It’s World Radio Day, and this year’s global theme is “Radio and Artificial Intelligence."
Artificial intelligence is already being used across the radio industry, from automated music scheduling to synthetic voices for commercials and on-air segments.
But according to a Pew Research Center study from last year, most Americans are more concerned than excited about how much AI they encounter in daily life.
Many local broadcasters share that skepticism.
Hannah Maier, the music director and afternoon host at WRUR The Route, says AI may be able to generate playlists, but it can’t replicate the emotional connection that comes from human curation.
“As human beings, we crave that,” Maier said. “We want more art, and we want to continue to create it ourselves.”
WRUR is owned by the University of Rochester, and operates in partnership with WXXI Public Media.
Maier said her relationship with her listeners is built on trust and human discovery and that creates a magic and uniqueness that can’t be replicated.
“They’re not going to like every single song that I play,” she said, “and that’s OK. That’s part of the experience. You’re supposed to feel something.”
Industry leaders say the real value of radio is not efficiency, but being embedded in the communities it serves.
“AI is great. It can be used for things we can’t even imagine,” said Randy Gorbman, former news director at WXXI News. “But it can’t really replace that personal touch. Unless the robots are out there reporting from the highways, you just can’t duplicate that.”
Julio Saenz, WXXI’s chief content officer and the founder of Rochester’s first Spanish-language radio station, Poder, said AI is based off a limited data set. Local radio still plays a critical role in sharing information that algorithms might miss.
“It doesn’t replace that sense of community,” Saenz said, “where you're hearing about the weather, where you're hearing about a show that's coming to town, where you're hearing about ... a new bakery that opened. That just is something that's irreplaceable.”
This story is adapted from a conversation on WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson.
