Steve Lehto: "Radio station (secretly) used an AI DJ (for 6 months) and NO ONE noticed"

[Miss Tuned]

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.

It's not just competing commercials, it's the scammy commercials for questionable legal and financial products, it's the DJ talking crap, it's the negative and depressing news. Radio just doesn't work in a retail environment - you want a positive listen, and radio isn't that. Nobody wants to go into a store and hear "1-800-I-GOT-INJURED" repeated eight times before a news bulletin about a shooting and terrible economic reports.

The only place I've been into recently with radio on was the local Caribbean restaurant - who were playing a local Caribbean music pirate station on the Saturday evening I was in there.

 

[ted chittenden]

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.

While your post may/may not be true in all cases, I, for one, find it disturbing. Having a radio on inside the store could make the shopper aware of weather or traffic issues that could create problems as she is leaving the store.

 

[kevtronics]

Having a radio on inside the store could make the shopper aware of weather or traffic issues that could create problems as she is leaving the store.

Isn't that called "a window"?

 

[leethalweapon]

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.

Through out the years CRA have been very influencial in trying to prevent any further competition in the Australian industry. Back in the 70's and 80's there was a bit more format diversity too. The fact that in Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane there have been 3 stations with similar sounding formats says that there is little variety. Although (Sydney's) 2DAY FM's recent relaunch has broken the mould. DAB+ and streaming have given all operators more options to serve the audience and advertisers with diverse format options, and enabled terrestrial talent/shows that aren't network shows a chance to be heard in other markets.

 

[tall_guy1]

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?

There's so many "generic" announcers that are voice tracked, might as well be AI.

 

[ted chittenden]

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.

Agreed. In addition, in Australia, as in Canada, there can be some very long distances between towns, especially if you're traveling through the lands away from the oceans. The result is that some of the state-run public FM stations have powers of up to 250kW and most of the AM frequencies have only two or three stations located on them throughout the entire continent. And this is despite the fact that Australia now uses the 9-kHz separator between AM frequencies instead of the 10-kHz used in the Americas.