Hudson Valley Station Getting Community Involved in Radio Drama and Music Videos
In the fall of 2025, TALKERS wrote about well-known New York radio engineer Dr. Andy Gladding’s acquisition of WKZE-FM, Salisbury, Connecticut – a Triple A station serving the Hudson Valley. Gladding serves as chief engineer for Salem New York and for Hofstra University’s WRHU-FM, Hempstead, New York. Since acquiring the station with his wife Katie Berghorn, they have 
actively pursued involving the community in the station in creative ways. The station is presenting a Halloween radio drama as well as an airstaff music video to create community engagement. Scooby-Doo’s “A Night of Fright Is No Delight” will air on Saturday (10/31) at 7:00 pm featuring voices from the airstaff, clients and community, with a soundtrack performed by local band Cold Flavor Repair in a production that will raise awareness for the Dutchess County SPCA. Gladding says, “Local radio needs to reestablish its position as the community megaphone. At a time when AI-generated content, opinion and voices are saturating the market, the live, local DJ must be reestablished and elevated as the centerpiece of trusted messaging. Giving our staff more creative freedom and control ultimately leads to a stronger team and higher-quality output.” He adds, “There’s a lot of talent walking through this building. Give people room to use it. That’s how you make radio people care about.” You can see the air staff music videoof “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell that peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 here.
In the opinion of TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison, we are entering an era in which it is possible – even likely – for robot voices generated by artificial intelligence to replace at least some human talk show hosts, especially in the wake of relentless corporate cost-cutting by radio’s largest companies. On the music radio side, the process of “voice tracking,” although initially controversial, has become a widely employed budget-tightening process. However, voice tracking still employs organic talent to generate the verbal content.
AI, on the other hand, bypasses the human element completely. In a guest appearance yesterday (8/22) on the Manny Munoz mid-morning show on WIOD, Miami, in which the subject of AI was being discussed, Harrison said, “AI is upping the bar. If talk show hosts don’t stay on their game and avoid relying too heavily on the talking points – if they are not creative thinkers and leaders – they can easily be replaced by computer operators.” Harrison continued, “It won’t be too long from now – actually, it is already possible – that two robots could be having a plausible conversation if both have been fed all the talking points.” Harrison explained, “Each robot will have instant access to all the existent talking points at the speed of light. Robots are already beating human experts at Jeopardy or chess. The only thing a robot can’t do – at least for now – is to be creative outside the realm of what already exists in cyberspace. That’s the challenge facing anyone who wants to be a live traditional radio talk show host in this coming brave new world.” Harrison’s appearance on WIOD was part of his ongoing talk radio “Obsolete Slobs” tour in which he’s been promoting the Gunhill Road music video “Artificial Intelligence (No Robots Were Injured in the Production of this Song” (www.
