The Transformation

Why growth and change are necessary for a future in radio

There is a fight going on in my head about the future of radio. Old-school me wants it live and local, the way I grew up with it. New-school me understands that the business has changed and that wanting the old model back will not make it happen.

I still believe the connection between a personality and a community is worth protecting. But protecting what matters requires us to keep growing. Refusing to adapt to a changing business is how we make ourselves obsolete. That is a lesson I have had to apply to myself.

When I was downsized, I asked the same questions many of my radio friends on the beach have asked. What comes next? Where does my experience fit? Does the business still need what I know how to do?

Those are uncomfortable questions. They get more uncomfortable when you realize that technology keeps advancing whether your skills do or not. I have always been a bit of a tech geek, so my instinct is to learn how something works. Even so, when I first saw a SonicTrek AI presentation, my first thought was, "This could eliminate me."

Then I started looking at what else it could do. Could it help personalities extend brands they had spent decades building? Could my programming experience help make the content better? My work with SonicTrek has given me a chance to explore those questions. I began to see how much I could still contribute if I was willing to learn.

What stepping outside radio helped me see

Being outside the day-to-day operation gave me some perspective on our business, including how suspicious we have become of almost every change.

I watched people I knew choose to retire, then saw comments suggesting they must have been pushed out. People reached out to me for the "scoop" and seemed disappointed when the answer was simply that someone wanted to enjoy life. Yes, forced retirements and buyouts happen. I also knew people who made the decision themselves.

I understand where the skepticism comes from. A lot of us have been hurt by this business. But that experience can also make us assume the worst before we know the facts. I had to ask whether I was bringing that same assumption to AI.

I have debated this with good friends and colleagues. Some support what I am doing. Others think I am helping move the industry in the wrong direction. I love and respect them either way. Their concerns deserve an honest answer, and so does the question of what we do next.

What my kids see that we sometimes miss

I have two Gen Z kids, and conversations with them and their friends have challenged me. They use AI and are comfortable experimenting with it. They also notice when our objections depend on whose job we think is at risk.

They have pointed out that some of the same people who object to AI in radio use AI tools to make social videos, graphics, and promotional content. From their perspective, those are skills that people their age are learning and hoping to get paid for. If we are comfortable using technology to do that work, we should at least understand why someone might apply the same thinking to ours.

That does not settle the debate about jobs. It does make it harder to argue that a tool is useful when it saves us money and unacceptable when it changes our own work.

My kids are confident that their ideas and creative ability will keep them valuable as the tools improve. I admire that confidence. They see opportunities to make more things, try more ideas, and build an audience. Radio needs some of that energy if we expect another generation to care about what we do.

Where people still make the difference

What I have learned through SonicTrek is how much the human contribution matters. Someone still has to understand the market, decide what is relevant, and recognize when a piece of content sounds wrong. A familiar voice is part of a personality’s appeal, but so are the judgment and relationships behind it.

That is where our experience can help. We know how to build a format, develop talent, and connect a station to its community. Those skills can guide how technology is used. We also have to learn enough about the tools to do that work effectively.

If our contribution amounts to generic tracks that could run in any city, we should be asking how much value we are adding. A personality who has earned listeners’ trust, supports local clients, and helps drive revenue brings something much more substantial. That does not make anyone immune from a bad business decision, but it gives us a stronger case for our place in the operation.

In the work I have seen with clients, people have been added to support the process rather than downsized. That is my experience with this operation; I would not use it to promise that AI will never eliminate a job elsewhere. It does show me that adopting the technology can also create work for people who know how to use it.

I also believe there is an opportunity for people like my son and his friends to bring their content skills into radio.  The question is, will radio create value for them to want to participate.  Right now, the answer is no. They may see ways to connect audio with video and social platforms that we have overlooked. We should be willing to learn from them while sharing what we know about serving listeners and building brands.

Think about a mechanic who decided not to learn how to work on computerized cars. The need for repairs continued, but fewer of those repairs were available to that mechanic. Experience still mattered. Keeping that experience useful required learning something new.

Radio is asking something similar of us. We can question how owners use AI, challenge decisions that hurt listeners, and insist on responsible use of a personality’s voice. Learning the tools gives us more ability to influence those decisions and help produce something worth hearing. Refusing to learn leaves us depending on someone else to decide where we fit.

That brings me back to the fight in my head. Old-school me still wants a station that feels connected to the people listening. New-school me understands that keeping that connection alive will require new skills. The way forward is to put my experience to work while continuing to learn.

Growth does not guarantee that every decision will work out or that every job will survive. It gives us a chance to contribute as the work changes. I cannot control every decision an owner makes. I can control whether I keep developing the skills that make my experience useful.

The transformation I needed began when I stopped letting the fear of being replaced keep me from seeing what I could become. I still love radio for the same reasons I always have. I am willing to change how I work so I can keep doing work that matters.

Radio will keep changing. The surest way to lose one’s place in its future is to refuse to change with it.