Just imagine....No jocks on payroll. No one who WON'T read the copy EXACTLY as you want them too. No one to argue their opinion about content and will just say whatever you want them to. Many of you said that wouldn't happen right away. I of course disagreed. However, commercial radio is hanging on by a thread and the corporations that run it lack creativity and respect nothing but the bottom profit line. AI is their wet dream!!! example in the link...AI radio dj
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AI Jocks
- Thread starter Camron Fry
- Start date
AI announcers and only one step away from out of market folks voice tracking local stations. Small market stations use "satellite" to program their on air product. I believe you only had to clear 2 or 3 minutes of their commercials and it was "free".
If you are the only station in a market with a exclusive music format (Country, CHR, AC
Back in the day of live stations. Unless you were in a market with 50 k population or bigger or did sales or engineering work extra, you most likely would make more bagging groceries and getting cash tips. Some folks I worked with were DJs at night clubs. One single parent with two kids (divorced) qualified for food stamps.
One reason pay was bad, a very large percentage of the stations were losing money. I believe this was because their sales people didn't know how sell effectively against local newspapers. That's another topic so I won't send this thread down that rabbit hole.
IMHO the folks that worked "non rated" just on air were single and there to move up, had a spouse that made good money, in college, had a side job or a trust fund or wealthy family.
If you are the only station in a market with a exclusive music format (Country, CHR, AC
Back in the day of live stations. Unless you were in a market with 50 k population or bigger or did sales or engineering work extra, you most likely would make more bagging groceries and getting cash tips. Some folks I worked with were DJs at night clubs. One single parent with two kids (divorced) qualified for food stamps.
One reason pay was bad, a very large percentage of the stations were losing money. I believe this was because their sales people didn't know how sell effectively against local newspapers. That's another topic so I won't send this thread down that rabbit hole.
IMHO the folks that worked "non rated" just on air were single and there to move up, had a spouse that made good money, in college, had a side job or a trust fund or wealthy family.
secondchoice, you bring up an interesting point about sales. I don't want to divert, but I'll say newspaper is a tangible while radio is not. The other thing is competition. How many publishers are selling in that town? How many radio stations are doing the same? You might be amazed and you might be amazed the horrible decisions some businesses make. Example: a great single location downtown sandwich shop only open for lunch in a town of 3,500 buys an $1,800 campaign with a TV station in a market of about 200,000. First rule in sales: the business owner never makes a mistake unless they say they did.
You miss the point. The AI Jock thing you linked isn't coming from corporate radio. It's not really aimed at broadcast radio. There's a lot of radio being done right now that's all automated and all jockless.
www.insideradio.com
If hiring lots of live & local jocks would attract an audience, corporate radio would jump on the bandwagon. In fact, in some formats, there's a big push for hiring local talent. But the reality is that people don't want live & local talent. Name all the DJs on Spotify. Name all the DJs on Apple Music. That's where the radio audience is, and they're there to escape the blathering DJs.
SonicTrek.ai Debuts With Futuri Partnership.
Joel Denver and Mike Agovino have teamed with Futuri Media to launch SonicTrek.ai, a next-generation audio syndication company using artificial intelligence to deliver fully localized, 24/7 radio formats. The new
If hiring lots of live & local jocks would attract an audience, corporate radio would jump on the bandwagon. In fact, in some formats, there's a big push for hiring local talent. But the reality is that people don't want live & local talent. Name all the DJs on Spotify. Name all the DJs on Apple Music. That's where the radio audience is, and they're there to escape the blathering DJs.
Look at Sootify's financials the last 3 years. Not very good. They are "shifting" their "emphasis" to podcasts.You miss the point. The AI Jock thing you linked isn't coming from corporate radio. It's not really aimed at broadcast radio. There's a lot of radio being done right now that's all automated and all jockless.
But the reality is that people don't want live & local talent. Name all the DJs on Spotify. Name all the DJs on Apple Music. That's where the radio audience is, and they're there to escape the blathering DJs.SonicTrek.ai Debuts With Futuri Partnership.
Joel Denver and Mike Agovino have teamed with Futuri Media to launch SonicTrek.ai, a next-generation audio syndication company using artificial intelligence to deliver fully localized, 24/7 radio formats. The new
IMHO As a former shareholder (by inheritance) of Pandora, I have learned if you're going to play commercials, you need something or someone to "break up the clutter" or at least make it tolerable buy post identifying or preselling the next song(s) going into a stop set or coming up with something entertaining to say. The best day of my ownership of the stock symbol "P" was when it was mercifully put of of it's existence and sold*. Most radio stations / clusters have positive cash flow. The real problem is debt. Salem made money last quarter with mostly AM stations and no debt.
Back in the day (1960s and 70's) folks who didn't like "announcers" had tape decks in their cars. There is a percentage of people who feel like you do. They will pay for their music. Music Radio as a subset of the industry has and will never count on those folks for income. Radio has existed over 100 years without those folks.
* There was a significant drop in price of the date I received the stock and the sales price which gave me a nice write down for taxes.
You're right. Same with broadcast radio companies such as Cumulus and iHeart. Even NPR is heavily invested in podcasts. Why? Because the audience for linear real-time radio is declining. My point is that it's not due to lack of live & local talent. People want what they want. If they want personality, they listen to podcasts on their own time, for as long as they want, and aren't chained to the radio. The OP is freaking out because AI is going to replace local talent. But it really doesn't matter because so many people are choosing other things, including podcasts.
I don't have access the real cash expenses but I will bet a lot of podcasts' expenses for radio (Cumulus, Audacity etc.) are "paid for" by the OTA broadcast. Then EVERYTHING from the on-line podcast is profit. The real problem with podcasts is anyone with a cellphone can do one. You have to have an "advantage" to really make any serious money. Whatever the show's *** numbers are is a real head start over the average person trying to make a living.
The only bandwagon corporate radio jumps on is the cost-cutting bandwagon.
I can name all my favorite DJs on the stations I like. I think most people on this site can say the same. Same goes for a large portion of the general public that enjoys radio.
No, the radio audience is using radio. And most probably also use streaming services too, but when they listen to the radio they want a good radio experience. If they don't get it, they'll become the ex-radio audience.
A good DJ/host informs, entertains, provides an element of companionship and makes the listener feel like part of a community drawn to that station. I haven't heard an AI DJ really succeed at that yet. For the most part, the AI jocks I've heard are trained to tell dumb jokes or just talk over song intros for the sake of talking. It's a crappy experience.
Not really true, since they're spending lots of money on things outside of linear broadcasting.
That wasn't the question.
When you set the parameters based on the past, you are bound to be disappointed.
Read their quarterly reports. Digital is about to eclipse broadcasting for both Cumulus and iHeart. The budgets, staffs, and sales for digital are completely separate from broadcasting.
The same could be said for being a DJ. You don't need an expensive studio, a licensed frequency, or a tower to be a DJ. I go to concerts and the person entertaining the audience between shows is called a DJ. They make a lot of money doing that. The "advantage" is in what they do, not the platform they use.
No, I'm talking about the present. There's still good talent working to high standards in radio. But there's more AI and voicetracked slop than ever saturating the airwaves now. too.
And while you dismiss the past, the fact is many of the same skills that made radio talent compelling in years gone by are the same skills that elevate good talent today. Whoever thinks the quality of AI DJs paints a rosy picture for the future of radio is really just contributing to its downfall.
I don't "dismiss the past." It's just that the present will never live up to your memories of the past.
The people in radio who do unique, irreplaceable work have nothing to fear. There will always be work for them
I completely disagree. People stream music because it gives them CUSTOMIZED choice...not to get away from blathering DJs. Corporate radio is about one thing....MONEY. If they can "fake" a live dj they don't have to pay....eventually they all will. All you have to do is look at the homogenization of the on-air and production product over the last 2 decades. Mark my words.....it WILL happen! I would be ecstatic to be proven wrong though.You miss the point. The AI Jock thing you linked isn't coming from corporate radio. It's not really aimed at broadcast radio. There's a lot of radio being done right now that's all automated and all jockless.
SonicTrek.ai Debuts With Futuri Partnership.
Joel Denver and Mike Agovino have teamed with Futuri Media to launch SonicTrek.ai, a next-generation audio syndication company using artificial intelligence to deliver fully localized, 24/7 radio formats. The new
If hiring lots of live & local jocks would attract an audience, corporate radio would jump on the bandwagon. In fact, in some formats, there's a big push for hiring local talent. But the reality is that people don't want live & local talent. Name all the DJs on Spotify. Name all the DJs on Apple Music. That's where the radio audience is, and they're there to escape the blathering DJs.
Money isn't an issue for streaming radio. If people who stream wanted DJs, Spotify would hire them. Or use AI.
If that was true, they wouldn't have gone bankrupt.
But once again, Apple and Amazon have no shortages of money. Yet they have no DJs. AI or otherwise.
There is a "corporate speak" term that should scare any investor: "unlock value" which usually means taking a cash generating asset and loading it up with all the debt that GAAP will allow. This works ok for a while until something negative happens. Blain did it to Clear Channel ( now iHeartRadio) ABC did it to Citadel*. Then there are ego deals Cumulus buying Citadel, and the CBS radio - Audacy mess. But these was positive cash generating businesses that allowed the debt to be issued to unsuspecting bond buyers.
I am not discounting the "disruption factor" of the Internet but radio as a business could have died when TV came along. Thankfully suburban sprawl and car commuting created AM and PM drive. There are somethings you can't do watching TV. FM and the old AM class 4s (now AM class C) allowed radio 24 hour "localization" in many areas without dependable 24 hour AM service.
Long view: What is going to happen when the big cell and Internet providers realize that if one raises it's rates their competitors will follow? Drug dealers in the past gave drugs to future addicts to get there future customers hooked. IMHO cheap data is an financial addiction. Sooner or later Wall Street is going to want "more profits" from the cell and ISP companies. I am not sure the current set of politicians (both parties) have the guts and financial means to withstand the lobbies and political action committees of the providers to insure real regulation of the these future duopolies or "tri monopolies".
Almost everyone is trying to generalize the listening public. IMHO there are two large sunsets. Those that want human interaction and those that don't. The non contact folks used CDs or tapes in the past. Spotify and friends have really decreased the amount of CDs sold. I believe vinyl is selling more units than CDs. As I said before these folks NEVER have or NEVER will want a human voice with their recorded music. You can lose what you never had.
You still have the right to not like "blathering DJs" but why waste your time on a site that is for fans of or veterans of some kind of blathering DJ with their recorded music.**
Our minds are made up. Do try to confuse us with the truth.
*Legal disclaimer: I "shorted" Citadel stock. I did very well.
** There is beautiful music which I don't don't think is doing too well these days. Is that age demos or presentation? That is another thread for someone to start.
These are oversimplifications of very complicated things. In each case, there was no "value." In each case, the radio company was struggling, and the owner wanted out of a money-losing business. Mays wanted to cash in his stock, which was declining in value, and take the company private. Bain wanted to back out of the Clear Channel deal, and Mays took them to court. Disney wanted out of radio the minute they bought ABC. They just didn't want to pay the taxes. Same with CBS. They were honest that radio was dragging down the value of their companies.
The fact is that all of the founding companies in radio knew the business was in trouble in the 80s. That's why GE and NBC got out.
I said this earlier. When TV came along in the 30s and 40s, the big companies that owned radio didn't sell. A lot of them, such as RCA and GE, were in the device manufacturing business. They made radios, and kept making them when TV came out. The big companies didn't get out of radio because of TV. They saw them as complimentary businesses. The new tech companies don't see it that way. Apple and Google don't own broadcasting, and they've invested in creating a platform that competes with broadcasting. It's killing both broadcast radio & TV in ways that didn't happen in the 49s because the tech companies feel the internet is better than broadcasting. They may be right. But you're talking about two different things.
The tech companies are very interested in AI for very different reasons. Any advantages that people see in AI are being driven by companies like Microsoft and Apple. Not iHeart or Audacy.
I think 108 is making a mistake. iMHO a lot of folks a "scared" of AI. I would love to be programming against them. My station ID would be "all the local voices on (call letters and city of license) are real people". I would try to use iHeart's no AI garentee (modified not to get sued).
As Ellis explains in the first 62 seconds of that video, the AI jock is doing Midnight-6 and early mornings on Saturday and Sunday.
In Market #202.
Not sure it matters.
Rock 108 is licensed to Waterloo, although its studios are in Hiawatha, near Cedar Rapids.
This is an article about “AI Tori”:
Case Study: This AI Rocks! How KFMW Used AudioAI to Amplify Brand Attitude and Drive Revenue
See how KFMW Rock 108 leveraged AudioAI to create an engaging on-air persona while maintaining their unique rock identity.
futurimedia.com
As someone who used to listen to Rock 108 when I lived in Iowa City, this wouldn’t make me listen to them any more or any less. The only other rock station I listened to in the area is KRNA, but I rarely listened to them.