1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,040 Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every week or so I write something about 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:10,240 the future of radio and all of that. It's my newsletter which you can get at James.Crid.Land, 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:19,440 and this is June 23rd, AI and Radio. But before I dive into AI, I have a pretty picture in 4 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:26,840 the newsletter version of this, which is for a radio station. It's a radio station's advert 5 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:34,360 on the side of a road in Toronto in Canada. Today Radio is what it's advertising. It says 6 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:42,360 New 93.5. Today Radio, great music, great conversations. It's owned by Stingray. It's an 7 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:49,240 adult hits format station. Now I have a dream of doing a session at a radio conference where 8 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:54,680 advertising professionals look at ads from radio stations and work out if anyone would take any 9 00:00:54,680 --> 00:01:00,680 notice of them. I would say that with this one, at least it's not just promoting the music mix, 10 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:07,960 but I do wonder if it would work better if it was able to change in terms of the topics they're 11 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:17,080 discussing on the station. Looking at the poster, it's a piece of paper rather than a fancy sign, 12 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:22,040 so yeah, who knows. But anyway, the website appears to be a collection of their social posts, 13 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:28,040 the stations based on Now Radio, which has worked excellently in other markets in Canada. 14 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:33,320 It's always good to see radio companies trying something new, so that's always a good thing. 15 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,760 Now a few weeks ago, I was at Radio Days North America in Toronto in Canada. The first keynote 16 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:45,080 of the event was Daniel and Stan Digg from Futuri talking about radio GBT, and he quoted a bit from 17 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:53,400 my review earlier in the year, which was fun. Here is the review. I said, I took a listen while on a 18 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:58,280 train in Sydney looking forward to being rather rude about this horrible idea, but irritating me 19 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:04,840 though, it's rather good. Yes, well anyway, he ended up quoting that. The excellent Fred Jacobs, 20 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:12,840 who is also there, has also written up about AI Ashley. AI Ashley is an AI-generated radio DJ 21 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:19,960 using radio GPT in Portland. And it's certainly the talk of the industry. One delegate at Radio 22 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:25,320 Days North America was incensed that a senior Rogers exec could stand up and claim that people 23 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:29,160 were the important thing for the future of radio, but also stand up and say that he was looking at 24 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:36,760 using radio GPT as well. This is apparently a bad thing. And I'm not so sure it is. Because any 25 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:44,280 technology can be used for good and for bad. Just ask anyone who's used Twitter. When I started in 26 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:52,120 radio, all the talk was about how music was beginning to be scheduled by computer and how this was 27 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:59,800 a bad thing. Then we moved from DJs playing audios from carts and vinyl and CDs to just hitting the 28 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:05,720 next button on a play out system. And this, I think, is just the next step in the evolution of how 29 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:13,240 radio is produced. Radio GPT could be used to replace DJs on music-intensive radio stations, 30 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:18,200 but you probably don't want to do that because that's unlikely to be a good long-term plan. 31 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:24,840 What's likely to be a better long-term plan is to consider using AI to add to the output of your 32 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:31,080 station. If it were me in charge, thankfully it isn't, I would be replacing ours which have 33 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:39,800 non-stop music and injecting some form of AI output in those hours. Radio's USP is that it offers more 34 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:45,720 than Spotify on shuffle. But if you're just running an hour-long music sweep, you're offering nothing 35 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:52,680 that Spotify can't do better. Which is where AI comes in, you'd think. But let's also consider 36 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:57,720 the other bits of radio's output. You've got tightly formatted output like travel news or 37 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:05,160 weather. That seems ideal to be handed by AI to me or handled by AI to me. Maybe you're a bloke 38 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:10,040 doing an afternoon show. Could you get a female AI voice to do the travel every half hour? Would 39 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:18,440 that make the sound of the station a little less blokey? I'm occasionally using AI to save me time. 40 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:23,800 Relatively often, I'm typing into Google's BARD, the prompt, please summarise the following text 41 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:28,520 in a paragraph containing three sentences and then copy and pasting a big word you press release 42 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:35,320 into. Is that the sort of thing that could help a busy team somewhere? Could it be used to better 43 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:42,520 schedule music? Can it understand categorisations and help data entry? You know, I had the same 44 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:47,880 knee-jerk reaction against AI taking all our jobs, but the more I think about it, the more these 45 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:54,440 tools can be used to help. And the idea of using artificial stuff to fill non-peak hours isn't, 46 00:04:54,440 --> 00:05:02,600 of course, new. I believe that county sound groups Eagle FM had Talon, a robotic presenter, 47 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:08,920 doing overnights for some years in the 1990s. And perhaps it's here that AI can help a little. 48 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,400 Elsewhere, going on, another great read from the EBU's Tech Eye magazine, or maybe it's 49 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:21,320 Techie magazine, that would be clever, wouldn't it? Anyway, I'm quoted tangentially on page 11 50 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:27,320 if you wanted to download that. There's a link in the show notes. Nielsen's audio today report is 51 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:32,120 out looking at US audio consumption. It isn't yet on a website, so I can't link to it. But my favourite 52 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:39,080 quote from that is that 74% of all AM radio listening is done in the car. No wonder they were 53 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:46,360 upset. 74% of all AM radio listening is done in the car. Radio Centre has a new look and a new logo. 54 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:54,120 They've killed Pac-Man in case you cared. Duncan Newmarch is stuck in the 80s. Linking to this, 55 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:59,320 it's great for fans of 1980s radio. There's some very nice production in there, although it is 56 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:07,080 quite dated, but I think that's the point. So worth a listen. Good to see updates to a tool for FMRDS 57 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:13,320 and DAB DLS and even HD radio from Media Realm. They're one of the supporters of this podcast, 58 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:19,400 so I suppose I'd better keep a closer eye on what they're doing. Some positive data as well about 59 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:26,280 radio and audio in Canada as well to take a look at. Again, linked from the show notes. And Spotify 60 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:32,040 cancelled Meghan Markle, you might have heard. The ABC in Australia has all the best industry 61 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:38,440 commentators talking about that. And I link to that too. Thank you to Clyde Broadcast, Richard 62 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:45,480 Hillson, James Masterton, Brun, Audio Consulting, Soma FM and Media Realms Radio websites. If you'd 63 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:51,080 like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee. You can become a member to give regularly, 64 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:56,280 or you can just give a one-off coffee or five. Buymeacoffee.com. James Cridland is where to do 65 00:06:56,280 --> 00:07:02,600 that. You can follow me on Masterdon too. I'm James at Crid.Land there. You can just search for that 66 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:09,800 and you'll find me. And on Nostra, you can also just find me there as well, James at Crid.Land. 67 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:15,160 And that will be a lovely thing. My professional website has more details about who I am and what 68 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:21,800 I do and whether I can help you further as well. You'll find that at James.Cridland.net. But until 69 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:27,800 next time, thank you for listening and keep listening.