Everything he said. Times ten.
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Steve Lehto: "Radio station (secretly) used an AI DJ (for 6 months) and NO ONE noticed"
- Thread starter yeoldeschool
- Start date
Everything he said. Times ten.
They still have ratings, so enough do. Also, this AI DJ was on during weekday afternoons.
For context, CADA is a digital-only station with a cume of 161,000 on DAB+ in Sydney. Even as a leading DAB+ station, that's still only about 10 percent of the market's top FM stations, Smooth, NOVA and KISS, all of which cume over a million.
radiotoday.com.au
Ratings: first survey results for 2025
It’s survey day, the first survey results for the year have now been released. Radio Today’s coverage begins at 9:30 this morning. The spotlight will
radiotoday.com.au
This blew up down here (in Australia) a couple of weeks ago. Thy, the "DJ" in question was named after a staff member in sales.
The station (CADA) is on 96.1 in Katoomba, a rimshot flank to Kyle & Jackie O's (Sydney) KIIS 106.5. It serves the western suburbs and all the way the Blue Mountains.
The station (CADA) is on 96.1 in Katoomba, a rimshot flank to Kyle & Jackie O's (Sydney) KIIS 106.5. It serves the western suburbs and all the way the Blue Mountains.
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I'd be interested in hearing how it sounded. Was the AI DJ just doing liners and simple stuff, or was it meant to be personality driven?
I've heard the stuff from Eleven Labs and a lot of it sounds really good. It can sort of fail if you ask too much from it though, at least right now. But AI is improving at mind boggling speed, and that includes voice and conversation. I'll say this much, if a station is doing lazy radio to begin with, AI can already step in and do that just as well.
Are there airchecks around?
I've heard the stuff from Eleven Labs and a lot of it sounds really good. It can sort of fail if you ask too much from it though, at least right now. But AI is improving at mind boggling speed, and that includes voice and conversation. I'll say this much, if a station is doing lazy radio to begin with, AI can already step in and do that just as well.
Are there airchecks around?
It's on our logger at work. I'll put something up in the next 24 hours.
Airchecks of “Thy” are part of this article:
james.cridland.net
CADA's announcer, Thy, is just a bad cloned AI voice
Lying to your audience has never been more blatant
Interesting that Cridland talks of the other ARN fire, that of Kyle & Jackie O.Airchecks of “Thy” are part of this article:
CADA's announcer, Thy, is just a bad cloned AI voice
Lying to your audience has never been more blatant
Australian radio always looks, from afar, like an absolute dumpster fire. Is it just because there are so many stations for a relatively small market population-wise?
We used to have a lot of Aussie radio consultants, and people on the air in the UK who did stuff a bit like Kyle & Jackie O, until the fines and firings started rolling in, but it's an act that's become extremely dated.
"No one noticed" is an exaggeration. I'm sure plenty of people noticed. They just weren't bothered enough by it to complain about it publicly.
https://james.cridland.net/scratch/cada-thy.mp3 Here's what she sounded like. I just would've thought it was voice tracked. Apparently, she didn't say much, as this was in a 2 hour period.
If anything, it's the opposite. The Sydney and Melbourne metros each have 10+ populations near 5 million - they'd be top ten markets if they were in the US.
Sydney has 15 rated stations: 10 are commercial, and only 6 of those are on FM. SIX commercial FM stations in a market of 5 million. The Washington DC metro, which has a similar population, has more than 20 commercial FMs that regularly show up in the ratings. Melbourne also has 6 commercial FMs, the other three cap cities (Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth) each have four. Commercial FM arrived in Australia much later than in the States, and developed in a much more controlled fashion. Australia's regulatory authority has kept markets from getting over-radioed, and hence you still have leading stations in major markets in double digit shares.
An average listener would be more bothered by the fact that the voice's level is too low and is hard to hear over the music.
Most people not noticing is no surprise. My most sobering moment in my early radio career was when I had to take a "regular office job" where the radio was on the local CHR station all day. The station was live and local, and no one in the office paid attention to anything the DJs said. So somene's cutting hair with the radio on and not noticing the AI DJ? No shock at all
Excellent point! Whether broadcasters like it or not, most people keep the radio, and even Internet radio, on as background noise to whatever else they're doing. David eduardo, a former broadcaster and staff for this forum, noted in another thread that even he did this nowadays.
Agreed. In fact, there's no reason for any radio station to use real people for this type of voice tracking anymore when it can be replaced by AI technology for less. The poor mix in these examples is a separate issue.
The question is whether this kind of "content," whether presented by a either a prerecorded human or AI, really brings any value to the listening experience. Or is it just outdated clutter either way? In other words, what is the entertainment value of breaks like this?
You're getting at one of two points I would make from that aircheck:
1) The music pot wasn't turned down when Thy began talking so listeners couldn't hear her initial words over the music being played. The other way to look at this was that she was cutting into songs too quickly before their fadeouts or traditional endings.
2) Thy lacks any vocal inflection. While most people listen to radio as background and therefore it wouldn't bother them, it sure jumped out at me as somebody who was trained in the business.
There were voice tracked people on our "Alt" station who had the same problem #1.
My experiences with radio in stores these days, if you do hear it, the owner/Manager is probably an older person who doesn’t understand that commercial radio could be detrimental to his business.It is a rare moment that I walk into any business these days and hear a radio station. Most places I walk into either have Spotify all the company music stream. I get the company music stream, because it enables the business to control the environment. Hearing terrestrial radio in store these days is very risky to businesses, as there is a danger of commercials from competitors playing on the radio station.
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