Would you listen to a radio station with great music & cheery, informative DJs who are AI?

[highplainsdem]

I've already posted about this new AI venture that will replace DJs and also offer local news in GD - https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217686217 - and Music Appreciation - https://www.democraticunderground.com/103494795 .

But I'd like to get your personal take on whether you'd listen, at least if you liked the music.

Here's the link for the live streaming demo: https://listen.streamon.fm/radiogpt

This is a demo, so they're not playing complete songs. But they have a good classic rock playlist including a lot of songs I've posted here on DU.

My dad worked in radio for a while, I've known a number of DJs, and I hate to think of more DJs being replaced. But I can also tell this AI replacement is likely to appeal to a lot of station owners.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you'd check it out and give me your opinion.

[msongs]

1. one suspects theres already canned djs on the air... nt

[highplainsdem]

2. Recorded, syndicated - yes. But this is ChatGPT-aided AI. AI voices.

[LakeArenal]

3. I'd rather have a personality.

Someone who is a semi celebrity.

[brush]

4. Unemployment line for some DJs.

[diva77]

15. DJs replaced a lot of live musicians -- for wedding receptions and other live events.

I wonder what will happen in that arena with AI...

[relayerbob]

5. As the owner of an internet station

with a dozen live hosts, I can honestly say, NO! We get our largest audiences when actual humans are on air. Ones that have become actual friends with our folks over the years. We like our "bot", who selects some crazy music from the 4000 tracks I have loaded into it, but if we let it "talk" as if human, all of the DJs would likely quit, and our audience would evaporate overnight. The only way it might work, is if we played it up as a novelty joke.

I won't listen to terrestrial radio now, because it's overly programmed and offers only what the station owner (usually Clear Channel, or whatever they call themselves this week) authorizes. If I found out that the "cheery DJ" was in fact, an AI, I would immediately change the channel and never go back. And it won't matter what the music is.

And the next time the talk radio host is on, you would have to wonder if that is a human or a bot being used to further manipulate the listeners. After seeing the Bing AI insanity, this would clearly be the ultimate opportunity for an echo chamber, and little good would come of it, IMO.

Will this happen? Most certainly. Will I ever support it? Hell, no. Would I have before I owned my radio station? Nope.

As far as the music on your station, when I looked just now, all I see is plain old classic rock, little different than the Clear Channel selections. Without a LOT more variety, I wouldn't tune in to your station, even though I like classic rock (and jam, and prog, and grunge, and modern rock, and jazz, and on and on). Our station is very eclectic, and you rarely hear "hits", except to give people a reference point back to the other material, and then very often as covers or live versions.

I applaud you for trying to keep radio alive, and sorry for my bluntness, but you did ask.

[highplainsdem]

7. It isn't MY station. It's a commercial product being offered.

Their playlist is no worse than my local classic rock station, which is owned by a national chain (not Clear Channel) but has local DJs who have been DJs in the area for decades.

I've been posting a lot about AI and ChatGPT because I DON'T like it. I was wondering what others thought, because I am worried it will replace some DJs. ChatGPT is already causing job losses in about half of the businesses that have started using it: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217681540

[relayerbob]

8. Fair enough

It sounded like you were promoting the station. I had not read any your previous comments regarding this, it's the first post I've seen.

Classic rock (or, as I usually call it - nostalgia rock) is, for me, personally, very dull. Sure I like some of the songs, but many were made closer to WW1, than today. As a child of the 60s/70s, it would have been very unusual for people to be listening to the hits of the 1920s, lol.

And I obviously agree with you, re: ChatGPT. It is going to cause trouble down the road, job losses being one of the smaller ones, overall, IMO.

[highplainsdem]

9. It's causing a lot of trouble already, with education and the arts as well. If

you use the Google search here in the upper right corner of every page and search for my name and Chatgpt, you'll get several pages of results.

But I don't want to get into the many arguments against it in this thread, since this is the Lounge.

What I wanted was people's personal reactions to AI DJs.

Spotify is now offering an AI DJ, too: https://futurism.com/spotify-ai-dj .

[relayerbob]

10. Well, lol, looks like you got mine!

[highplainsdem]

11. And I appreciate it.

[rsdsharp]

6. In the 70s, some stations, including one I worked at, were automated.

The music, from a programming service, was on 4 reel-to-reel decks, commercials were in cart carousels, and the whole thing was run by an idiot “computer.”

By the 80s, satellite programming began, and got bigger as time went on. And most AM stations were now talk. They could carry Limbaugh and progeny; no need for jocks on AM anymore.

The 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed for massive consolidation. Automation and subscription programming had cut down on the availability of jobs, but the consolidation really hurt. First, if you got fired, you couldn’t just walk across the street and get a job. That station was probably owned by the organization that had just fired you. Second, many who still had a job on the air, were also voice tracking shows for one or more other stations owned by the same group in other markets. For no extra money. Don’t like it? We’ll get somebody else who wants one of the shrinking pool of jobs.

All of this also meant that there was no place for baby jocks to learn their craft. Hey, what difference did it make? Somebody 1000 miles away is voice tracking our overnights and weekends, and or, we have Bob and Tom or Howard Stern, or whoever, on the bird. We don’t need no kids.

Radio used to be a fun, creative, place to work. It was also a job you could support yourself at, and in major markets, make a very good living. That has all been slipping away. AI will likely be the final nail.

[larwdem]

12. Sorry

but what is AI?

[highplainsdem]

13. Artificial intelligence.

[DBoon]

14. How would this be different in practice from Jack FM?

[highplainsdem]

19. Jack FM got rid of DJs at those stations - in some cases with negative enough

consequences that the station was changed back to having DJs.

This is an attempt to have DJs replaced by AI voices, so that some people might not even know it's AI, at least if they don't keep reminding listeners as this demo does.

[Nay]

16. I have never been able to tolerate AI voices, even though these are better than most.

They immediately fall into the "uncanny valley" to me, and are jarring to listen to because the cadence, pronunciation, flow, stops and starts, etc., are NOT human. But I am certain that if it saves some bigwig 10 cents a day, AI voices will replace human speech everywhere. Now, as it is, I can't listen to the AI voices used in a lot of YouTube videos -- nope.

I've stopped listening to music on the radio anyway, because of all the ads.

[Prairie_Seagull]

20. Story recently about a person whos Voice was generated by AI and it opened his voice activated-

log-in to his back account.

[highplainsdem]

31. Yes. Scary.

[highplainsdem]

21. I don't like them either, but I agree these are better than most.

[Nittersing]

17. No

I like our local (Denver/Boulder) DJ on KBCO, Bret Sanders.

He's been there for years... has shared a bit about his personal life, has worked for years with the travel/weather reporters and their back and forth is so much a part of the show. And these local folks go to and help at local charities.

[highplainsdem]

22. I feel the same way about local DJs. I do not want to see them replaced.

[RobinA]

18. I Already Stopped

listening to radio when the DJs became canned. Radio should be local and the DJs should be looking at the same thing out the window that I am.

[highplainsdem]

23. I agree.

[Prairie_Seagull]

24. Don't listen to radio much anymore. Sometimes in the car.

That said, this just creeps me out. Is that a reason? Analog dude in a digital world. I see the irony by the way.

[Ocelot II]

25. Maybe, if I liked the music, but I only listen to classical music on the radio

and those DJs are always live people (so far). I'd be surprised if they went AI, unless just to announce the name of the piece and the performers, but that would be OK with me because I listen only for the music and not to hear some DJ blathering away.

[beaglelover]

26. Yes

[Mr.Bill]

27. I was always told

that I have a great face for radio.

[highplainsdem]

28. Tweet from an Irish specialist in mobile journalism and content

creation who says this demo sent "a very cold chill" down his spine.

Link to tweet

[Paladin]

29. Sure---as long as the "cheery" thing is restrained. (nt)

[highplainsdem]

30. Haven't listened to it since the day

I posted this OP, but there was a cheery AI boast then about its "knowledge-y goodness" that left me thinking there was zero intelligence behind it.

[Paladin]

32. "Knowledge-y goodness"? Really?

I wouldn't be able to switch channels quickly enough.

[Happy Hoosier]

33. Broadcast radio is a shadow of its former self...

and DJ's are already getting rare. I have a close friend that made a living as a DJ for years and had to leave the business because it was getting very difficult to make a living... a transition to gig-work, no benefits and absolute crap pay IF you can find a job at all. He now does accounts managemnt for AT&T, but still does emmcee gigs as a side-hustle.