weekly June 26, 2023, Issue 864
Q&A: Behind The First AI Jock
On June 13, Alpha Top 40 KBFF/Portland, OR introduced its new midday host, AI Ashley. The first-ever “AI jock” is the synthesized voice of sister Top 40 WKHQ PD/morning host “Ashley Z” Elzinga, who’d previously been voicetracking the shift. Country Aircheck spoke with Alpha EVP/Content Phil Becker about the decision to launch an AI personality, how it works, and what the future of AI radio might hold. CA: How long has this been in the works? PB: We started dabbling with this when ChatGPT was opened to the public last November. We’ve been looking at what it can do, what it can’t do, what we’re comfortable and what we’re not. So it took about seven months. How does AI Ashley work? It’s a series of products starting with Futuri’s TopicPulse, which has an interface with ChatGPT-4 to read articles and rewrite them. We ingest that into the RadioGPT software. You can tell it, “Take this article and write it in a longform, in bullet points, as a social post, or in an overPhil Becker the-air fashion.” After that data is in the software, Ashley’s synthesized voice reads stories, we get to see that in text fashion and hear it in audio fashion, then decide if we want to hit the next activator – the automation system, Futuri’s Echo. You can use an out-of-the-box AI voice, but we decided to make a synthesized version of Ashley Z, so we keep her on the team, pay her as we’ve always paid her, and use the voice that’s already trusted on the station. Does the AI recognize that a Taylor Swift song is coming up and inject something about her? Yes, it absolutely sees there’s a Taylor song coming up, goes back into TopicPlus, looks for the most meaningful and immediate Taylor Swift stories from around the world, generates the script and takes the synthesized voice that goes into the automation over the ramp of the Taylor song. It also has the intelligence to recognize the song has a 17 second intro, so it will alter the length of the story to post the vocal. The AI will do as much or as little as you allow it. How many personalities take the time to say, “Let me find the 25 most relevant Taylor stories in this moment” and adjust their content accordingly? (continued on page 7)
Long Slot Summer: Capitol’s Keith Urban (c) with Townsquare’s Kurt Johnson (l) and the label’s Chris Schuler at his Las Vegas residency. Country Aircheck talks country residencies and more in the upcoming summer print issue.
Tour Launch: Eric Church
Eric Church opened The Outsiders Revival Tour Thursday night (6/22) at Milwaukee, WI’s Summerfest at American Family Insurance Amphitheater. iHeartMedia WMIL/Milwaukee PD/APD/MD/afternoon personality Shanna “Quinn” Cudeck was among the radio personnel in attendance, and she tells Country Aircheck what others can expect on Church’s 35-date outing. “The place erupted when he walked onstage,” she says of the crowd of 20,000-plus. The production is purposefully understated to complement Church’s rock band style. “It’s not a super-flashy stage, but in a good way,” she continues. “He doesn’t need it with his energy!” Even after telling the audience that he was slightly under-the-weather, Church performed 23 songs over the course
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