1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,200 Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every week or so I write a newsletter all 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:09,880 about the future of radio and international radio trends and that sort of thing. 3 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,480 And this is the podcast version for people that can't be bothered to read. 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,320 And this is the version from February the 28th. 5 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:21,280 Robot Radio comes closer with Radio GPT, but is it any good? 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:26,720 Press release from Futury Media promised a thing called Radio GPT, and it reads like 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,480 the sort of thing that I should be implacably against. 8 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:37,080 The world's first AI driven localised radio content. 9 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:42,680 Radio GPT is a system that watches social media for trending topics in your local area, 10 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:49,720 writes a script apparently using GPT-3 technology, and then uses AI voices to make radio with 11 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:50,720 them. 12 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:56,040 And it has the horrible title of Live, Local and Powered by AI. 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:01:00,040 Well I shared the press release on social media and people responded with the usual 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:01,040 you know, complaints. 15 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:02,760 This sounds like an awful idea. 16 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:04,520 AI voices aren't there yet. 17 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:05,880 Nobody will use this. 18 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:07,560 This is the worst idea ever. 19 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,920 And I kind of hoped that that was true, but then I discovered that there was a live stream 20 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,920 demo of this dreadful service that anyone could listen to. 21 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:21,320 So I took a listen while on a train in Sydney, looking forward to being really rather rude 22 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:23,960 about this horrible idea. 23 00:01:23,960 --> 00:01:27,160 And here's a little clip. 24 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:31,440 Every voice you hear on radio GPT is 100% AI. 25 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,640 Here's what's trending on social media in Springfield, discovered and delivered in real 26 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:36,640 time. 27 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:37,640 On radio GPT. 28 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:44,120 East Springfield, six year old, Mason Johnson ordered $1,000 worth of food from several area 29 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,840 restaurants with his dad's Grubbub account. 30 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:47,840 Ouch. 31 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:52,440 But Grubbub was nice enough to offer the family a $1,000 gift card to help out. 32 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,280 Not letting him get away with it. 33 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,440 Mason's dad took cash from his piggy bank to teach him a lesson. 34 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,720 Hey dad, here's an idea. 35 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:04,880 How about keeping an eye on your iPhone? 36 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:09,840 Live made locally in Springfield at 100% voiced and powered by AI. 37 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,560 This is radio GPT. 38 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,040 Irritatingly, it's rather good, isn't it? 39 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:19,640 Now there are some smoke and mirrors being deployed here by Futuri for the test stream. 40 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:22,120 It isn't live, it's a loop. 41 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:28,120 The voices may be AI, but either they're the best AI voices out there, or someone's tuned 42 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,760 their delivery rather suspiciously well for the promos. 43 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:36,960 I do know that Topic Pulse uses some human moderation as well. 44 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:41,000 The stream just says every voice is AI. 45 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,960 So this isn't 100% AI produced service after all, and actually the press release doesn't 46 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:47,560 say that either. 47 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:48,840 There are some clever tricks too. 48 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:53,800 The songs in the demo stream are all 90 second edits, which is very clever for a demo. 49 00:02:53,800 --> 00:03:00,360 The local news is for Springfield, someone's clearly a fan of The Simpsons at Futuri Towers 50 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,000 in glittering Cleveland, Ohio. 51 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,440 The little bits of news, scripted to have a little joke at the end of them, work well. 52 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:09,160 The station sounds tight. 53 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:15,240 It's undoubtedly more live and local than 10 great songs in a row can be. 54 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:19,520 There are some little factoids about bands that play, which are interesting and quite 55 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:20,720 decent as well. 56 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:26,200 The only concern that I would have is that they needed to be rotated quite sparingly 57 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,760 to have the desired effect. 58 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:34,120 Now sure, some phrases don't sound quite right if you listen really carefully, but then some 59 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:38,800 phrases spoken by human beings don't sound quite right either. 60 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:44,120 If you've listened to a BBC podcast outside the UK, you'll have heard this podcast is 61 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:51,000 supported by Advertising Outside the UK, which I have to listen to all the time and has the 62 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:52,240 emphasis in the wrong place. 63 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,160 It skips past the word advertising and seemingly stresses the word side. 64 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:58,240 It's very annoying. 65 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:03,520 But for an overnight shift or for a weekend service or even to replace the non-stop music 66 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:09,520 sweeps during the day, Radio GPT is actually quite a passable listen, much of that pains 67 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:10,520 me to say so. 68 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:12,960 It's worth a listen for yourself if you can. 69 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:17,960 You'll find a link in our show notes and our newsletter at James.Crid.Landed. 70 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:19,600 I don't know why I said hour there. 71 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,880 I'm used to saying that for the other job. 72 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,600 If you like AI-powered radio DJs, then you're going to get quite a few of them in the next 73 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,360 six months, I suspect, because Spotify has also launched its own, which A, doesn't sound 74 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:32,560 like AI at all. 75 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,040 I suspect it's been entirely faked for the press releases video. 76 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,320 B, seems to contain nothing of any use, unlike Radio GPT. 77 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:44,880 It's a discombobulated voice calling itself X, and it tells you that you listened to quite 78 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:49,560 a lot of songs from the 1970s recently, so here's another one. 79 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:55,720 Or it'll say, here's a new release from a music type you love without actually telling 80 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:57,880 you what the new release is called. 81 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:03,640 Of all of the finesse of Radio GPT, this one comes very lacking. 82 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:09,800 In other news, Dan Taylor Watt has published an excellent animation of the top 20 radio 83 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:15,120 stations in the UK over the past decade, and it really highlights how static everything 84 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:16,120 is. 85 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:17,920 It's definitely worth a look. 86 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:19,360 You'll find that linked. 87 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,000 Global's Radio X launched its first brand extension in mid-February. 88 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,480 Nick Goodman has taken a look at how it works musically. 89 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:31,160 Ken Bruce, who was due to leave BBC Radio 2 at the end of April, has been quietly asked 90 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,160 to finish up this week, and he sounds a bit grumpy about it in his texts. 91 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:39,760 Dan Cocker is bored of reading the annoying social posts about how badly Ken Bruce 92 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:46,200 has been treated by Radio 2 and has posted a long thread, basically saying, Ken like 93 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:47,520 wanted to leave. 94 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:53,520 Meanwhile, Matt Deegan writes about why most DJs don't even get a last week on air, which 95 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:58,480 I think is understandable if rude to listeners and rude to the presenter themselves. 96 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:02,960 Actually, I was given a last week on air when I was a full-time radio presenter by the 97 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:04,040 excellent Steve Martin. 98 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:05,160 No, not that one. 99 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:09,400 It probably helps that I was going to move to a staff job in the same company at a different 100 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:11,200 radio station, though. 101 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,760 I didn't get the chance to say goodbye after five years of Halem FM shifts, though, to 102 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:20,840 my regrets, but my last words on the station were, I'll see you next week, hopefully. 103 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:25,360 Which I think shows that it probably didn't come as much of a surprise. 104 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:31,280 Everyone's favourite radio stunt inventor, Paige Nienaba, crazy name, crazy guy, has been 105 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:37,280 sharing some fun, hunt the balloon to get some concert tickets. 106 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:43,000 It's some quite nice work that he's been doing with radio stations in North America, 107 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,280 where, of course, they've had quite a lot of balloons that have been hunted recently. 108 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:50,800 I linked to some visual radio from the Good Folk at Global, LBC. 109 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,400 I'm fascinated at where Nick Ferrari's microphone is in the little clip. 110 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,800 You'll find that, again, linked from the show notes today. 111 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:02,200 I'm called a radio expert in a piece by The Telegraph as well, which is exciting. 112 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:03,840 I'll take that. 113 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:09,680 This is the not unexpected news that Talksport, the UK's remaining national commercial AM 114 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:14,480 broadcaster, is wanting to turn some of its AM transmitters off. 115 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,760 It was sharing infrastructure with Absolute Radio, who came off earlier this year. 116 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:23,400 Talksport is, of course, not a music station, and arguably stands to temporarily benefit 117 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:25,000 from Absolute's retreat. 118 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,040 So maybe they'll hold on to those AM transmitters for a little while longer. 119 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:32,520 They will be turning a few off. 120 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:37,800 My suspicion is that they're turning a few off, where it probably won't make much difference. 121 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,960 Thank you to Ross Winters for the five coffees. 122 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:40,960 That's kind of you. 123 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:46,240 I'm looking forward to seeing Ross in Toronto in June for Radio Days North America, which 124 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:47,240 should be good fun. 125 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:52,360 Thank you also to Dominic, who agreed wholeheartedly with my grumble about the BBC's bullying of 126 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:56,120 its listeners to download the BBC Sounds app if they wanted to keep listening. 127 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:57,280 He agreed so much. 128 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,320 Three more coffees are on the way, which is good of him. 129 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:05,320 I haven't given his surname just in case he works there. 130 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:10,240 And thank you to Lisa Kerr, who writes, I love that you keep me in touch with my old 131 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:11,240 world. 132 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:12,240 She came to Australia recently. 133 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:17,200 Facebook tells me, but didn't pop in for a coffee, which is a good job because my drip 134 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,560 filter only makes one cup at a time. 135 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:22,320 It's very tedious if other people come. 136 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:27,160 Anyway, thank you to Richard Hilton, to James Masterson, and to Brun Audio Consulting for 137 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:31,040 your ongoing support of my newsletter and of this podcast. 138 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:32,040 I'm very grateful to you. 139 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:36,040 If you'd like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee. 140 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,440 You can become a member to give regularly if you like, or just give a one-off coffee 141 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,000 or five. 142 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,800 You do that by me a coffee.com slash James Cridland. 143 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:47,840 That's by me a coffee.com slash James Cridland. 144 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:53,760 Now I'm at the IAB Audio Summit in Sydney tomorrow, tomorrow being the 1st of March. 145 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:55,320 And it really is kind of tomorrow. 146 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:58,840 It's going to be tomorrow in about an hour. 147 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:03,640 I'll also be at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Las Vegas, March the 6th to the 11th. 148 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:05,140 Looking forward to that. 149 00:09:05,140 --> 00:09:08,800 Radio Days Europe in Prague, March the 25th to the 30th. 150 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,560 The 25th to the 30th. 151 00:09:11,560 --> 00:09:12,560 Is that right? 152 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:13,560 Have I got that correct? 153 00:09:13,560 --> 00:09:14,560 Yes, maybe I have. 154 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:20,160 I've just sent somebody an email saying that I'm absolutely free, but I'm clearly not. 155 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:27,240 Anyway, the NAB show in mid-April, the New Zealand Podcast Summit in mid-May, the podcast 156 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,480 show 2023 in London at the end of May. 157 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:33,720 Oh, I'm also, by the way, in Berlin in mid-April as well, which is a thing. 158 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:35,920 I'm looking forward to that too. 159 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:39,200 And I'm in Radio Days North America in early June. 160 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:44,360 Contact details are at james.cridland.net, which is my professional website. 161 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:47,880 I use the word professional likely. 162 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:51,480 And that gives you more information about who I am and what I do and whether I can help 163 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:52,480 you further. 164 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:55,440 And if you're a master dom, then I am there too. 165 00:09:55,440 --> 00:10:00,480 James at bne.social is where you'll find me, bne, of course, being the airport code for 166 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,280 Brisbane. 167 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:06,640 Or you can just search for James at crid.land and you'll find me there as well. 168 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,680 And it would be lovely if you would join me there instead of the bird site, which is 169 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:12,200 a dreadful thing. 170 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:14,600 Anyway, that's it for this time. 171 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:18,400 So thank you for listening and keep listening.