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LONDON — AI is the new mantra, succeeding the Internet of Things (IoT) or over-the-top (OTT) media. These terms have been used or overused recently, mentioned so often and applied so freely that they have become meaningless. But AI has a lot of meaning, not least in radio or audio.
Many of us have already experienced AI through voice recognition devices like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, which let listeners request songs, ask questions, and more. Sometimes, AI-powered chatbots interact with listeners in real time without their noticing. AI is already being used on radio to deliver more personalized and engaging content more efficiently. As personalization is a key attribute of radio nowadays, AI can analyze behaviors quickly and suggest content.
AI also saves staff effort and money by automating tasks like creating and managing playlists, scheduling posts and ads and analyzing performance metrics. Broadcasters now leverage AI to predict what audiences want before they know it themselves, offering everything from suggested shows or programs to personalized news bulletins.
These data offered by AI can shape content, refine future strategies and even create entirely new content.
In this new landscape, is radio, a platform born around 1900, struggling or even facing its demise?
AI as a new driver for radio
Recently, Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco announced that he is breaking new ground in the music industry with a fully AI-powered FM radio station called Endless LUP, created in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The station promises AI-powered generated music reflecting Lupe’s distinctive style. Each track will be unique and never repeated, offering listeners an endless stream of fresh, Lupe-inspired music. However, the broadcasts will apparently only be accessible in certain locations and exclusively via traditional FM radios. So, the station will feature AI-generated content but reflect a human’s tastes and style, and availability is limited. Even an AI-inspired station like Endless LUP needs the input and uniqueness of human intelligence and taste and the support of existing technology, be it analog or digital. It shows how AI can be a powerful tool. However, some say it is a double-edged sword, as this use raises ethical questions.
In this new landscape, is radio, a platform born around 1900, struggling or even facing its demise? Not entirely, as radio has seen off the challenge of TV and is fighting back against the reality of increased live streaming, that is, audio content via the internet.
Personalization through internet streaming offers a considerable advantage over traditional, more prescriptive radio schedules. This doesn’t mean that radio is ossified. However, adjusting schedules and creating and diversifying programs takes time. With its powerful analytical role and mechanical task management possibilities, AI can significantly help fill this gap in an increasingly competitive market.
The pressure for more personalized, more responsive, more varied content is also facing another more general challenge: unprecedented demand for more news content while there are fewer journalists worldwide able to produce it, let alone ready to interact live through real-time chats, polls, giveaways and emotes expected by younger users and necessary to keep them engaged for longer.
Fighting back
Radio is fighting back as neither AI nor live streaming services will replace it. For this, radio operators must offer good, diversified, personalized content with interactive elements that can bring in a variety of listeners. With digital standards like DRM, more content, channels, data and a certain degree of interactivity are possible. AI brings just another dimension and builds on radio’s classical advantages, such as ubiquity, closeness, community binding, offering information and saving lives when all other alert systems are down.
AI does not threaten radio stations, but it does put more pressure on broadcasters to be digital in both content creation and transmission distribution. AI and streaming can enhance and personalize content. This can attract listeners who are less familiar with the terms FM and AM and are more at home with podcasts and playlists.
It is quite a task for radio to embrace digital technologies like DRM, which offers more channels, programs and data while using AI and going online by streaming. None of these comes for free, and the investments can be significant but worth every cent in the long run. In this triangular equation of digital technology, the Internet and AI, the core remains radio, specifically live radio. The live attribute and human intervention in radio are supreme qualities. Nothing beats the “I was there” moment.
The conclusion is that, when used judiciously and ethically, AI is one more tool that helps radio adapt to the demands of the 21st century. Success will only come to those who have a holistic radio strategy. Just using AI here and there or digitizing your studio equipment at the headquarters is a drop in the ocean. The full possibilities of a new type of digital radio need to be explored and invested in, including content creation, personalization, interactivity and transmission. The opportunities are endless; only humans can solve the puzzle and use the available technology to make it happen.
The author is chair for the Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium.
Image: Freepik
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