I recently became aware of something called “FizzFM” broadcasting on KLLI HD2. I gave it a listen while brushing my teeth tonight, and it sounds like an elaborate ad campaign for the relaunched Slice soda. The tail end of the first song I heard mentioned “Slice”, and the next two songs explicitly referenced the new “healthy” Slice. The songs also felt… off. As if they were also AI generated (as the DJ obviously is). I can’t find anything online about “FizzFM” but the Slice website repeatedly uses the slogan “Real Fizz. Real Flavor.”
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Something strange bubbling up on KLLI HD2
- Thread starter Jstnpspck
- Start date
If this were Chicago or the Midwest, I suppose you could call it a Pop-Up station.😏
Sounds like a reworking of the “Cadillac Radio” advertising concept that was tried in a few markets some years back, though that was with flea powered AM transmitters that covered a very short range.
Edit to add: Paywalled, but looks like it’s a thing: How Slice soda is relaunching with an AI-generated retro radio station
Sounds like a reworking of the “Cadillac Radio” advertising concept that was tried in a few markets some years back, though that was with flea powered AM transmitters that covered a very short range.
Edit to add: Paywalled, but looks like it’s a thing: How Slice soda is relaunching with an AI-generated retro radio station
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It's also on 106.3 K292HC.
radioinsight.com
Slice Soda Launches AI Radio Pop-Up In Los Angeles
To promote the relaunch of the Slice soda brand, a new pop-up format featuring AI generated music about the beverage
radioinsight.com
A key quote from the RI article:It's also on 106.3 K292HC.
Slice Soda Launches AI Radio Pop-Up In Los Angeles
To promote the relaunch of the Slice soda brand, a new pop-up format featuring AI generated music about the beverage
“To an uniformed ear, you can truly believe the songs really existed. We’re not far off from a song generated using a tool like this charting and getting airplay unless the radio and record industries install safeguards to prevent it.”
Something like this has already happened. Recently I recall there was some sort of scam perpetrated on an online music service (Spotify?) where AI was used to create a large number of tunes, then bots were employed to play those tracks constantly, thus generating music royalty revenue for the “creator” of the songs. I posted about it at the time, but can’t remember which board…🤔. The person behind the scheme was eventually prosecuted.
Meanwhile it might be interesting to see if “The Fizz” shows up in additional markets. Might be an improvement on what some translators are currently airing.🤪
Its just for Los Angeles.
The translator is outside the 60 dBu of KALI-FM. There would need to be documented listener complaints in the affected area to get it shut down.
Many examples of translators that have popped up (no pun intended) just outside of various stations’ 60 dBu contours, though many radio pros will argue the audience in the 45-50 dBu range is insignificant.
You would also need to consider actual terrain coverage, not theoretical circular contours.
Slight correction. It's currently only four watts. I was looking at the application filed last week to move to 250 watts from a roof on the corner of Wilshire and Western with most of its coverage pointed due west.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
And if you will recall, Lance, there was an effort by KWIZ to prevent that translator from being authorized during the application review process. That peanut-whistle four watts was the final compromise and was only agreed to by the applicant because Korean-speakers was their target audience in the first place.
But as far as this promotion goes, there's likely to be exponentially more listeners to the HD2 signal than tp the translator.
If this is, as Lance reported, a relaunch of Slice, it is not by PepsiCo, who sold it last year to a small company specializing in "healthy soda options".
Slice Soda Brand Acquired, Will Return to Stores in 2025
Suja Life adds 1980s/1990s soda brand to its portfolio and plans to relaunch it with improved ingredients and nutritional benefits.
K292HC has recently filed to relocate the transmitter to a new site at 3731 Wilshire Blvd.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
And they think they can get the full 250w ERP for a translator at that location.
I'm familiar with the neighborhood. That building is one block east of the Wilshire/Western Metro subway station. Chase branch at street level, six or seven stories of offices above it. Any translator would have to go on the roof, and for their sake I hope the directional antenna they propose in their application works to keep it out of the way of KALI-FM.
Of course, my next question becomes: What do they (and presumably Meruelo) plan to do when this promotion runs its course?
Meruelo has nothing to do with any of this other than leasing KLLI-HD2 to the agency.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I know that, Lance. Come on ... give me a little credit.
But sooner or later this promotion ends and Meruelo then has to do something with that HD2.
Every aspect about this just turns me off and gives me the ick. Aside from the all-AI execution which sounds “off” and is a slap in the face to any creative still in the industry, the concept of essentially an all-advertising station is thoroughly unappealing. This is like those OTA TV all-informercial channels, the ones you’ll never watch (or if you’re thorough, you remove from your channel list altogether). Not only is the entire operation void of human emotion, but it’s artificially generated *advertising* non-stop.
So you're saying it's just going to fizz out?
I get that AI can be a tool.
But there have got to be boundaries, and fake songs are one of mine. Spotify is already trying to push this stuff on discovery playlists to cut down on royalties paid to actual human beings making music, and it's not as though they're great at that to begin with. Their CEO made more last year than the biggest star in the world, Taylor Swift.
It's good as a stunt, sure. But AI has no soul and no lived experience. It should not be used to fully create songs that get playlisted on streaming services or radio stations. And no, it's not the same as samplers or drum machines. Those were programmed by musicians who still had their own idea of what they wanted. They were tools. Not completely artificial creations by machines that supposedly "think."
But there have got to be boundaries, and fake songs are one of mine. Spotify is already trying to push this stuff on discovery playlists to cut down on royalties paid to actual human beings making music, and it's not as though they're great at that to begin with. Their CEO made more last year than the biggest star in the world, Taylor Swift.
It's good as a stunt, sure. But AI has no soul and no lived experience. It should not be used to fully create songs that get playlisted on streaming services or radio stations. And no, it's not the same as samplers or drum machines. Those were programmed by musicians who still had their own idea of what they wanted. They were tools. Not completely artificial creations by machines that supposedly "think."
SnottyNose799
Banned
I found a direct link. Playing in your favorite media player too.
I'm curious--What was the "Cadillac Radio" ad concept?
But right now, 106.3 is servicing a slice of West LA.
Look at RadioLand’s longley rice coverage map