By Holland Cooke
Consultant
Evidence that your correspondent is a nerd: my airplane read for my CES back-N-forth was Successful AI Product Creation: A 9-Step Framework by Shub Agarwal (Wiley). If you haven’t got time for all 307 pages, here’s what I gleaned, pertinent to radio:
Strategic Philosophy
• AI succeeds only when it solves real business problems, not when used as a novelty.
• Begin every AI project with: “What measurable problem are we solving?”
• Align AI use with station strategy — audience growth, advertiser ROI, efficiency, or content quality.
Tactical Applications for Radio
• Show prep: summarize trending topics, generate local angles, suggest guests.
• Automate routine production (editing, scheduling, metadata tagging) to free creative staff.
• Voice tracking with guardrails — use AI to extend live talent, not replace it.
• News: Employ AI to summarize complex stories quickly for on-air and digital use.
• Sales: Personalize ad copy to make spots more relevant. Automate proposal and spec-spot creation to shorten turnaround time.
Think of AI as “augmentation, not automation.” AVOID making radio sound robotic. Use these tools to make radio smarter, faster, and more human. Enhance talent; don’t erase it. Protect authenticity and listener trust — radio’s enduring differentiator. Develop a station AI policy covering attribution, verification, and data privacy.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn