AI is terrible on the air. I sell voice tracking, so I know how that sounds coming from me, but I also listen like a programmer. I spent more than a decade as Assistant Program Director at Bob 93.3, and I am still on the air there every weekday. When a PD asks whether to hire a voice tracker or plug in AI, I look at it through both of those lenses.
AI can read a script. That is not the job.
An AI voice can hit a post and read a liner. It can say the title and artist, the weather and the name of your town. If that were all a great air shift required, we could have automated talent out of the building a long time ago.
The job is judgment. It is knowing which local story matters today and which one will wear out by lunch. It is knowing when to shut up and let the record play, when a break needs a smile, and when something happened in town that changes the tone of the whole shift. A listener can feel the difference between someone talking to them and something talking at them.
Your listeners have a say in this
This is not only a talent talking. In the 2024 Jacobs Media Techsurvey, which reached about 29,000 core commercial radio listeners, 75% said they had serious concerns about AI replacing on-air hosts. Those are the people carrying your ratings.
Then there is the trust problem. A Sydney station, CADA, ran an AI host named Thy for about six months before a writer started asking questions. Once it came out, the story stopped being about the show and became about what the station had not told its audience. Radio runs on a relationship with listeners. I would not risk that relationship to fill a daypart.
What a real voice tracker gives you
A real voice tracker can still save you the cost of a full-time shift, and you keep a person on your air. Here is what that gets you:
- Someone who can take direction. You can send a note and hear the change in the next log.
- Real format instincts. A person who has worked the format knows how a break should feel going in and out of the music.
- Local prep with a point of view. Good tracking sounds like it belongs in your market.
- Accountability. When something needs fixing, you have one person to call.
Where automation still has a place
I am not against technology. I track shifts from my home studio, and automation is the reason voice tracking works at all. Tools that help with the busywork are fine. The line for me is the voice your listeners think of as a person. That voice should be one.
The question I would ask
If you are a PD weighing this, skip the feature list and ask one thing: would your best listener be okay finding out how this shift was made? With a real voice tracker, the answer is easy.
If you want a real person on your station, take a listen to my Top 40 voice tracking or see how my radio voice tracking services work. I also track Hot AC and Country.
