the tremendous savings achieved with this feature. The necessary software updates can be carried out remotely via online access.

What else should we know about the project?

Weiner: We would particularly like to emphasize the good cooperation between the Uplink Group and WorldCast Systems.

To date, about 1,000 transmitters with spare parts and more than 1,000 other components have been delivered to us. In such a close partnership there are always unexpected challenges. We would therefore particularly like to recognize the willingness of WorldCast Systems and the management to always find a constructive solution to problems and obstacles.

In addition, the SmartFM function shows how an entire fleet of transmitters can be subsequently expanded with useful functions through software updates. In this sense WorldCast is on a par with electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, which can equip its cars with new functions only through software updates and without the vehicle having to go back to the factory.

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Radio

Above Michael Radomski

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AI for radio, one year in

What we’ve learned since launching AudioAI

Writer Daniel Anstandig Founder & CEO Futuri

As we celebrate the first anniversary of AudioAI, it’s clear: We’ve ignited a revolution in the radio industry. AudioAI, originally known as RadioGPT, is not just an evolution — it’s a transformative leap that can redefine the art and science of broadcast content.

The first reaction: fear.

How many jobs is AI going to eliminate? That was the first question we heard with the release of RadioGPT. The radio industry hasn’t exactly had a track-record of job creation in the last 20+ years. What we’ve witnessed more than anything is that stations are using AudioAI to fill personnel gaps, not replace personnel.

Revolutionizing, not replacing

The fears of AI replacing human jobs have been unfounded. AudioAI has become a co-creator, enhancing live and local content. We’ve seen dayparts that were previously unmanned, now with personality and local information where human hosts haven’t been on air in years. We’ve seen AI used to create special segments and features that augment human-hosted morning shows.

Over 1 million voice tracks

Futuri AudioAI has automatically generated over 1 million voice tracks in its first year. With hundreds of voices in our library, we’ve seen AI generate content in the voice of human clones as well as AI voices. And the content has been about all kinds of things: what’s trending locally, what is the weather looking like, what should I do this weekend, what did I miss on TV last night?

Better coverage, better service

We’ve seen local weather and news return to stations around the clock where it was once limited to just mornings. We’ve seen clients instantly wow’d by spec spots created right in front of them, when just 18 months ago, they would have had to wait for their turn in an overworked production team’s queue.

Local … and live?

Yes, local, because Futuri’s AudioAI is powered by TopicPulse, which provides a real-time view of what’s trending in a local market. TopicPulse takes information from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X) and more than 250,000 news sources, and it can show what’s currently engaging audiences in a local market.

Yes, live, because the voice tracks created by AI are generated just seconds before the voice plays on the air. This results in local content that is relevant in this moment.

Spec spots are back in a BIG WAY

In 2023, Futuri launched SpotOn, an AI-enabled service that automatically generates spec spots with scripts, voiceovers, music and production. In its first six months, SpotOn created more than 5,000 spec spots. We saw dramatic results.

The majority of the first 5,000 spots were for five core radio advertiser categories: Automotive, Retail, Financial Services, QSR and Travel & Tourism, showing AI’s adaptability to established brands and its potential to tap into new markets like travel.

Fifty-seven percent of these spots featured a male voice, with the most common accents being Midwest and Southern USA, Australian and British. Spanish emerged as the second most popular language, particularly for directto-consumer brands and healthcare services, highlighting its appeal to younger, tech-savvy Latino audiences.

“If we do this well, AI could be exactly what our industry needed to lift it into a newfound level of relevance. ”

The majority of these commercials were :15s or :30s, saving around 2,000 human hours in production time.

Automatic podcasts

We’ve seen broadcasters automatically generate podcasts using AudioAI about topics they might not have ventured to create before. From recaps of local games to podcasts about bands, local music and local landmarks, we’re seeing awesome creativity around automatically creating ondemand content for local audiences.

In 2023, Futuri’s POST podcast system automatically turned broadcast content into podcasts, resulting in over

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17 million listeners downloaded podcast episodes that were actually broadcast content automatically edited/ produced or automatically published as on-demand.

Audience reactions

It’s important to remember that audiences have also gone through their own AI journey this past year. While they, too, might have had resistances, we now see clear indicators that audiences are receptive to AI-supplemented content and experience.

The catch? They don’t want to be duped. They want you to be transparent if any of your on-air voices are AI. Simple as that. Disclosure is key. You don’t have to make a huge deal about disclosing that you’re using AI, just don’t try to hide it or make your punchline “Surprise, all of this has been AI.”

Even for stations who are purely using AI behind the scenes for content curation and operational efficiency, AI has proven that it can enrich the radio experience — making it more personal, local and responsive.

Here come the “stunts”

We’ve seen companies “hooking up” ChatGPT to offthe-shelf voice providers and doing stunts on the air. They usually backfired.

We don’t believe AI should be used as a “stunt.” Put it to work. Do something real and meaningful with it that makes us all better.

Hooking up ChatGPT to an off-the-shelf voice service is not going to give you AudioAI. It’s going to give you ChatGPT — with all of its idiosyncrasies talking on your station, which is different from what we’ve built.

At Futuri, we’ve invested for years in the development of AI voices, and we also partner with a number of voice providers. We’ve also invested in interfaces with multiple LLMs and tuning/ training to be sure the script and voices are speaking without “DJ clichés” in a way that is relatable and acceptable to audiences.

When stations use AudioAI, they create personalities (not just voices) for use on the air. The character traits chosen for each personality impact the speaking style, context of conversation and overall sound of a voice. We’ve been able to evolve the AI for voice and scripting, so that there is better consideration now for humanlike personable expression, humor and culturally relevant references.

A vision for radio’s future

Every industry is undergoing an AI-influenced transformation. Radio is not alone. Every industry is discussing the most responsible and thoughtful way to move forward, and I’m encouraged by our growing list of progressive partners who are using AI with meaningful purpose.

Embracing AI brings an opportunity to reinvigorate our work in the radio industry. Use it with purpose. Create more engaging, diverse and interesting content. At Futuri, I’m proud to say that our team is intentional and conscious about the way we are creating AI-powered systems; we do it with the intention of making radio’s humans better! If we do this well, AI could be exactly what our industry needed to lift it into a newfound level of relevance for the next generation of radio listeners.

We envision a future where AI and human creativity together shape a more engaging, diverse and dynamic listening experience.

Daniel Anstandig holds 20 published or pending patents in 151 countries. Reach him at linkedin. com/in/anstandig/

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Artificial Intelligence in Radio

ENCO AI creates scripts and voices spots

SpecAI is a joint venture joint venture of Compass Media Networks, Benztown and ENCO

ENCO makes software and systems for use in the studios and control rooms of broadcasters and A/V professionals; its lineup includes radio automation, playout software, and automatic and live captioning among other products. The company last fall joined forces with Benztown and Compass Media Networks to bring the SpecAI ad creation tool to the North American radio market.

Ken Frommert is ENCO president.

Ken what do you consider the most important trend in how artificial intelligence tech is being used in radio?

Ken Frommert: The all-enveloping trend we see is how companies and people are leveraging AI for creative purposes. In ENCO’s case, we are leveraging AI to create the script for commercials, and then convert that text to synthetic speech. That becomes the voice of the commercial, with music mixed underneath the synthetic speech. AI essentially empowers radio sales teams to create a compelling spec spot within seconds without a

voice. The user can make adjustments to how that voice sounds and then select a music bed from Benztown to lay underneath the track. The result is a wholly produced spec commercial that has been created in a matter of seconds.

How will the development of generative tools change how radio managers and employees do their jobs?

Frommert: We are changing the game when it comes to how radio account executives on the sales team can be more efficient. The ability to impress existing and potential clients by creating very compelling, localized spec ads on the fly as they meet in the same room is an enormous benefit. Rather than take hours to days to produce a spec ad and present it to a customer for review and approval, they can literally create, adjust, edit and sell an ad to a customer right on the spot. SpecAI allows them to do their jobs faster, easier and with greater potential for success.

Give an example of a broadcaster using your AI-based tools.

Frommert: Connoisseur Media’s stations in Connecticut are now using SpecAI to create custom spec commercials in mere seconds using AI technology. Using SpecAI, reps from stations WALK(FM), WBZO(FM), WEBE(FM), WEZN(FM), WHLI(AM), WICC(AM), WKJY(FM), WPLR(FM) and WWSK(FM) craft three creative scripts for consideration, selecting from a variety of voice and orchestrating music beds underneath the generated voice. Kristin Okesson, senior vice president and Connecticut market manager of Connoisseur, calls SpecAI “a unique blend of tech, creativity and convenience that our local sales team values.”

SpecAI is a joint venture between Compass Media Networks, Benztown and ENCO that launched in Q4 2023.

What is the most impressive use of AI that you’ve come across for radio?

Expand on how AI is used in your products. There are two different applications of AI within our new SpecAI solution. The first is content creation, which is creating the script for commercials based on user input. SpecAI takes in information such as the advertiser’s brand name, the mood or emotion behind the script — humorous, serious, etc. — and other pertinent information. SpecAI then leverages generative AI to create many scripts on the fly, and the user can select which script they like best. Any scripts selected can be edited and then voiced, selectable from a variety of natural sounding synthetic voices.

That represents the second application of AI technology in SpecAI: voice synthesis. This creates an audio file of a humansounding synthetic

Frommert: I’m impressed with how human- and naturalsounding the synthetic voices have become and continue to improve, including expressing emotion and voice cloning. Literally every day these voice models get better, and the output is becoming harder to differentiate what is synthetic or not.

Are there applications for AI in other parts of the radio operation worth noting?

Frommert: AI voice tracking is something that will continue to grow and become more widely used as stations rely on AI’s ability to deliver current and local information more efficiently than ever before. Sharing insights on music that just aired, giving a current weather report, or delivering the latest local news in a voice with a localized dialect allows a station to sound live and local while always staying fresh. To do that without human intervention is a reality today and we are just starting.

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Below Ken Frommert

Waymark tech provides “instant, affordable” video creative

But AI will still need the support and direction of a skilled human behind it

Hayden Gilmer

Tech startup Waymark developed a naturallanguage video creation platform on which “anyone who can type basic instructions” can produce ready-to-air commercials fit for TV, streaming and digital. Hayden Gilmer is vice president of revenue.

What would you say is the most important recent or current trend in AI for our industry?

Hayden Gilmer: Honestly, I think the most interesting trend is the larger shift away from talking about AI in theory and switching to talking about its application. In 2023, AI was everywhere — but not in any truly useful business sense. We were just introduced to the idea of the technology and playing with what it could do; but very few really got a handle on how to make it a practical tool.

We’re starting to see a healthier demand for practicality and reality — the AI tools that make it in radio will be things that fit into the industry as it exists today and solve existing problems. Most likely, AI will just be one component of a solution, not an end in and of itself.

Describe the use of AI in your products, what do they do and how do they do it?

Gilmer: Waymark uses generative AI as the core engine in our video creation platform. We have a proprietary system that allows us to generate a fully produced video ad for any business — using nothing more than a website URL — in seconds.

We’ve developed a patented AI ensemble, composed of 13 models at work. They work together to handle all parts of the video production process: they search the business’

“We’re starting to see a healthier demand for practicality and reality. ”

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website for information, write a script, layer in relevant visuals, brand colors and logos, and then add audio and synthetic voiceover.

Every aspect of our AI product is focused on empowering the humans behind the screen to produce at a scale that wasn’t possible before. Our AI abilities improve speed and reduce manual tasks along the way.

How will generative tools change how radio managers and employees work?

Gilmer: From what we’ve seen, it will be a major capacity expander and an opportunity creator.

In radio and the media industry as a whole, the ability to bring on new advertisers still remains a key focus. There are GenAI tools, even outside of Waymark, that support reducing administrative tasks so managers/employees can focus on higher impact work. Additionally, having the ability to support an advertiser’s request more quickly and more efficiently will open new opportunities.

At its most advanced, GenAI enters creative arenas we previously thought of as solely the domain of humans: writing and visuals and audio. But at the end of the day, these are really just output tools that are great at making stuff really, really quickly — but the quality of what they make is entirely dependent on the people behind them.

Here’s an example. Our Head of Creative Stephen Parker has the eye and language to get visuals from GenAI tools that I wouldn’t even know how to begin to prompt for. AI hasn’t made it possible for me to do his job; it’s just made it possible for him to do his job that much faster.

I think we’ll see the same dynamic play out in the radio world. Utilizing any AI technology can be a huge advantage but will still need the support and direction of a skilled human behind it. You’ll still need audio engineers and hosts and production managers — you’ll just be able to give them another tool in their arsenal to cope with their everexpanding jobs.

Is the potential impact of artificial intelligence in radio being overstated? Why or why not?

Gilmer: Yes and no. It’s no accident that radio has endured as a medium for so long; this industry’s ability to evolve and adapt to its business environment is unique. I think GenAI is just another inflection point to navigate. It’s going to represent a sea change in the way the radio world works, but has the potential to deliver impressive results. As the digital age and the world of video continues to grow, I see AI leveling the playing field for industries that have historically felt overpowered or outmanned.

How is generative AI changing the way that radio salespeople work?

Gilmer: GenAI is a broad category, so I can’t speak to every iteration of it. I can tell you that from what I’ve seen up close with Waymark, it’s been a huge net positive for our

“The AI tools that make it in radio will be things that fit into the industry as it exists today and solve existing problems. ”

partners because they’ve really incorporated it in a smart way. They don’t view it as a new way of doing business; they use our AI tech to complement their own strengths and bolster an existing approach as they embrace streaming and digital as future revenue channels.

Local sales teams have really established trust-based relationships with their market. They’re not just ad sales reps — they’ve become marketing advisors through waves of change. They’re adapting as they always have to the rise of new media, and they’ve embraced our GenAI to bring cash-strapped small businesses into the fold with instant spec creative and affordable streaming ads. It’s a smart move, and has been a massive success for a lot of them.

Give an example of a broadcaster using your tech.

Gilmer: In radio, we’re working with names like Beasley, Morgan Murphy and Townsquare Media Group. They’ve all taken a clever approach with Waymark’s GenAI system. They give it to their sales and creative teams, who use it to bring more small businesses than ever before onboard with their advertising options.

Because Waymark generates ads for them, the sales teams can make a spec ad for every single prospective advertiser on the spot. If a small local business signs with an entry-level buy, it has the added benefit of handling the final creative production as well, at an incredibly affordable price.

The combination of ready-to-preview creative and bundled radio-and-streaming packages has proven to be very, very appealing to their local SMB markets, and it’s helping them to meet revenue goals in a tough advertising climate.

What other questions should we or radio managers and engineers be asking?

Gilmer: If there’s one universally applicable question for anyone to be asking about a GenAI solution, it’s “What existing problem is this solving for my team?” If you can’t draw a clear path between what it does and a business goal you already have, it’s one you can pass on.

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What are the legal considerations?

Laws and best practices are only beginning to evolve

Writer Paul McLane Editor in Chief

Does generative AI open new legal issues for radio broadcasters? We asked three respected broadcast attorneys.

“Right now, I have not been getting many AI questions from broadcasters themselves,” said David Oxenford, partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer

“But I have been working with a number of broadcast and other media groups in reviewing state laws limiting AI use. Many bills deal with AI in political advertising, but there are also broader bills that restrict AI use in any medium if they depict a person who had not consented to the use of their voice or likeness.”

Oxenford said there are many aspects to these bills, from making sure parody and satire are protected — “you don’t want a late-night TV show to get sued for a skit featuring a Donald Trump cartoon generated by AI for using his likeness without permission” — to the inability under the Communications Act and FCC rules of broadcasters to censor the content of candidate ads, even if those ads use AI.

“Proposed legislation on AI is often worded very broadly

and needs to be reviewed to ensure that it does not have unintended consequences,” Oxenford said.

Nor has Scott Flick, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, received many questions from stations, presumably because radio’s use of generative AI is still sparse, or because they simply haven’t focused on the legal risks yet.

“That will change when we have a major incident involving a broadcaster’s use of AI, and everyone is suddenly hyper-focused on ensuring the same thing doesn’t happen to their own station,” Flick said.

Political spots

What responsibility does a radio broadcaster have regarding the possible use of AI in political spots?

Gregg Skall, a member at Telecommunications Law Professionals, said broadcasters are charged with a public interest responsibility, so even before considering the political rules, they have a duty to be honest with their audiences and to not misrepresent who is speaking to them.

“So to the extent possible, they should make efforts to

Getty Images

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assure that material offered to them as presented by the speaking party is, in fact, the person depicted,” Skall said.

“In the case of political spots, the Communications Act requires that when an advertisement contains the recognizable voice of a legally qualified candidate for elective office, equal opportunities must be made available to their legally qualified opposing candidates in the same election, they must be offered comparable or lowest unit rates and federal candidates have a right to access the station.

“However, the rule does not say that these attributes apply to a voice that ‘sounds like’ the candidate. It is supposed to be the actual candidate’s voice. So, the challenge for the broadcaster is to properly and legally treat AI-created voices differently,” he continued.

“Perhaps the best way to deal with AI in this regard is to require a declaration as a part of any such order that states that the agency or the other spot buyer declares under oath that the voice is that of the candidate. That may create a dilemma for the agency since they may not have that information. So there is a new lesson for political agencies and other spot buyers as well.”

Scott Flick emphasized that when it

is why the state broadcasters associations have been focused on ensuring state legislation on AI makes clear that it is the advertiser, and not the station airing the ad, who should be at risk for the content of that ad.”

What happens if a station airs a spot by a candidate with audio of their opponent, and the opponent complains that the content was faked?

If the spot is considered a candidate “use” under the law, Flick said, the station can’t demand that it be modified or modify the spot itself. “The opponent asserting that the spot has deceptive AI-created content needs to complain to the advertiser and examine the options available under a growing number of state laws on AI content.”

Gregg Skall recommends that the station request from the candidate or their authorized committee a statement that it was not the candidate’s voice. “On that basis, it should challenge any equal time requests,” he said. “I would also ask the candidate to make a recorded statement attesting to the fact that the spot was fake and not his/her voice.”

And David Oxenford said that, as with any ad, if a broadcaster is put on notice that a non-candidate ad contains potentially defamatory material, they need to review that ad and decide if it is in fact defamatory.

“If they continue to run the ad after having received notice that the ad was false, they could have liability. AI simply makes it easier for political advertisers to generate content that could be found to be defamatory if it portrays a candidate falsely.”

He added: “This is a time to have an attorney on speed dial to help assess the risks — and to do it quickly.”

Synthetic voices

We asked these experts whether best practices have emerged for a broadcaster who wants to create content using a cloned voice of their talent or a third party.

“The first question is whether it is authorized by the talent or celebrity,” said Skall. “This should not be done without permission, which should be documented. In any case, however, a disclaimer should be aired stating that the voice that was heard was created artificially with appropriate permission.”

While AI applications in radio are obviously still developing, Flick said it’s clear that profiting from a particular person’s identifiable voice is going to violate “right of publicity” and similar laws in many states unless the station has secured the necessary rights.

“Life will get tricker when the response to these laws is voices that sound a lot like a particular person, but not quite identical,” he said.

“That’s where courts will get involved, making findings as to when the creator of an artificial voice is profiting off of someone else’s fame, versus the artificial voice just having a few characteristics in common with a famous voice. That will be expensive litigation, regardless of who wins.”

Oxenford too noted the variety of state laws covering

Below Scott Flick

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Artificial Intelligence in Radio

“rights of publicity.” He said using anyone’s voice without permission is a risk.

“This is particularly true for celebrities. You need to be aware of those laws and be very careful in appropriating anyone’s voice or likeness. The risk varies depending on the content — use in ads is likely going to raise issues, using the voice in a parody or satire may be defensible if it is clear from the context that it is not the real celebrity that is on the air. But even with parody and satire, there are not clear safety rules — it all depends on the context and the whims of the court in which you get sued.”

Evolving rules

Meanwhile, AI’s regulatory environment is changing quickly.

“As counsel to the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations, I’m seeing state bills pop up almost daily, as legislators seek to ensure that the law stays ahead of AI developments, if that’s possible, rather than forever playing catch up,” Flick said.

“However, the most notable aspect of these legislative efforts is the struggle to define what uses of AI are ‘bad’ and then what to do about them. Over time, we’ll find out which approaches are most effective, and the laws will then start to converge on those successful approaches.” In that regard, he said, states will serve as legislative laboratories, likely influencing eventual federal legislation regarding AI.

“In the meantime, the challenge for stations will be staying on top of these legislative efforts, both to prevent sloppily worded bills from becoming law and harming innocent broadcasters airing third-party content, and to ensure stations stay on the right side of these new laws.”

Might the Federal Communications Commission get involved? The attorneys were doubtful.

“The FCC traditionally stays away from reviewing content of broadcasts — leaving that to the courts and other agencies,” Oxenford said. “Watch for federal legislation to see if the FCC ends up with any more power in this area.”

Flick commented, “While the FCC has made clear that it will be diving in with both feet on AI in other contexts, there really isn’t a reason to do that in radio. Though the use of AI that goes awry could result in violations of existing rules — e.g., indecency or the rule against broadcast hoaxes — that just emphasizes that existing rules already address the FCC concern, and AI is just another mechanism that might cause a violation of those existing rules.”

Gregg Skall noted that the Federal Election Commission has responded to a petition for rulemaking that seeks a rule to prohibit a candidate or their agent from fraudulently misrepresenting other candidates or political parties and to make it clear that the related statutory prohibition applies to deliberately deceptive AI campaign ads.

“Were this rule to be enacted, it is likely that it would provide additional guidance or even a template for the FCC in some parallel rulemaking effort.”

Skall said that according to the Council of State Governments, since 2019, 17 states have enacted 29 bills focused on regulating the design, development and use of artificial intelligence.

“These bills primarily address two regulatory concerns: data privacy and accountability. Legislatures in California, Colorado and Virginia have led the way in establishing regulatory and compliance frameworks for AI systems,” he said.

“There are a number of policies the states are focusing on, but of major significance for broadcasters is to protect individuals from the impacts of unsafe systems and to protect their privacy. Any use of AI that makes its way into the broadcast studio should be examined with these goals in mind. The council website provides a list of state AI efforts.”

Similarly, he noted, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports that in the 2023 legislative session, at least 25 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia introduced AI bills, and 18 states and Puerto Rico adopted resolutions or enacted legislation.

Flick reiterated that broadcasters must pay attention as

Above David Oxenford

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such bills come along seeking to regulate AI, particularly in advertising.

“Broadcasters need to make sure that these bills are clear that if a deceptive ad is aired, it should be the advertiser and not the distributor of that ad — in this case, the broadcaster — who should be liable for any AI-induced deception that results,” he said.

“While some AI-generated video or audio may be relatively innocent — for example, making a picture look like it was taken in better lighting — where deceptive AIgenerated content is placed in an ad, the purpose is to fool the viewer, and that includes the station airing the ad. It is simply not practical for a radio station to do a deep dive into every ad to figure out what is true and what just seems true based on the content of the ad.”

Other concerns

Are there other areas where AI raises legal concerns?

“Except for the increased emphasis on broadcast content, radio stations are in most ways like other businesses in terms of the benefits and risks of AI,” Scott Flick said.

“It will make some operations more efficient while in others it will generate a poorer quality result, but one that may be deemed good enough given the cost or time savings involved. From an FCC perspective, the FCC has generally rejected efforts by radio stations to defend themselves against an asserted rule violation by claiming

the violation was caused by an inattentive employee. Blaming a violation on AI will likely fare no better.”

David Oxenford worries about some programs that are used to generate local news or provide local hosts for programming.

“Especially in smaller markets, where there are few local news sources, AI could copy information from a local source, and if the broadcaster uses it, there could be copyright liability,” he said.

“From my own experiments using AI, it can also have ‘hallucinations’ and report on things that never happened. There is already at least one court case against an AI company when its system generated a story about the criminal conduct of an individual — conduct that never happened. This kind of story, if broadcast, could lead to defamation claims. So carefully review any content that AI generates before it goes on the air.”

And while AI has proven useful for quick answers to sometimes complicated questions and research projects, Gregg Skall agreed that it can be unreliable.

“To the extent that broadcasters begin to rely on it, accuracy and honesty with their audience must be foremost in their value system and processes. So factcheck the produced material; AI can provide leads, but not final answers. Be honest with your audience and let them know if the host, DJ or other speakers are real or AI-generated.”

Above Gregg Skall

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Special report: AI case studies in radio

“In the end, it’s a sauce to the steak. It’s not the steak.”

Paul McLane Editor in Chief

As the stories on the previous pages demonstrate, applications of generative artificial intelligence-based tools are spreading throughout radio while other types of AI are already well ensconced. For this ebook Radio World sought comments from a sampling of broadcasters about how they’re deploying AI. Their case studies follow.

NRG Media

A company that has embraced AI tools across its operations is NRG Media, a firm in the Midwest that provides content and digital marketing services through 38 radio stations to listeners and advertisers in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.

For instance, NRG uses AI from Waymark to create videos for clients.

“Radio has always done a really good job at spec spots,” said Director of Integrated Media Erica Dreyer. “But there’s a lot that goes into creating a video, from storyboarding to going out and shooting and getting the graphics. It’s a timeconsuming process. Waymark enables us to fast-track that. Then our client can envision themselves on the TV.”

Digital Sales Strategist Andrew Warner likes that the process requires little from the client. “We just enter in an advertiser’s website, then give the AI some direction about what the advertiser is trying to say.”

The tool will suggest videos, images, voices and text

based on context. “It gets you 80% of the way to a really good spot,” Warner said. Then NRG can add, edit and tweak to bring the product to completion.

“Advertisers ask, ‘Gosh, how did you guys even produce this video in the first place?’ It levels us up,” Warner said. “Often it serves to open a conversation — though in many cases we’re also using Waymark to deliver fully produced videos, with further collaboration with the client. And the videos can be optimized for mobile, TV, whatever placement or format.”

NRG Director of Programming Jeff Winfield uses the tool to create promotional and social videos.

“For example we have a sweepstakes starting next week with a bank sponsorship,” he said. “You choose licensed images that show cash winners or the idea of putting money toward a house, and then you generate a script to fit into a :15, :30 or :60.”

A video is then created based on that script. “And you can regenerate it as many times as you want until you’re happy with the product, choosing male or female voices, speaking fast or slowly, with a deep voice or with an accent.”

NRG’s market team in Wausau, Wis., recently used Waymark to create a recap of a large fundraising event. “They uploaded pictures and created a really nice ‘thank you’ type video that they could share across social media, showing the impact they’d had in the community,” Dreyer said.

AI tools have spread across the NRG enterprise. They’re

Above AI Tori is heard on overnights on “Rock 108,”

31 radioworld.com | February 2024 Artificial Intelligence in Radio

NRG Media station KMFW in Waterloo, Iowa.

being used for radio copy creation, show prep, developing prospect lists and writing “vouch by reference” emails.

“Our executives use tools like Grammarly Our demand-side platform now has a robust AI component,” said Warner. “I’m sitting here looking at my Chrome extensions bar and I’ve got tools that will grab fonts for me or scrape images from social or pull color codes.”

The sales team uses ChatGPT to generate ideas about approaching clients. “We can equip sellers with a starter kit of conversation prompts,” said Director of Sales Enablement Phil Forrester. “It helps me raise the game of the seller. If I can go to ChatGPT and say, ‘Give me the top five things that a local pest control company would care about in trying to grow their business,’ I’m equipped to have a better conversation.”

The intention is not to have a salesperson just follow a script. “We really want this to be the seller’s voice, so again the AI is a way to get 80% of the way there, then 20% is personalization that makes it meaningful and gets to the desired result,” Forrester said.

NRG also creates websites. “One of the biggest barriers in building websites for clients is when you say ‘Give me copy to describe the product or service that you do,’ but then you wait for a month while they try to turn themselves into copy writers,” Forrester said.

“That has gone. Now, baked into our platform is a button that says, ‘This is a Peerless tankless water heater, give me give me a paragraph about that, targeting women,’ and it will generate it. We can turn our customers into editors, not creators. We now give them content and let them react to it, which speeds up the process significantly.”

NRG recently told its general managers about Scribe, a tool that turns any process into a step-by-step guide.

“It enables us to create SOPs very quickly,” Dreyer said. “For instance there are a lot of steps involved for a GM to

figure out their streaming inventory. Scribe can record my screen as I go through it. To create a guide, no longer do I have to type out every step, grab a screenshot, type the next step and grab another screenshot.

Instead I work through the process while this Chrome extension is recording my screen. Less than one minute later, it has a detailed process of every step and click, and I can share that recorded process.

“We’re discovering more AI applications,” she continued. “I had to do training for a market with a quick turnaround. I knew the objections that the staff or account executives were going to have, and I was able to utilize that in my prompting to create a personalized training session.

“AI is helping us save time in the things we’d be doing anyway.”

Like several broadcasters who spoke to us for this ebook, NRG also is experimenting with AI on-air talent. “AI Tory” does overnights on KFMW, “Rock 108” in Wausau, Wis., created with Futuri AudioAI.

“Overnights is a good place to start,” Winfield said, and their team has had fun with it, creating a striking avatar and airing promotions that feature AI Tory making mistakes.

Winfield said the deployment of the tool has prompted useful conversations internally.

“If I’m voice tracking a weekend show and I flub a word, I can choose to scrub that and make it sound perfect, or I can leave it in and make it sound more like the dope that I am on a regular basis. We’ve had these discussions about how that applies to AI. And there were some concerns from personalities wondering if this would be a corporate initiative to take jobs. No, not at all. We wanted to learn how to use it and see what it can do. To be able to utilize all of these different tools is to our benefit.”

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Above Erica Dreyer, Andrew Warner, Jeff Winfield and Phil Forrester are with NRG Media.

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

Beasley Detroit

Patti Taylor is vice president and market manager at Beasley Media Group Detroit.

“Within our organization, we use AI tools for content creation on the programming side as well as for revenue generation on the sales side of the business,” she said.

“AI is used both in the pre-sale and post-sale phases of the sales cycle. In the pre-sale phase, AI can be used to write a compelling introductory email to a prospect. It can ingest language and tone that will appeal to the specific prospect receiving the email.”

An account executive can request an email written for the president of a chain of local hardware stores using a valid business reason based on current hardware trends as well as the prospects personality.

“You can even ask AI to write a strong subject line for this email. AI can then write a compelling audio script for the same hardware store to promote their huge sale on Craftsman tools over President’s Day weekend.”

Throughout the sales cycle, account executives can “delegate” to the AI tasks that, in the past, might have taken a long time to complete. “AI can make a sales rep’s workload lighter so they, in turn, can sell more,” she said.

Taylor said Beasley does not have a general policy about how AI will or will not be used.

“I feel like it won’t be very far away though, as we create more and more content and need to be more vigilant on the output. We have nearly as many content writers as we do on air talent these days, so being cautious when it comes to original content will be paramount.”

But she’s clear that both generative and predictive AI are changing the sales landscape in general.

“Generative AI has become the latest buzz as salespeople everywhere are discussing the benefits of using AI systems to lighten their workload and elevate their overall productivity. Generative AI can serve as sort of a creative arm or administrative assistant taking on tasks that otherwise may have bogged down a sales rep.”

She noted that cold calling is probably one area most account executives would say they dread the most, and it takes the most time.

“But it is absolutely necessary. A current training system we have utilizes AI to help account executive write a compelling email to a prospect, among other things.”

Like NRG described earlier, Beasley Detroit uses an AI tool that can create a video for a customer within a couple minutes by entering only a small bit of information.

“This tool is great in the post-sale so you don’t have to have costly videographers employed, but it also works extremely well in the pre-sale. Sellers on our team can spend less than five minutes and have a great-looking video produced that they can use to get an appointment with a prospect.”

As a result, sellers on her team can go on more calls per

Above Patti Taylor, Beasley Media Group

week and present more opportunities than they did in the past. “AI has honestly become a game-changer on the sales side of our business as more and more tasks get taken off a sellers’ plate by AI,” Taylor said.

How widely will radio broadcasters deploy AI to replace live talent?

“As someone who has spent an entire career in broadcast radio sales,” said Patti Taylor, “I really hope we are not getting close to a time when AI will replace live on-air talent. One of the most valuable selling positions we have is ‘live and local.’ The on-air talent is part of radio’s appeal, in fact, it’s part of the agreement with the audience, and it’s one of the top responses to the question, ‘Why do you listen to the radio?’ Without talent, we lose a key component of the fabric of radio, live talent that lives and works in the market, just like the audience. AI cannot shake hands and kiss babies.”

Where she sees AI fitting in is with show prep, copy ideas,

33 radioworld.com | February 2024

personality preparation and other time-saving tasks.

“Replacing a human being with AI does not compute to me, because humans still have to be responsible for some input in order to get output,” Taylor said.

“AI should be treated like any other software or business solution. We have to find out how AI can best support human-driven projects and initiatives, enhance productivity and eliminate lengthy timelines.”

Rome Radio Partners

“104.9 The Rebel” is FM station WRBF in Plainville, Ga., not far from Atlanta, licensed to Rome Radio Partners. It recently deployed an AI jock called A.I. Gunner on its overnight shift using the Futuri AudioAI system.

Majority Partner Howard Toole is impressed with the tool and its available choice of personalities. The platform gathers relevant content from certain approved websites and follow a series of prompts to populate scheduled breaks with synthetically voiced content while making sure a given topic or category doesn’t recur too often.

“It has its quirks. It does have pronunciation problems from time to time,” Toole said.

The station staff had to correct the AI’s pronunciation of “wind” when describing the weather. They taught it not to pronounce “The Rebel” as “The re-BELL” and to avoid certain difficult native American place names. And sometimes the inflection isn’t quite right.

“It really is a work in progress,” Toole said. “Futuri continues to refine it, and the only thing that will happen is it will get better.”

He marvels at the quality that Alpha Media has achieved with AI Ashley, the cloned radio personality that (who?) made headlines last year. “Somebody spent a great deal of time with that. But this is a learning process. While it learns, you’re going to be learning too. Then it’s about how you how you play with it and how you make it sound real.”

WRBF is also using a cloned voice for its promos and liners. The person who had been working in the traditional way as the voice of the station was amenable to an agreement under which WRBF would clone his voice and continue to pay him a retainer.

With that contract in hand, Toole uploaded about 70 minutes of the performer’s audio samples. He said the results are “pretty scary. I think even he was surprised at how much it sounded like him.” Those samples became the basis of new promos.

Eventually, Toole also plans to air phone calls in which AI-generated listeners interact with AI voice talent; these would be programmed in advance. He doesn’t feel it’s important to call attention to the use of AI on the air — “Does it really make any difference? Did it entertain someone?” — but he expects that the FCC eventually may require stations to air a message that some portions of a program were generated with AI. “That hasn’t reared its ugly head yet,” he said.

Where else might AI help a radio manager? Toole said Rome Radio has experimented with an AI-based tool in ReelWorld’s Production Vault radio imaging service. He said it is helpful in creating short promos that include AI-based listener comments. He also has seen demos of software that will create spec spots in minutes, though he isn’t using one at this point. And he hopes providers of radio traffic systems will deploy AI more widely so the workflow of scheduling radio commercials can become less hands-on.

In general he is enthusiastic about the possibilities.

“I was using text-to-speech programs 12 or 13 years ago so I’m not afraid of it. But I’m not looking to replace talent. As AI learns, people have to learn how it functions. If we were to look at medicine 100 years from now, people would say, ‘Man, medicine was so crude.’ I think that’s the same thing you can say for AI right now.”

34 radioworld.com | February 2024 Artificial Intelligence in Radio

Above Howard Toole, Rome Radio Partners

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

Antenne Deutschland

Last year German broadcaster Antenne Deutschland launched a streaming station programmed with AI and voiced by a synthetic air talent named kAI. The channel, called Absolut Radio AI, uses technology from Radio.Cloud. Its cloud-native software creates a schedule, programs the breaks and creates voice tracks with a feature called Voicetrack.ai. The streamed station targets listeners ages 14 to 49 years with pop and dance music.

“kAI not only gets you through the day in a good mood,” its website promises. “He also has a lot to say. He gently introduces you to the topic of artificial intelligence and explains to you how versatile an AI can be used, how it works and where its limits are.”

Antenne Deutschland subsequently put the AI format on a local DAB+ channel in Braunschweig in north-central Germany. It’s believed to be the first over-the-air radio broadcast station programmed and voiced full-time with artificial intelligence.

Managing Director Mirko Drenger told Radio World last year, “For me, the headline is not that it replaces us. It

makes us smarter and faster. It’s not about saving money. You still have to write program-specific prompts, develop your own logic and develop it further. It’s about creating more content, faster and smarter. It’s about fun and creativity.”

He said the company is also helping employees “skill up.”

“We encourage them to learn because more and more companies will require these skills. So we’re not just allowing AI; we really want them to learn it, which becomes a big advantage for us. … I don’t know what the future will bring, but we’re not replacing hosts; it’s an add-on.”

Radio World checked in with Drenger in February for this ebook to ask if there had been further developments.

“Our voices are improved, and we will launch a new, additional voice within the next weeks,” he said.

“We will start new topics in moderation to make the station more interesting and generating more and longer active sessions. The AI host kAI is already helping out on our other ‘normal’ stations if other hosts are ill or on holidays. This is very interesting.”

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Above Tina Zacher and Mirko Drenger of Antenne Deutschland

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

Lotus Broadcasting

“AI is not going away,” said Natalie Marsh, vice president/ market manager of Lotus Broadcasting in Las Vegas.

“Quite the opposite. It is growing at an almost frightening pace. My viewpoint on things like AI is leaning into how they can help you. … I am going to focus on what I consider to be one of radio’s biggest attributes: connection to the local audience. So we are looking at how AI can help us streamline content creation,” she said.

“Can we use it to help us with more interactive features such as polls, quizzes or live chats? I am also looking at the abilities of AI to analyze listener behaviors and how we can utilize this to enhance their radio listening experience. We also want to figure out if there is an ethical way to use it to enhance engagement for our listeners without losing the human connection that is paramount to radio.”

But Marsh said Lotus is being very cautious in the AI world. “You have already seen the backlash on some industries that might have jumped in too quickly.”

Media Solutions

Allard Ruyl is the CEO of Media Solutions, sales house of Talpa Network in the Netherlands. He told the website Marketing Report that he expects AI to bring significant benefits to the media industry.

“We are running multiple tests at the same time,” he said. “For example, we are currently in an operational phase in the field of audio, where we are already using advanced text-to-speech technology to create artificial voices for audio commercials.” Talpa is using software from Adthos for that project.

“In addition, we are also planning tests for video in the long term, where we want to apply similar technology. We are investigating how we can integrate this with dynamic advertising, just like with audio. The ultimate goal is to seamlessly align data and creative content, resulting in more effective and personalized campaigns.”

Talpa Network also has an AI Hub, which he said “continuously tests new apps and possibilities and thus keeps the company informed and inspired. And of course to see whether tools can be used safely.”

Natalie Marsh of Lotus Broadcasting Allard Ruyl of Media Solutions

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Cox Media Tampa

The six-station Cox Media Group cluster in Tampa, Fla., has been using a cloud-based discovery tool from Veritone for some time.

It allows a salesperson or programmer to find instances of a word, advertiser or topic mentioned on the stations. The user can pull up a summary of how many times a client was mentioned, on which stations, including audio soundbites. This helps document the value being provided to a client beyond any commercials that are running.

“It allows us to take credit for what we actually do,”

said Jason Meder, vice president and market manager. “And as a medium, I think it makes us stronger.” More recently the cluster began using an attribution tool that helps create models of success for OTA schedules and digital advertising.

“We can match the two and show how our radio and terrestrial media affect search habits and digital advertising,” Meder said. Typically tied to an advertiser’s Google Analytics, the platform provides insight into how on-air content drives online activity — searches, social mentions, website activity — for the advertiser.

In general Meder takes a cautious mindset about new AI tools. “We just want to be extremely careful how we use it, so that there’s no negative impact on our business or reputational damage that could happen from sharing data that that shouldn’t be shared. It’s critical with AI or any new tool [to use it] in a strategic, safe and productive way.”

He said Cox has a taskforce that considers new tools and explores their implications before deployment.

“As the market manager I’m probably the probably the least tech-savvy guy in the building. We’ve got folks on the tech side, folks on the legal side. You put their brains on it and you end up with a with a pretty good decision-making team that can define the guardrails for the rest of us to operate it.”

The cluster has five music stations and one talk. It is not using AI-based clones or synthetic voices, though Meder has heard demos of products in the marketplace. “It’s really amazing how technology will allow these programs to not only do the voice work but go out and create the content from websites. And it’s hard to tell the difference from a real radio talent.”

He’s similarly impressed with tools that can take a business name and website and within a few minutes write and produce a radio-ready commercial. And he expects AI to have a significant impact in commercial production, thanks to its ability to create or clone thousands of voices.

Like most radio executives we’ve talked to, Meder says he would not use AI to replace people but to create efficiencies and workflow. He says radio must protect the human connection for which listeners tune in.

He would want the audience to know if an AI voice was being used. “Absolutely. I think the minute you lose the trust of your audience, you’ve lost everything. People tune in because they want live and local programming and because there’s somebody on the other end of that microphone whom they feel like they can identify with,” he said.

AI should be used to create workflow opportunities and make the product better. “But I don’t believe it can be used to replace people in our core, especially on the air.”

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Below Jason Meder of Cox Media Group, right, is with Promotions Director Mike Oliviero, WTBV air talent DJ Ekin and WTBV Program Director EJ Greig. They received a community service award from the Pinellas County Urban League.

Artificial Intelligence in Radio

HIS Radio

AI tools including voice cloning have allowed Radio to expand the amount of local content it airs on its regional network of stations.

HIS Radio is part of the Radio Training Network; it broadcasts adult contemporary Christian music on about 20 FM signals across nine markets in the Carolinas and Georgia.

“Since we’ve grown onto those sticks and into all those local markets, I wanted to deliver local content, even though the jocks and music are coming out of Greenville, S.C.,” said Rob Dempsey, station manager and morning show host.

“With this technology you can localize anything. So all the stops are localized, the weather is localized, we have three breaks an hour during the weekdays. And we’re expanding to the weekends now to deliver that local content.”

Using Futuri AudioAI, the organization cloned the voices of its main air talent, beginning last August. The clones populate three 18-second breaks per hour on each station with locally relevant information.

“I’ve made very clear to our team that this is never going to replace voice tracking or a live shift,” Dempsey said. “Talent is not going to be replaced by AI. However, we can enhance the workload and our local content using AI.”

He said that although the talent themselves can tell the difference between their own voices and the clones, listeners cannot. HIS Radio does not actively call attention to its use of AI, though Dempsey said he would not hide it from anyone who inquired. And if a talent leaves the organization later, HIS Radio has agreed it will not continue to use their voice.

“It’s absolutely amazing how the technology has grabbed the vocal print,” he said.

“You can give it a trait — friendly or humorous or charismatic, they’ve got a lot that you can pick from. They even have pitch and pacing, and you can make small

Mid-West Family

A.I. Liam Jones is the overnight talent on classic rock station WZOC(FM) in Plymouth, Ind., serving the South Bend area. His colleague A.I. Alley has the same shift on CHR station WQLQ(FM) an hour up the road in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Both have their own bios and photos on the station websites. Both are artificial intelligence DJs and are labeled as such.

“We think it’s important to identify that this is not real,” said Bill Gamble, general manager of Mid-West Family. “Have fun with it, embrace it. Let the audience in on the joke. Let them look for the mistakes.”

In an era when very few radio stations employ people in the studio at night, AI technology — in this case, Futuri AudioAI — can provide entertainment as well as updating a weather forecast.

“When stations are voice tracked or just playing ‘song-production piece-song,’ they can sound bland. This livens it up,” Gamble said.

adjustments. And while it’s not perfect, it’s getting the job done.”

The system uses prompts to create promos by pulling from relevant sources such as lists of Christian concerts scheduled in the area. “I have a prompt, ‘What’s going on that’s family-friendly in Horry County,’ which includes Myrtle Beach. It will search the family-friendly activities in that area and list two or three in an 18-second break.”

The software can vary the way that it delivers content in an “artful” way; it can be trained to avoid certain practices such as addressing listeners in the plural.

“I like my talent to speak to one person, not to an audience,” Dempsey said. “At first our AIs were saying ‘So, folks …’ but I can go in and ban that phrase. Also, now it can give the weather with more personality rather than in a statistical, matter-of-fact kind of way. And it will no longer refer to the weather ‘out there,’ which disconnects us from the listener; I can ban that phrase too.”

Dempsey notes that artificial intelligence tools are all around us already. “Alexa is AI, Siri is AI, and the way that we search on Google.” HIS Radio also uses AI to help in the ad-writing process.

“I can go to ChatGPT and say ‘Write me a 30-second radio spot for XYZ,’ and it will crank out a script for me. And AudioAI has a plugin called SpotOn where you can type in the website of an organization and it will write 30- or 60-second copy and produce it, with music. I have not seen a perfect radio copy come out, but it’s been good, and I can massage it.”

He calls AI a tool that is not a replacement for people.

“And you need to take the time to do it right. You need to tweak it, often, to make sure it’s doing exactly what you need to do. Don’t set it and forget it, because then it’s going to go weird on you.”

“It’s not going to make or break us; it’s not going to be the best thing ever.” But the company is having fun with the concept.

“We had a proposal from a national advertiser looking for endorsements, and we submitted all of our talent. We also submitted the AI talent. They didn’t pick the AI talent but they got a kick out of it.”

Gamble finds it fascinating that he can type just three or four words or tell the AI to talk about a topic, and the technology complies. However, he thinks it is in scriptwriting and production where AI is likely to have a bigger impact.

“At every radio station I’ve ever worked at, you could tell the size of the staff by the number of voices you hear on the commercials, especially when you hear the morning guy back to back,” he said.

“Using AI voices, we don’t have that. It’s not like the voices are going to read a great 60-second spot — they can, but it requires a fair amount of work, finessing and tweaking — but let’s say you’ve got a lot of Home Depot tags and 30 spots that rotate. You’re going to need to do 30

Rob Dempsey, HIS Radio

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different tags. Having an AI voice helps make the station sound better because it’s not just the DJs you’re hearing.”

Similarly, it becomes very easy to produce station promos when you can simply enter several basic pieces of information and a tool will generate a 30-second script, which either you or the AI can voice.

“Some of the tedious tasks of radio production are being done by AI quicker. Anyone who has been a production director at a radio station has spent their whole day in a room with no windows, cranking out commercials and promos. If I don’t have a second voice or the resources to write six scripts for a car dealer, let AI do it.”

In virtually any radio job, he said, what most people need is more time. “If I can automate a task, like writing a 30-second spot or recording promos — boilerplate work — it gives me time to do more creative work.”

He understands why voice talent would find AI frightening. “If I’m Budweiser and I’m paying someone hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to voice my commercials, and I can have AI do it, it’d be pretty tempting.”

More broadly he acknowledges being unsettled by the proliferation of fake content in our culture.

“It used to be that you could believe what you saw or heard. But when you see a picture of a bombing, and then realize later it wasn’t a real picture, you wonder what is real. That’s why we decided that if we’re going to have any AI talent on the air, we’re going to say so, it’s going to be in their name and on the website.”

Meanwhile, experimenting with the technology gives the

Above “A.I. Alley” does overnights on Mid-West Family station WQLQ in Benton Harbor, Mich. Her bio identifies her as an artificial intelligence DJ. “Fun fact, I’m a creative, caring and hard-working individual. I can also process thousands of songs in a second!”

company more options. And Gamble adds that it’s just plain fun to play around with.

“I can tweak the pitch of the voice, I can increase the tempo, I want the accent to be like this. And it keeps getting better and better,” he said.

“But in the end, it’s a sauce to the steak. It’s not the steak.”

Right Bill Gamble, Mid-West Family

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