Changing the Words Isn’t Changing the Use
By Matthew B. Harrison
TALKERS, VP/Associate Publisher
Harrison Media Law, Senior Partner
Goodphone Communications, Executive Producer
AI can make someone else’s story sound like you. What have you added?
Imagine this morning’s show prep: a host finds a terrific newspaper feature, drops it into an AI tool, and types, “Make this 90-seconds, conversational, in my voice.” Seconds later, there is a polished script. The sentences are different, the pacing works, and it even sounds like something the host would say. The software has changed the words. But has it changed the use?
That question deserves a moment before the microphone opens. “Rewrite this” is an instruction to software, not a legal clearance process. Copyright reaches beyond identical sentences: an abridgment or adaptation can still use protected material from the original. Replacing the vocabulary does not necessarily remove the underlying copyright issue.
First, though, let’s protect something equally important: the freedom to report the news. A newspaper does not own the facts it uncovers, and broadcasters can report those facts in their own words. Copyright protects the author’s expression, not the event, information, or idea itself. An AI-assisted factual summary is therefore not automatically an infringement, either.
When a use does borrow protected expression, fair use requires more than checking whether the wording changed. Courts consider the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the original, how much protected material the user took, and the effect on the original’s potential market. News reporting and commentary can qualify, but neither label guarantees the result. A shorter version that serves as a substitute for the original raises a different question from an excerpt used to examine or criticize it.
For a host, a useful editorial question follows: What am I adding besides my voice? Perhaps the story prompts an interview with the reporter, a challenge to the conclusions, or an explanation of what the issue means locally. Those choices give the audience a reason to hear your treatment. They do not automatically establish fair use, but they help distinguish developing a segment from repackaging a feature.
AI can help with that development. Ask it to suggest follow-up questions, identify assertions worth checking, or organize your own notes into a workable outline. Then read the source, verify the facts, and make the editorial decisions yourself. Credit the reporting that helped you, while remembering that attribution and permission serve different purposes. A source acknowledgment is good practice, but it does not authorize an otherwise infringing use.
The opportunity here goes beyond avoiding a claim. A host’s value includes judgment, curiosity, experience, and the relationship with listeners, all things worth bringing to the microphone. Use AI to make room for more of that work. A script can sound like you without giving the audience anything of yours.
Matthew B. Harrison is a media and intellectual property attorney who advises radio hosts, content creators, and creative entrepreneurs. He has written extensively on fair use, AI law, and the future of digital rights. Reach him at Matthew@HarrisonMediaLaw.com or read more at TALKERS.com.
family care, housing emergencies, relocation, or theft. BFoA chair Scott Herman says, “This expands our ability to reach broadcasters who are struggling to meet their expenses because of extraordinary circumstances. I was delighted that the Board unanimously approved this initiative. We are up and running and ready to help more members of our broadcasting community when they need it most.” The BFoA also provides Monthly Grants to broadcasters dealing with prolonged illnesses and Emergency Grants to those affected by disasters, including floods and hurricanes. For more information, radio and television professionals who currently or previously worked in broadcasting may visit 
stream of its television programming, Court TV will now offer SiriusXM listeners access to expert legal analysis, in-depth reporting, and detailed insight into the evidence and legal perspectives at the center of the cases captivating the nation.” Law&Crime was founded by ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams.
and survived via an STA (special temporary authority) on their two FM repeaters in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville. Thomas says, “Ask my high school teachers. All my projects were done just in the nick of time!” He thanks his engineer Alan Williams, the engineers at Kintronics and his lawyer Patrick Cross from Brooks-Pierce for getting the FCC to give their approval. Pictured here are (from l-r): Thomas Media general manager Vinnie Kice, Elaine Thomas, and Joe Thomas with the Virginia Association of Broadcasters’ CT Lucy Lifetime Achievement award and the 2026 Best Newscast award.
Isaias. Some of the key findings include: 1) On Friday, October 9, Hurricane Isaias hit Mobile: While hour-by-hour in-car AM/FM radio listening occasions reveal drivers heeded shelter warnings, from 9AM to 11AM, there was higher than normal car traffic for last-minute shopping and getting to safety; 2) Sunday, October 11: Mobile morning in-car occasions recovered to 86% of historical levels and on Sunday, noon to midnight, in-car listening recovered to 98% of historical levels; 3) Atlanta’s News and Talk WSB notched its highest shares and cumes as Hurricane Isaias hit the market; 4) In Panama City, Florida, Christian stations saw strong audience growth during the storm week; 5) The Cumulus Pensacola cluster shares doubled versus a typical day; and 6) In Mobile on Friday, October 9, hurricane landfall day, the Cumulus cluster share grew 30% compared to a typical day. 
For 100 years, radio programmers have tried to keep listeners listening longer. “Coming up next…”
A Tokyo ruling has revisited a question that Bette Midler raised decades ago.
confront personal struggles, and build lives defined by faith, family, freedom, and intentionality.” During his more than 30-year career, Mullins built and led 16 business enterprises, “leading diverse teams, and serving on corporate and organizational boards. His career provided him with firsthand experience navigating the pressures, responsibilities, expectations, and sacrifices that often accompany professional success. But behind the accomplishments was a deeply personal journey: In 2006, Mullins surrendered his life to faith, beginning a transformation that would eventually lead him to turn his experiences – both the victories and the failures – into a platform for mentoring, coaching, speaking, and storytelling.” McVay Media president Mike McVay says, “Ryan Kershner and I are honored to work with Myron and join this journey.”
Borelli and Teare-Lombardo say that with the economy being top of mind, commuters may be a particularly important audience and that radio can help campaigns reach voters beyond traditional TV and digital buys. For example: 1) 59% of likely voters who commute say the economy and cost of living are the most important issues shaping their vote, rising to 73% among commuting homeowners with children; 2) Commuters are a significant audience: 78% of employed Americans commute at least two days a week, and nearly 90% travel by car; 3) Radio reaches voters during the commute: AM/FM radio captures 82% of ad-supported audio listening during weekday commuting hours; and 4) Radio can extend TV/CTV reach: In the 2022 midterms, radio added 676,000 incremental voters (+10%) to John Fetterman’s TV/CTV reach in Pennsylvania and 659,000 (+18%) to Raphael Warnock’s in Georgia. 
The phone would ring; I recognized the number… call always started the same… in his best radio voice, “Doug Stephan…. Michael Horn”
AudioChuck’s “Crime Junkie” maintains its hold on the #1 slot, with The New York Times’ “The Daily” at #2, followed by NPR’s “NPR News Now” at #3. Notable changes from the August chart include The New York Times’ “The Ezra Klein Show” falling four places to #16 and DailyWire’s “Morning Wire” rising six places to #19. 
The “Pareto Principle” is a rule-of-thumb that roughly 80% of revenue comes from about 20% of customers, in many industries. Including radio, where so-called “First Preference” or “P1” listeners – those who listen to your station most – contribute most of your Time Spent Listening.
or Go Home: How Small Thinking is Killing Advertising and What to Do About It. Both publications point to a number of conclusions that advertisers should be aware of: 1) Advertisers have two jobs: Convert existing demand by reaching the five percent who are in the market and create future demand via brand building focused on the 95% of consumers who are not in the market; 2) “Big media ads” (AM/FM radio, TV, and outdoor), are more effective at creating future demand because they create a greater sense of quality, popularity, and trust for brands; 3) Ads from “big media” (AM/FM radio, TV, and outdoor) stick in minds more than digital or social media ads. Over 85% of online ads don’t reach the 2.5 second Attention-Memory Threshold, according to Amplified Intelligence’s Karen Nelson-Field; 4) Don’t be afraid of “waste.” It’s the part of advertising that works. 
Show” (12:00 noon to 2:00 pm ET) adds rotating co-hosts Cheryl Casone, Marcus Lemonis, and Lou Basenese alongside current host Jackie DeAngelis. Additionally, Liz Claman will launch a new Friday night program titled, “Claman’s Power Players” (7:00 pm to 7:30 pm ET). FOX News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace says, “We’re excited to bring viewers fresh programming from a seasoned team of journalists, offering expert insight and analysis on the forces shaping the economy and driving business news. FOX Business remains committed to delivering compelling business news, market analysis, and conversation throughout the day, and these changes will further strengthen our weekday lineup.”
Hubbard says, “Gamut’s revenue has grown 47% over the past two years, and the network now spans more than 250 national and local shows, including flagship franchises ‘American Nightmares’ and ‘Professor of Rock,’ plus local sports networks SKOR North in Minneapolis-St. Paul and 312 Sports in Chicago. Hubbard CEO Ginny Hubbard adds. “John has been leading Gamut since the day he walked in the door, and we’ve watched him turn it into something everyone at Hubbard is proud of. He understands this business from the creator’s side and the sales side, and he genuinely cares about the people making these shows. Naming him president is our way of recognizing that, and of letting the industry know how much we believe in where Gamut is headed under John’s leadership.”
“Throughout its 36-year history of service to the talk radio and associated talk media industries, TALKERS has maintained a strict policy of non-partisanship in its coverage of the field and its players. However, the single ideological orthodoxy practiced by TALKERS through this period has been uncompromising support of the First Amendment – the prime principle and foundation upon which all American freedoms and values are built. Over the years, we have bestowed our prestigious Freedom of Speech Award upon a wide variety of broadcasters from all ends of the political spectrum, and we have gone to bat in support of hosts, stations and networks – popular and otherwise, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative – when under fire from presidents and other governmental forces determined to quell that fundamental right. For the sake of our industry and our country, we stand in protest of the current White House press ban imposed against our colleagues and strongly encourage all practitioners of American talk media, regardless of political persuasion, to unify in opposition to this egregious aggression against our fundamental right to fulfill our core duty and promise to the people of our nation.”
KFMW-FM and KOKZ-FM in Cedar, plus KPTY-AM, and FM translators K263BZ, and K297BS in Waterloo. Civic Media is based in Wisconsin and operates stations there as well as in Minnesota and Michigan. Cedar Basin Media says, “Cedar Basin Media is a radio group built on a simple premise: communities deserve stations that are actually of and for them – good information, real conversation, and people on the air who live here, too.” 
My father recently called my attention to something hiding in plain sight. He was watching YouTube and noticed ads for StreamYard, Riverside, Sprizzy and other companies selling tools and services to people who want to produce, distribute, or promote their own media. “They are advertising on consumer venues!” he told me. That was the part that caught his attention.
Markey was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Retired WGN news anchor Steve Bertrand – who was a regular on the “Kathy and Judy Show” – appeared on WGN’s morning show with Bob Sirott to break the news. O’ Malley addressed Markey’s passing in a post on the WGN website: “Over the years, Judy and I talked on the air several times about our support for medical aid in dying, a highly personal choice but one we felt should be available for those who chose it – and she did. With her family at her side, she peacefully ended her life at a MAID (medical aid in dying) facility in Switzerland.” Of Markey’s success on the radio, WGN notes how it all began: “On a hunch, on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon in 1989, WGN’s program director Lorna Gladstone decided to team Markey and O’Malley. No one could have anticipated they would be, as media critic Rob Feder aptly put it ‘lightning in a bottle.’ For the next two decades ‘The Girlfriends,’ as they came to be known, attracted a fiercely loyal following (of women and men) and dominated the midday ratings,” Feder wrote. “Their authentic chemistry transcended radio. No topic was off limits or too personal. Annual fan conventions and station-sponsored trips drew thousands.” 
(9/14). Khan most recently served as anchor at WPTV-TV, West Palm Beach. She’d also hosted shows on Newsmax and America’s News Voice Network. KCMO program director Pete Mundo says, “KCMO Talk Radio is making a strong commitment to Kansas City by continuing to invest in live, local programming. Miranda is a smart, engaging voice who brings years of media experience and deep Kansas City roots, and she knows how to connect with listeners and drive meaningful conversations. Her addition strengthens our commitment to delivering the news, opinions, and discussions that matter most to Kansas Citians every day. We are excited to welcome Miranda home to KC.”
When in doubt, I recall smart quotes from people in our business who are successful, well paid, kind, and future oriented. I have always focused on what’s next rather than what’s been. These observations drive good results: