Tag Archives: AI

March 23, 2025 · 3:00 am

What Skills Are Needed in Today’s Media & Communications Industry?

This week, Sarah McGrath, an editor with the LinkedIn News team, emailed me to get my feedback about their inaugural “List of Skills on the Rise in Media and Communications.”

LinkedIn mined its member data base of media and communications folks to compile a list of the 10 fastest-growing skills that working professionals feel are needed to get ahead and grow in the 21st Century.

I’m going to post LinkedIn’s list and invite you to share your thoughts and comments about what people interested in a career in the media and communications industry should be investing in. If you feel this list missed a skill that you believe should have been included, please respond on the www.DickTaylorBlog.com website’s comments section.

AI Literacy

Artificial Intelligence or A.I. is certainly a must in today’s world. A.I. is turning our world upside down at the speed of light. I don’t believe anyone could imagine not having the skills and understanding needed to leverage this technology, for fun and profit.

Emotional Intelligence

In a world where your smartphone can quickly provide the answers to any question you might have, the skill I see that should be on this list – and maybe #2 – is emotional intelligence, also referred to as EQ.

People with a high EQ possess the skills necessary in building strong relationships and navigating social situations. They are able to manage emotions effectively, allowing for the achievement of both personal and professional success.

The Harvard Business Review says that while technical skills may have helped you to secure your first promotion, without emotional intelligence it may not guarantee your next one. For EQ is the skill that will help you successfully coach teams, manage stress, deliver feedback and collaborate with others.

“Emotional Intelligence is one of the most sought-after interpersonal skills in the workplace. In fact, 71 percent of employers value emotional intelligence more than technical skills when evaluating candidates.”

The good news is, emotional intelligence can be improved in each of us if we make a conscious effort to practice on developing self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social skills.

My wife Sue, who edits this blog, says listening is a very important EQ skill. It’s one I’m still working on.

Active listening means to pay close attention to what others are saying, both verbally and nonverbally, and trying to understand their perspectives.

For “50 Tips on Improving your Emotional Intelligence” click on this LINK.

Now It’s Your Turn

I would really love to hear what your thoughts are on the skills young people should be developing and strengthening to thrive in today’s media and communications world.

Be sure to click on this LINK and share your thoughts in the comments section on the blog.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

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January 26, 2025 · 3:00 am

UNCERTAIN

If you had to sum up, in one word, what the year ahead for radio would be like, what word would you choose?

The word I chose was “UNCERTAIN,” when Fred Jacobs posed that question to the readers of his blog.

Word Salad

To be more specific, the question Fred Jacobs asked his readers to respond to was:

What’s your unique “take” on broadcast radio in 2025?  In a word, how would you describe this next 11+ months?  What’s the state of radio in 2025 – in just one word?

He put that question to the readers of his blog on Monday (1/20/2025) and on Wednesday (1/22/2025), after more than 225 people responded,  produced the “Word Cloud” shown below.

My response of “UNCERTAIN,” can be found in the upper left hand corner.

CES 2025

On Tuesday (1/21/2025), Fred gave a webinar on this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (now just simply called CES) held at the beginning of each year in Las Vegas. He characterized this year’s show as “NOT NORMAL” calling it a transformative event.

In his summary of the Top 10 Themes at CES 2025, all of them included Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Filling Talent Shortages

A new study released Tuesday (1/21/2025) by Hult International Business School and Workplace Intelligence found that even when faced with widespread talent shortages, employers would rather hire a robot or AI than a recent graduate.

You don’t have to be in radio to feel a sense of terror for what lies ahead for America’s working class.

College Graduates

“Meanwhile, recent graduates who have successfully joined companies, have found the work experience invaluable. 77% said they learned more in half a year on the job than in four years of undergrad and 87% said their employer provided better job training than college.”

“Over half (55%) said that college didn’t prepare them in any way for the job they currently hold,” according to the survey, which isn’t a glowing endorsement for getting an expensive college education and racking up a large debt.

This was something I realized while teaching at the university back in 2016 and blogged about in an article called “Just In Time Learning.”

Division

Fred summed up the results of his unscientific experiment saying:

“And we wonder why radio discussions on social media turn into debates, while often devolving into rants and responses in ALL CAPS. We may as well be talking politics. Actually, we very much are.”

The one word that never came up in the more than two hundred participants was…

“unified.”

For America today, the one word that best describes our country is “divided.”

So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when asked about what the future of broadcasting is, the answer is…

Radio, like our country, is divided.

We have the large and powerful radio operators and then we have a few mom & pop stations, with the rest of the local service primarily being the dedicated operators of Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations, supported by listeners and local business underwriters.

The gap between the haves and have-nots keeps widening, which prevents the radio industry from speaking with one voice.

America’s 2nd Gilded Age

You tell me if what happened a century ago sounds like what’s happening in America today.

During the 1920s, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology. But the Gilded Age had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class.

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October 20, 2024 · 3:00 am

Instant Podcast

I’ve been writing this blog for ten years. A question that comes up occasionally is, why don’t I record my articles and make them into a podcast. The reason in one word is “focus.”

Seth Godin, a marketing genius I’ve followed for years says, if you want to communicate to the world, pick one medium and give it your all. For me, it was the written blog.

But – never say never.

Google’s NotebookLM

Steve Goldstein* wrote on this week’s Amplifi Media blog about a new audio product from Google, called “NotebookLM.” Steve says:

“If you’re in the audio business and haven’t yet explored

NotebookLM, you should.

It’s an impressive, jaw dropping tool that is exciting, weird and unsettling at the same time.”

Now, that sounded very enticing; so, I gave it a try.

We Never Called It Content – Podcast

I published my most read article on September 6, 2015 titled “We Never Called It Content.”  I decided that I would put my words through Google’s NotebookLM Artificial Intelligence Tool (AI) and see what came out.

NotebookLM produced an eight minute and seven second audio conversation between a man and a woman (both AI generated voices) discussing my article, as if I were a listener to their podcast and submitted this topic for their analysis.

The end result was produced in less than four minutes. Take a listen:

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/30d99a06-d33e-467e-84be-09c61a6a8a25/audio

We Never Called It Content – Blog Article

Now, for comparison of my original work, here’s the blog article I wrote back in 2015:

Larry Lujack, The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Dale Dorman, Ron Lundy, Salty Brine, Bob Steele, and so many, many more.  These names I’ve dropped are all no longer on the radio.  Terrestrial radio anyway.  We radio geeks like to think they are now Rockin’ N Rollin’ the hinges off the pearly gates.

Everyone can understand the circle of life.  People retire, people pass on.

But this past week saw the “forced retirement” of more big names in radio.  Two of them that were on Los Angeles radio have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  They delivered, according to what I’ve read in the trades, excellent audience ratings.  So, what happened?

Bill Gates once famously announced “content is king” as we entered the Internet age.  Microsoft would give businesses WORD, EXCEL, PowerPoint etc.  The business schools graduated a whole gaggle of spreadsheet nerds who excel at these computer tools.  The Telcom Act of 1996 was the beginning of the consolidation of radio and when Wall Street would jump into this wonderful new investment opportunity.

When you look at radio stations via spreadsheets, you primarily are reducing everything to numbers.  It completely eviscerates the human element from the decision making process.

Nobody turned on Steele, Lujack, Morgan, Dorman, Lundy, Brine, Steele and the rest of radio’s iconic personalities and said, “I’m going to get me some great content.”  We turned on our favorite radio station because the people behind the microphone were members of our family.  We enjoyed spending time with them.  We knew that what we were experiencing, they were experiencing right along with us.  They were local & live. 

Radio is an art form.

When you remove the artists, there’s not much left.

Radio is a pretty simple business.  You play recordings people want to hear, you keep your hand on the pulse of the community you’re licensed to serve and report on what’s going on that people need to know and you hire personalities that become the audio glue that keep it all together running smoothly and engage the listener.

To support the expense of doing all of this, you work with businesses to expose their products and services to the audience you’ve attracted to your radio station.

The irony with today’s radio is that more radio stations operate out of a single location than at any time in radio’s 95 year history, but with less people per station than at any time in that same history.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) return to make a new movie about today’s radio called “Honey, I Shrunk the Staff.” 

Frederick Allan “Rick” Moranis, a native Canadian, was a disc jockey on three Toronto radio stations back in the mid-70s performing on the radio under the name “Rick Allan.”

No one has a clue how much the employment in the radio industry has shrunk as the industry rushed to consolidate.  What we do know is when you walk into any of these huge clusters; there are rows of empty cubicles, offices that are no longer occupied – it can be depressing. 

I’m not saying that radio, like every other business, shouldn’t be running more efficiently and taking advantage of technology to control the costs of operation.  But the buzz you hear is that the fat cutting has become cutting the bone.

As Ken Levine wrote in his blog about the state of the radio industry http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-im-glad-i-got-out-of-radio.html?m=1 “In the past when a great disc jockey got fired he would simply show up elsewhere.  But who knows today? Nobody is hiring. They’re all just firing.”

Today’s radio is being driven by Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations trying to put a pretty face on the new strategy.  But radio is more than just studios, transmitters, and now websites/social media, radio is made up of people, albeit fewer of them by the day.

Radio was never a just a job.  Radio was a mission inspired by people who were passionate about all the medium could be.  Everyone inside a radio station worked towards this common goal, just like the people at Google, Apple, Southwest – to name a few – do.

People didn’t get into radio, radio got into people.

Holy Audio, Batman!

Now remember, everything in my original article was simply uploaded to Google’s NotebookLM and the audio you just listened to, of a man and a woman, discussing my blog – in some cases actually expanding on my original thoughts – was completely AI-generated.

I honestly don’t know what to think, but I’m very curious as to what your impressions are about all of this.

Please post your thoughts in the comments section of this blog article, so that others may be stimulated to share their own, and we can all learn from one another’s perspective.

*Steve Goldstein’s Amplifi Media works with media companies and podcasters in developing audio content strategies.

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June 25, 2023 · 3:00 am

Zombie Radio

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.”

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June 18, 2023 · 3:00 am

ChatGPT Writes This Week’s DTB Article

I recently sat down with a ChatGPT user to learn about how powerful this form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is. To test this rapidly growing form of AI, we asked ChatGPT to write a scholarly thousand word essay on what the future of commercial broadcast radio in five years is in the United States.

ChatGPT basically scrubs the internet for information and then puts what it finds into whatever format you request. ZDNet explains it this way:

“ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist you with tasks, such as composing emails, essays, and code.”

The following is the article ChatGPT wrote in less than a minute.

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Title: The Future of Commercial Broadcast Radio in the United States: Adapting to an Evolving Landscape

Introduction

Commercial broadcast radio has been a staple of American media for over a century, entertaining and informing listeners across the nation. However, with the rapid advancements in technology and the rise of digital platforms, the future of commercial broadcast radio in the United States is at a critical juncture. This essay aims to explore the challenges facing commercial radio and discuss potential strategies for its survival and growth in the evolving media landscape.

I. The Shift to Digital Platforms

The advent of the internet and the proliferation of digital media platforms have significantly impacted the radio industry. Online streaming services, podcasts, and music apps have gained popularity among consumers, providing them with personalized and on-demand content. As a result, traditional commercial broadcast radio has faced increased competition for listeners’ attention.

II. Embracing Technological Advancements

To stay relevant and competitive, commercial broadcast radio must adapt to the changing technological landscape. One potential strategy is embracing digital platforms and incorporating them into the traditional radio experience. Many radio stations have already started offering live streaming options on their websites and mobile apps, allowing listeners to tune in from anywhere in the world. This enables radio stations to reach a broader audience and engage with listeners beyond their terrestrial broadcast range.

III. Leveraging Podcasting

Podcasting has experienced exponential growth in recent years, becoming a powerful medium for storytelling, education, and entertainment. Commercial radio stations can leverage this trend by producing and distributing their own podcasts. By creating compelling and unique content, radio stations can attract new listeners and build loyalty among their existing audience. Additionally, podcasting opens up new revenue streams through sponsorships and advertising opportunities, ensuring the financial viability of radio stations.

IV. Personalization and Localization

In the era of digital media, consumers increasingly seek personalized and localized content experiences. Commercial broadcast radio can leverage this demand by utilizing advanced data analytics and AI-driven technologies to deliver tailored programming to individual listeners. By

understanding listeners’ preferences and behaviors, radio stations can curate content that aligns with their interests, thus enhancing engagement and attracting a wider audience.

Furthermore, commercial radio stations can strengthen their connection with local communities by focusing on hyperlocal content. Emphasizing local news, events, and personalities not only creates a unique selling point for radio stations but also fosters a sense of community among listeners. By becoming an essential source of local information, commercial radio can differentiate itself from digital competitors and solidify its position in the media landscape.

V. Collaborative Partnerships

In the face of evolving media consumption habits, commercial radio can explore collaborative partnerships with other media platforms. For instance, radio stations can collaborate with streaming services to cross-promote content and expand their reach. Similarly, partnerships with local businesses and event organizers can provide opportunities for live broadcasts and mutually beneficial promotional campaigns. By forging strategic alliances, commercial radio can leverage the strengths of different media platforms and create a seamless, multi-platform experience for listeners.

VI. Adapting Advertising Strategies

Advertising has been a vital revenue source for commercial broadcast radio. However, in the digital age, advertisers have diversified their investments, allocating budgets to various platforms based on audience demographics and reach. To remain competitive, radio stations must adapt their advertising strategies to attract and retain advertisers. This can include offering targeted advertising options based on listener data, integrating native advertisements seamlessly into programming, and exploring innovative formats such as branded content and influencer partnerships.

Conclusion

The future of commercial broadcast radio in the United States lies in its ability to adapt and embrace the changing media landscape. By leveraging digital platforms, embracing technological advancements, and prioritizing personalization and localization, commercial radio can retain its relevance and attract a new generation of listeners. Collaborative partnerships and evolving advertising strategies will also play a crucial role in securing the financial resources needed to sustain commercial radio operations. While challenges persist, the future of commercial broadcast radio in the United States is not bleak. By embracing innovation, staying attuned to audience preferences, and forging strategic alliances, radio stations can navigate the evolving media landscape and continue to be a trusted source of entertainment, information, and community connection. By evolving with the times, commercial broadcast radio can carve out its place in the digital age, ensuring its longevity and relevance for years to come.

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Let me know how you think ChatGPT did in the comments section of this blog. I look forward to reading your thoughts about this life-changing technology that is impacting our world.

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December 19, 2021 · 3:00 am

Is it LIVE or AI?

One of the loyal readers to this blog, wrote and asked me what I thought the future looked like for the combination of radio and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In today’s blog, I will consider that very question.

Is it Live, or is it Memorex?

I remember when the audio quality of tape recorders became so improved with audio reproduction, that the question of the day was, “Is it live or is it Memorex?” Memorex was a company established in 1961 for selling magnetic computer tapes. In the 70s Memorex moved into producing quality audio tape for recording music and voice.

TV commercials at that time featured Ella Fitzgerald singing a note that shattered a glass, while simultaneously being recorded on an audio cassette. The recorded audio would then be played back and the recording would also shatter a glass, to which the announcer would ask, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”

Is AI Going to Replace Voicetracking?

Then Radio Ink published a story that got many of the people in my radio, podcasting and other social media groups talking about, titled “Is AI going to replace voicetracking?”

Voicetracking technology has been used to replace live radio personalities for decades, but what AI presents the industry with is the possible ability to bring back the big name radio personalities.

Dan Ingram, Larry Lujack, Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele…

Imagine your radio market’s favorite radio personality returning to the airwaves. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.

A company called WellSaid Labs has created dozens of human voice avatars where all one needs to do to get them to talk, is type text into a computer and the voice will say it.

Imagine how having a creative person, who has studied the style of an iconic personality, and then creating new, contemporary material to be delivered in that personality’s voice might sound.

Netflix Research

Now you might be wondering why anyone would want this type of technology. Well, Netflix now streams content worldwide and buys new content from producers all over the world. Much of that content is produced in the country’s native language and so Netflix has to show that content with either subtitles or voice-dubbing the dialog with voice actors speaking in the language of the country the material will air in.

It might not surprise you to learn that when Netflix has offered viewers two ways of viewing  a program, Americans in particular, prefer voice-dubbing to subtitles. (I know I do.)

To speed up the process of voice-dubbing and to have voices that sound the same as the original actors, companies like WellSaid are developing artificial intelligence technology that by voice sampling can then re-create the voice automatically.

ALEXA

I already have conversations with Alexa and have wondered what she might sound like as a DJ on a radio station, haven’t you?

The afternoon DJ on KCSN, Andy Chanley, has been on-the-air there for over 32 years. Now using a robot DJ named ANDY (Artificial Neural Disk-Jockey), Chanley’s voice will continue to be heard in many places throughout Southern California. During a demonstration for Reuters, reporters say that Chanley’s AI voice was hard to distinguish from his human voice.

You can listen to these computer generated voices WellSaid has created for yourself by clicking on this link: https://wellsaidlabs.com/?#actors-preview-list

Is Your Favorite DJ Already a Robot?

WellSaid says its voice avatars are doing more than just DJ work, they are being used extensively in corporate training material and the creation of audio books.

Do I think I will live to see radio’s great personalities coming back to life? No, because I think there will be too many legal issues that might complicate that from happening anytime soon.

But I do think that original voice avatars, teamed up with creative content developers, might just come into existence sooner than we imagine and provide us with an entirely new form of radio entertainment.

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December 1, 2019 · 3:00 am

Radio’s Brain Challenge

radio on brainI often wonder if today’s youth would gravitate to the style of radio that attracted me to make radio broadcasting my career for five decades. Would they be attracted to a Dan Ingram, Robert W. Morgan, Dave Maynard, Ron Lundy, The Real Don Steele, Big Ron O’Brien, Larry Lujack or any of the countless other personalities that so influenced me as I was growing up?

Spoiler Alert: probably not

Old Brains vs New Brains

Our brains are wired by our experiences.

Those of us who grew up in the 60s, most likely had a transistor radio that only received Zenith RadioAM radio. Mine was a Zenith Royal 50 that came with an ear phone, that allowed me to listen to the Red Sox while in elementary school or to radio stations from far, far away after it was ‘lights out’ and I was supposed to be asleep.

This is an advertisement for that radio.

I saw it in Bristol, Tennessee at the “Birthplace of Country Music Museum.” I’m finding that a lot of my career memories are now museum pieces.

My brain was originally wired for AM radio, then FM stereo radio and all of the great radio personalities, promotions and stationality of that era.

More recently my brain has been wired for streaming audio and the convenience of playing anything that fits my mood via an Amazon Echo.

But anyone who has grown up in a world where streaming audio has always been there, has had their brain wired for only this kind of world, not the world of the 20th Century.

Classical Music’s Challenge

Classical music venues, including radio stations, are searching for new audiences as their current audience gets older.

With the typical American adult spending eleven-plus hours-a-day connected to media, today’s musical consumer can’t help but have their brain wired in a new way. Most of that listening is via computer speakers or wireless ear buds, not known for delivering the highest quality sound, but very convenient.

Classical music aficionados are all about quality of sound, so huge sums of money are spent building acoustically perfect auditoriums that often are in locations that are anything but easy for people to access.

People want to listen to music everywhere; in cars, on buses, on trains & planes, and while walking on busy city streets. They don’t mind that the sound quality is less than perfect because convenience for them rules.

Our Brains Re-wire Quickly

To give you an example of how quickly our brains can be re-wired, V.S. Ramachandaran did an experiment where test subjects were shown a group of black dots on a white page. After studying the dots, participants soon began to see the form of a dog. MRI scans were used during the process and monitored participant brains being re-wired. Once the dog was seen, participants could not look at the paper again without immediately seeing a dog. Their brains had been re-wired that quickly.

On Demand Entertainment

I’ll admit it, I want my entertainment – audio or video – immediately available when I want it. My radio and television habits are nothing like they were when I was growing up when the only media I could see or hear came through the ether.

Initially cable TV and the TV remote control re-wired my brain for television viewing, but nothing has impacted my home media entertainment habits like streaming and on demand. Be it audio entertainment via our Amazon Echoes (now numbering 3) or video entertainment via Apple TV or Firestick, everything now is on demand to match our mood thanks to streaming via the internet.

Is It Real or AI?

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has gotten so sophisticated that they are “paving the way for “deepfake” videos, content that falsely shows people saying and doing things they never said or did,” says CNBC.

Just the other week I read where James Dean, who died 64 years ago, will be starring in an upcoming movie about the Vietnam War. This has been made possible by the use of computer-generated imaging of James Dean.

A New Radio Format

Larry LujackThat got me to thinking that maybe a new radio format could be created bringing back deceased personalities like Robert W. Morgan, Dan Ingram, The Real Don Steele, Big Ron O’Brien, Ron Lundy, Larry Lujack among other greats by using the power of artificial intelligence. These incomparable radio personalities would “live again” via talented writers and programmers who would tell them what to say. Can you imagine how it might sound?

It would be like the “DJ Hall of Fame” on Rewound Radio, only the weather forecasts, the news, the community events etc. would all be current and up-to-date.

Which brings me back to how I started this article, would the radio listeners of today listen? Would their brains be so completely re-wired that they wouldn’t find it appealing? I fear they wouldn’t. Just as Vaudeville shtick stopped appealing to the generations of audiences with access to movies, television and radio.

In the end, doing something new means doing something fundamentally different.

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If you’d like to know more about how advanced Artificial Intelligence has become, watch this five and a half-minute YouTube video. AI can clone your voice after listening to it for just 5-seconds. Click HERE

And for a really deep dive on how AI will change our future in ways we never imagined, watch this two-hour FRONTLINE report from PBS HERE

 

 

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March 10, 2019 · 3:00 am

Is Radio Prepared for The Future

Radio & CobwebsIn a lot of ways, the future is here, now.

All of the things we knew were coming back at the turn of the century have become reality.

But the radio industry continues to try to adapt.

Great Companies Don’t Adapt, They Prepare

When I saw that headline on a blog article by Greg Satell two years ago, it resonated with me because it made me realize that the radio industry wasn’t prepared for the 21st Century. It was trying to adapt the past to the present and hoping that it would sustain them going into the future.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to create the future by focusing on the present.

“The truth is,” writes Satell, “that companies rarely succeed by adapting to market events.”

“Firms prevail by shaping the future…but it takes years of preparation to achieve.

Once you find yourself in a position where you need to adapt, it’s usually too late.”

-Greg Satell

Marconi & Sarnoff

Each generation has its great innovators, so It’s always a challenge to say who makes a greater contribution to changing the world.

Marconi gave us the wireless, a one-to-one form of communications that transformed the world.

Sarnoff innovated the radio as a form of mass communication, giving us a one-to-many instant communication service of news, entertainment and advertising supported radio.

What we can be certain of, each person who creates the future is one who overflows with boundless curiosity.

Investing in Research

All of the Big 5 Tech companies (Amazon, Facebook Microsoft, Google and Apple) invest heavily in research. Each of them, in their own way, has made themselves indispensable from our daily lives.

Recently, a daily newsletter I read called “While You Were Working,” asked its readers which of the Big 5 Tech Companies they could survive without. Here are the results of that survey:

Which Big 5 tech company do you think it would be easiest to live without?

Facebook  70.71%
Apple  14.14%
Amazon  7.35%
Microsoft  5.74%
Google  2.06%

Probably not surprising that Facebook was the choice folks said they could live without by a wide margin.

For five weeks, Kashmir Hill, a writer for Gizmodo, decided to see how she would deal with giving up today’s technology by blocking one of the Big 5 from her world. In her sixth and final week, she decided to go cold turkey and blocked them all. How did that go? Well I think the title of her article said it all, “I Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell.”

Hill compared her experience to that of an alcoholic trying to give us booze. And that life without them makes life very difficult as we are so dependent on them.

I’m not sure any of us really understands how married we are to these Big 5 Tech Companies or how hard it would be for us to give up even one of them, let alone to give them all up.

Listening to Radio

One of the interesting side-bars of the article Hill wrote was that by not having Alexa, Spotify audio books, podcasts or other such services on her Nokia feature phone, what she could receive, unlike with her iPhone, were radio broadcasts and that allowed her to listen to NPR while doing her daily run.

But how sad that listening to radio only seems to be an option when all other options are eliminated.

Investing in the Core Product

Some of the differences between the Big 5 Tech companies are what non-core areas they invest their research money into, like self-driving cars. The one thing they all take very seriously, however, is plowing the lion’s share of their research budget into their core competencies.

In my sales class, I used to tell my students that people don’t buy half-inch drill bits because they want them, they buy them because what they want are half-inch holes. In other words, you will be successful when you invest your time solving your customers’ problems.

Radio Research

Most radio research dollars are spent on one thing, audience measurement. Unfortunately, that’s research that studies the past performance of a radio station, not the present moment. Virtually no radio research money is spent on preparing the ground for the future.

We all know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next big thing. Alexa, in your Amazon Echo, is the perfect example.

How is the radio industry preparing its employees to acquire the skills they will need to excel in an AI world? Artificial Intelligence is a force that will impact the communications industry in the years to come.

Broadcasting has been living off of its seed corn for too many years, while the technology industries have been focused on solving our customer’s problems by investing in them for years, even decades.

Broadcasters can’t create the future by continuing to focus on the present.

Innovation, will require investment in research that, imagines new possibilities.

 

 

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February 10, 2019 · 3:00 am

A New Direction for Broadcast

rogers-pastoreLast week I told you about how our world is exploding with media to the point of over-saturation. Not only are we drowning in a plethora of media, the rate of new ways to communicate keeps accelerating at an unfathomable pace.

For one form of broadcast, RADIO, I believe it has a super power that it can wield to cut through the clutter.

Radio’s Advantage

Radio’s biggest strength is its ability to make people aware of things. More than 300 radio stations across America annually participate in “Radio Cares” to support St. Jude Children’s hospital, raising tens of millions of dollars every year.

Radio has the power to make people aware of the need, and listeners respond with their dollars.

Artificial Intelligence

Radio grew up with the strength of connecting with the radio listener by power of the human voice and a talented personality behind a microphone.

Radio is an art form. When you remove the artists, there’s not much left.

The development in the field of AI (artificial intelligence) is incredible. Amazon’s Alexa now has a “news voice” to deliver the latest goings-on in our world with the authority of a network newscaster.

But, the curious thing is, as artificial intelligence grows, we find human interaction takes on even more importance.

Radio needs to automate the backroom and other areas unseen or unheard by the listening consumer, and return to live personalities 24/7 that connect and engage the listener on an emotional level. Personalities that can not only sell the music, but the advertiser’s goods that support the radio broadcasting station.

The Radio Listening Experience

The 21st Century world is filled with people seeking out the best customer experience. And what comes through the listener’s speaker, is critical.

Radio programmers sweat bullets over their OTA signal while completely ignoring the programming that streams over the internet. The radio listener’s experience in those long commercial stop-sets is painful. Often with the same advertisement running multiple times in one of those gargantuan breaks.

This IS NOT a great listening experience.

Radio Needs to Be Personalized

Radio needs to stop worrying about reaching the most people and instead personalize its programming to a specific target audience. A specific group of people with like interests, needs and desires.

Radio that personalizes itself to an audience that shares common beliefs and/or lifestyles will deliver an advertising platform for products and services that wish to reach these same people.

Social Intelligence

Radio needs to learn how to turn its social media data into social media intelligence that can be leveraged to personalize their programming and keep it fully aligned with the target audience.

80% of people’s decisions are based on emotion.

Emotion is data too.

Fred Rogers

Back in 1968, public television in America was worried that Senator John Pastore’s Subcommittee on Communications was going to gut its congressional monies. Public television’s head selected Fred Rogers to champion its cause before Senator Pastore’s committee. Mr. Rogers testimony is still considered one of the most powerful pieces of emotional persuasion ever filmed.

Fred Rogers appeared before Senator Pastore on May 1, 1969 and it will definitely be worth your time to view and analyze it HERE

Rogers secured public television’s full funding without a single penny being cut.

During Mr. Rogers presentation, Senator Pastore remarked: “Well, I’m supposed to be a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time I’ve had goose bumps for the last two days.”

When Fred Rogers concluded his testimony, Senator Pastore’s closing statement was “Looks like you just earned the twenty million dollars.”

Radio’s Mission for the Future

Radio can’t win by being artificial.

Radio needs to be earnest, authentic and live in the moment.

Radio needs personalities that are personal, informal, and that speak to human feelings and emotions using the words that the listener uses and understands.

The radio personality who becomes an extended member of the listener’s family can be powerful in making the listener aware of everything they need to know, even advertised merchandise and service.

Radio’s best investment to secure its future is creating the best listener experience both over-the-air and online.

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January 20, 2019 · 3:00 am

CES 2019

Dave - 2001 .jpgI wasn’t at CES 2019. In fact, I’ve never been to CES.

But after reading the reports on this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, I feel like I was there 50-years ago via Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 motion picture phenomena “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Technology Integration

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) did a special video they called “Bonus Report of C-Suite Radio Exec’s attending CES” and some of the comments those radio executives made is what made me feel like I’d seen this “movie” before.

Steve Goldstein

Steve said that what he’s marveled at over the years is how media is continually being integrated. He said only a couple of years ago, there was virtually no mention of smart speakers, and this year it’s not only a device exploding in the home, but now is coming into the car too. Goldstein thinks this voice activated technology is important because these devices are not radios, but audio devices and radio stations, as audio content producers need to re-imagine how they will sound and feel like on these devices. And he added, “it’s happening fast!”

Dennis Gwiazdon

Before recently moving to Las Vegas to manage the Beasley Media Group radio stations in that city, Dennis ran the top radio stations in Nashville, TN. When I was teaching at the university in Kentucky, Dennis was an annual guest in my Broadcast Capstone Class.

Dennis said of his visit to CES 2019 it helps radio broadcasters to think about where things are heading and to plan for the future.

Technology today is making our lives simpler by our ability to talk to our devices and connect ourselves to things we used to have to physically operate. Gwiazdon told the RAB that he lives in a smart home in Las Vegas and it’s fascinating to him how he can walk around his house, talk to it and make it do whatever he wants it to do. “I don’t have to touch a light switch, I don’t have to adjust the thermostat, when I come home I can have a routine set-up that will have everything ready for me when I walk through the door.”  “I’m living in that experience now, “said Dennis.

I’m Sorry Dave, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do Thathal 9000

And it was Dennis’ comments that brought to mind the astronaut named Dave in “2001: A Space Odyssey” that when his space pod was trying to re-enter the mother ship and Dave asked the HAL 9000 computer system to open the pod bay doors. Here’s a link to that memorable moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJ8cAGm6JE

HAL’s response to Dave was “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” The reason was that the HAL 9000 computer could not only respond to voice commands but, it turned out, could also read lips and knew what Dave and his fellow astronaut were planning on doing. They were planning on taking the HAL 9000 off-line because they suspected the computer was making mistakes.

The HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) 9000 was basically artificial intelligence that was designed to learn, grow and protect itself from attacks. HAL sensed he was coming under attack and was trying to protect itself from the humans.

iPhone 4S

iphone 4s

Oh, it all seemed so innocent back in 2012 when I switched from my Blackberry to my first iPhone. It was the iPhone 4S. The “S” stood for Siri. Siri was my first voice activated assistant.

I found that I used Siri mainly for dictating text messages and emails rather than trying to type things into the phone’s touch screen. Siri did a pretty good job too.

Occasionally I asked Siri to tell me a joke or look something up for me, but not often.

Alexa

So now it’s 2019 and I have Siri on my tablets, my MAC, and iPhone 7. I have three Amazon Echo’s with Alexa, and in my car, my Garmin Smart Drive responds to my voice commands.  It sends me instant traffic information and detours when necessary, along with important weather alerts and breaking news.

I really feel like Dave in 2001, controlling so much of my world with just my voice.

It’s quite addictive and it happens very fast.

I hope they don’t ever turn against me.

Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have both warned that AI (artificial intelligence) could potentially be very dangerous. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke certainly showed my generation why, back in 1968. AI is about building machines that think for themselves and grow in their intelligence. It’s what will make a world of self-driving cars, and so much more, possible.

Elon Musk has written:

“The pace of progress in artificial intelligence is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast – it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five-year timeframe. 10 years at most.”

On Demand

The world we live in today is one of “On Demand.” The future belongs to those who can create what people want and deliver it when they want it.

The consumer won’t have it any other way.

It’s not an attack on radio broadcasters. It’s the future. Here. Now.

 

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