With the debut of the first Artificial Intelligence (AI) personality on Portland’s Live 95.5, the possibility of hearing the GOATs of Radio (Greatest Of All Time) back on the air took a giant step closer to becoming a reality.
The DJ Hall of Fame
Imagine your favorite radio personality returning to the airwaves via voice cloning and the use of Artificial Intelligence. When I first wrote about this, over a year and a half ago, it seemed like something that would be five to ten years away, not 18-months.
Netflix
The most popular video streamer offers viewers content that is produced from all over the world, in the native language of the country it was produced. Netflix either has to offer this content with subtitles or voice-dubbing.
Netflix research has found the majority of its subscribers prefer voice-dubbing to subtitles. AI technology offers Netflix to have voices that sound the same as the original actors through voice sampling. Two additional benefits are that using this technology is faster than hiring actors to read and record the dialog, and it’s cheaper too.
Voice Sampling
Companies such as WellSaid have developed Artificial Intelligence technology that uses just a small sample of a person’s voice and can then re-create that voice to say anything a person types on a computer keyboard.
ChatGPT-4
Last week I had Chat GPT write an article for this blog. What was amazing to see, was the speed at which it happened.
As many readers pointed out, it broke no new ground about the future of commercial broadcast radio in the United States but simply rehashed all that has already been said.
Then Alpha Media’s Top 40 KBFF (Live 95.5) in Portland, Oregon announced it had become the world’s first radio station to use an AI DJ, made possible through the use of Futuri’s RadioGPT. Using the voice of the real Ashley Elzinga aka Ashley Z, the midday personality on Live 95.5, AI Ashley was “born”.
This is the Tweet that demonstrated how both the real Ashley Z and AI Ashley sound: TWITTER LINK
After you’ve listened to the demo, you should take a little extra time to read all the comments that follow Ashley Z’s Tweet. Especially the ones that think the station should change its branding from “Live 95.5” to something more like “artificial 95.5”.
If the power of radio is the personal connection an air personality makes with a listener, can this connection be made artificially?
Ashley Z
KBFF’s website has this bio of Ashley Elzinga:
Ashley got her break in radio thanks to an internship with Ryan Seacrest at his famous Ryan Seacrest Productions in Los Angeles, CA. She’s been on the air in Sacramento, Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Austin, Seattle, and now Portland!
She’s currently studying business at Harvard Business School Online and hopes to earn her MBA in the next few years.
Ashley loves to read and is obsessed with skincare and her 2 kitties, Oakley and Raspberry.
Sounds like Ashley Z has plans beyond her current radio gig, once she obtains that advanced degree from Harvard.
Dan Ingram, Larry Lujack, Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele…
It seemed like 18-months ago I was “spit balling” the future, but we now can see that having radio’s GOATs back on the air and doing their thing, artificially, is closer than you might have thought. The technology to do it is here today, however the sticking point for seeing this reality, will most likely be the many legal issues over the rights to using these voices. Unlike on TV, the law in real life is a slow moving process.
Rewound Radio
Until that day arrives, I will enjoy radio’s GOATs on Rewound Radio’s DJ Hall of Fame, that airs every Saturday afternoon from 12-3pm (EST) on https://rewoundradio.com
After all, who wants “New Coke” when you can have “The Real Thing.”
DickTaylorBlog 
We can clone the voices of the legends, but we can’t reverse engineer their brains — at least not yet.
When A.I. can create an original, funny Dan Ingram quip, talk-up, or ad-lib, then I will be impressed.
I’m not down on A.I., I just would point out that it still has limitations for broadcasting. A.I. can easily be used to voice track the same liners or generic jock patter we hear now. And it can probably voice newscasts (though the precise writing and stacking of the news will still need human curators for a while). But can A.I. conduct a probing interview on a talk show? Can it generate original humor? My point is that good radio will still need talented, smart humans for a while, yet.
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Thank You Todd for sharing your thoughts on this subject.
-DT
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Radio networks initially trimmed unprofitable processes, followed by cutting less essential resources, and now they are making further reductions. It seems the fat lady is warming up. [comment edited by chatgp4]
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The problem with A.I. doing news is that A.I can’t see what it unable to locate on the internet. And the problem with using the internet (or social media such as Facebook or Tik Tok or Instagram and the rest) should be obvious. Yes. Good radio needs people…and all A.I. can do is what it is told to do. The danger of A.I. is that it makes things up from the internet.
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Thank You Kevin for weighing in on this subject with your perspective.
-DT
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For quite a while, I’ve abandoned The Real Thing, also.
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And that is the bigger question, does anyone think going AI will bring people back to radio OR will drive people who haven’t left yet to abandon it?
-DT
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AI might sound like Dan Ingram, and might have the formatics down pat, but that’s not what made Dan one of the greatest DJs of all time. What made Dan stand out was his wicked mind and his ability to walk right up to the line, but not cross it. I doubt if AI could capture the subtleties that made Dan, Dan.
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I find myself torn on the AI voice technology. It would be fun to hear Dan Ingram making wry comments on the subjects and news makers of today. On the other hand is what happens when this tech falls into the wrong hands. I watched Joe Biden on TikTok railing against trans men. His voice was perfect, the inflections spot on, and it was only the content of his “speech” that gave it away as AI. This is one genie that we might like back in the bottle.
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James, you clearly exposed the dark side of this rapidly growing technology. And it is what you just shared that has everyone concerned about the serious issues that lie ahead. It’s very scary!
-DT
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And no one would know that better than the man who worked with Dan Ingram to create his brand of “theater of the mind.”
Thank You Frank for sharing your thoughts.
-DT
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AI will never recreate Dr. Don Rose or Skinny Bobby Harper or jocks I remember from KHJ,WLS,WQXI. The sound of their voice will be just a cheap knock off. To borrow a song title, “Aint Nothing Like The Real Thing”.
Real radio is about communication from one person to another. Anything else is just a jukebox.
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I would agree with you on that point Jim. Thank You for stopping by the blog today.
-DT
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Why does radio insist on going backward? Resurrecting old personalities is akin to Radio Ink highlighting that black & white picture of a kid holding a radio up, or it’s “blast from the past.”
Lose yesterday. Create tomorrow. There are too many media options looking forward to squander positioning yourself as “what we were.”
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Well said Ken.
-DT
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Thank you.
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I’ll pay the contrarian; while I mostly agree with the “not as good as the real thing” thoughts, I bet we (you pick the demo, former career, etc) would listen to it. It also exposes a younger demo to what we enjoyed in our youth. (And hey, nostalgia is a thing now, right?) Take the tech to streaming, where YOU get to PICK your fav DJ to listen to all the time. you’re new best friend
with your favorite tunes are just a click away.
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I think you just showed how once again how radio will have a hard time competing with the personalization of AI technology via internet and streaming. IF you can create your own favorite DJ that plays your music, why would you want to listen to someone elses?
Excellent point Rich.
-DT
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AI “voice cloning” has (I suppose) a future in media, but I’d much prefer NEW air personalities that “clone” the best aspects of the most successful past jocks and stations. We don’t really need more of the same; we need variations and all-new ideas that revitalize the medium.
Much as I’d love to hear my favorite personalities of the past once again, they are gone. I’m looking for personalities who can follow in the footsteps (while blazing new paths) of people like Dan Ingram, Charlie Tuna, Jack Parnell, Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh, Wolfman Jack, etc.
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Bob Cruz sounded a lot like Dan Ingram, in vocal qualities, but he didn’t have the mind that powered Big Dan’s voice.
Maybe that gives us a clue into how an AI Dan would pail to the real Dan.
Walter, I think there’s a place for this technology in the radio industry, but somehow I’m pessimistic that it will be misused in much the same way that computer technolgy has been.
Some of us envisioned that computers would give DJs more time to prepare a great show, NOT have a single DJ try and be on multiple radio stations at the same time.
I fear AI will suffer a similar fate.
-DT
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AI is real. We know that. (Just scan the articles of the past month.) Like all of the technology we’ve used it can be good or bad. The benefit of AI exists when it will be brighter, funnier, more entertaining, more informative, more creative than the humans in the industry today. When it determines the best way to sequence a commercial set so it doesn’t seem like it goes on forever. When it determines the best sequencing for a set of songs. When it determines the most relatable content to introduce a song. When it seamlessly transitions from one song to the next and offers up the satisfaction of having the listener actually appreciate the interruption. Unless I’m wrong, AI just seems like a text to speech feature that uses a voice different from the writer, and nothing else. Listeners have lamented computer generated station playlists since the early 1980s when Andy Economos’ Selector hit the market. When set up and run without checking, it’s a nightmare. Where’s “AI Selector”? I’ve spent time skimming airchecks of “Live 95.5” and have yet to hear any mention of “AI Ashley”. I’ve heard her do a number of breaks, mostly unrelated to her “surroundings” (music, city, station, weather, listener shout outs) -much of what you hear on many AC/Hot AC/CHR stations these days. Her part in the “show” is limited to 2-3 breaks per hour, instead letting the imaging voices and morning show promos fill the space between songs most of the time. Stopsets (on the stream) are very long. In the middle of one set a spot ran WITH the producer’s “slate” prior to the spot. Little of this is AI’s fault. It’s human fault. It’s humans thinking that they can save money by turning on a machine and letting it go. Computers have been used in movies since 1958. Computers have been used in radio systems since about 1980. Yup, 40 years. Still not perfected. (Does that station you hear streaming online upcut commercials and songs?)
The fact that AI isn’t ready for prime (or any) time won’t stop companies from using it. That’s the scary part. AI might be a useful tool if used right. It might help with the creative process but it will take a mind not unlike Chuck Blore, Bill Drake, Buzz Bennett or Jack McCoy to stretch, bend and break the rules for creative entertainment. AI can take a great idea, suggest additional material, and then the intelligent HUMAN can make it work. Not the other way around. Anyway that’s my 2 cents. 70 years of movie making. 40+ years of radio. It’s all been disrupted by consolidation, Wall Street and shortsighted budgeting. AI can’t fix that either.
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Dave, Thank You for all you wrote. I think you’ve clearly articulated the potential benefits and pitfalls of AI and the radio industry.
Sadly, those of us that have been in the biz for decades, fear that the pitfalls are more likely to be what we hear coming out of our radio speakers than the benefits that might be heard.
At the rate this technology is being adopted, we won’t have to wait very long to hear the answer to this question.
-DT
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I Rather hear a real DJ and a legendary DJ than a AI.
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