AI in radio — looking beyond the hype

 

By Juha Lahti

HELSINKI — In December 2023, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) made a 20-hour broadcast with two high-profile talents, Viki and Köpi. However, the dialog was written by artificial intelligence, and AI also created the duo’s voices. So, the only thing humans assisted with was managing the broadcast equipment. The main reason for using the voices of two celebrities was to show our audience how far AI technology is already. The guys have a dedicated fan base, so in this way, we had a large audience without using any additional marketing.

It was made possible with a very simple idea. Text produced by ChatGPT was fed to Elevenlabs to convert the text to audio. ChatGPT is a tool that can generate human-like text, and Elevenlabs can convert any text into lifelike speech.

Additional story at: https://www.redtech.pro/ai-in-radio-looking-beyond-the-hype/

Medium wave’s sunset in Europe

 

By David Fernández Quijada  July 8, 2024

ENEVA — European medium-wave transmitters are going silent. On April 1, the BBC shut down the nine transmitters that had previously brought BBC Radio 4 in AM to the whole country. Since January 2018, the British public broadcaster has started to switch off the AM transmitters for its local stations. Looking ahead, it plans to abandon the band totally by 2027 at the latest.

This trend goes beyond the BBC. In the last years, British commercial broadcasters have also switched off AM transmitters. In the case of Bauer Media, not a single AM transmitter remains operational.

The United Kingdom is the last fortress of AM transmission in Europe. Over the last 15 years, many other countries disconnected their last AM transmitters — Austria (in 2008), Switzerland (2010), Ireland (2012), Germany (2015), Belarus (2016), Albania (2017) and Belgium (2018), to name a few. More than 20 European countries have ceased AM transmission. Across the continent, less than 100 AM services remain active.

Additional text at Red Tech

https://www.redtech.pro/medium-waves-sunset-in-europe/

A new dawn for digital radio in Africa

 

By Ruxandra Obreja

LONDON — Radio has been called “Africa’s medium” — its popularity remains high due to accessibility and relatively low cost. In many of Africa’s 54 countries, with a combined population of over 1.3 billion, traditional radio sets are widely used, highlighting the digital divide between developed countries and those without reliable electricity and internet.

But there are other reasons for radio’s popularity in Africa. It is strongly linked to oral storytelling — central to developing the continent’s diverse cultural identities and languages. The intimacy and immediacy of radio, a trusted companion, remain unparalleled on the continent, explaining why radio listenership is higher in many African countries than the global average. For example, in a recent survey in South Africa, up to 94% of citizens over 15 confirmed they owned a radio set.

Additional story from RedTech at: 

https://www.redtech.pro/a-new-dawn-for-digital-radio-in-africa/