Polish radio station ditches DJs, journalists for AI-generated college kids

A Polish radio station has ditched its on-air talent for AI in what its editor-in-chief calls an experiment on the effect of AI in society, though it looks like a bid to save cash.  OFF Radio Krakow, an online and DAB+ subsidiary of the larger Radio Krakow station, announced this week that it was going all-in on AI, with new …

[Grunchy]

A.I. Generated Story

“…though it looks like like a bid to save cash.”

Actually, it looks like like HAL-9000 got loose on the internets again!

(As if generative AI ever had the wherewithal to run it’s own pirate radio ! Shocking and appalling. I say good day to you sir.)

[Helcat]

Re: A.I. Generated Story

"Actually, it looks like like HAL-9000 got loose on the internets again!"

Max Headroom, please!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but maybe

I’d prefer my own personal Aipod (TM).

A portable device that stores my 10,000 music tracks and comes with a pleasant sounding personal assistant that asks me what I want to listen to, then curates my music etc.

[Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese]

Re: No, but maybe

I'm reminded of an anecdote about the late Queen Mother (God Bless Her) when she was shown an iPod, which was described to her as something you can take with you anywhere and it plays music for you. Her reply was, "Oh, you mean like the Coldstream Guards?"

[Michael Strorm]

Re: No, but maybe

That anecdote might or might not be true. I'd take it with a pinch of salt though, as the Queen Mother died just 4 1/2 months after the original iPod came out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No, but maybe

Well, as every MP3 player seems to be called an iPod, no matter who manufactured it... And plenty of devices came out well before Apple invented the personal music player, so you'd only need the tiniest punches of salt, if any.

[Michael Strorm]

Re: No, but maybe

MP3 players weren't especially prominent outside the computer geek world until then. The iPod wasn't the first, but it massively popularised them.

Apple released the iPod at just the point the technology was good enough to make it possible to create one that genuinely offered something more than just a jumped-up CD or cassette player, not less.

That, in part, is why it was a hit, and why earlier models that only held an hour's worth of audio weren't (who cares about randomly accessing or skipping songs if you can only hold a single tape's worth).

I'm somewhat inclined to believe the other person who said the same tale had been told about a Walkman, with the implication it may have been apocryphal even then.

[Irongut]

Re: No, but maybe

Some decades ago the story was that it was a Sony Walkman.

In both cases an amusing story but little else.

[Helcat]

Re: No, but maybe

It is, however, her kind of humour :p

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No, but maybe

"A portable device that stores my 10,000 music tracks and comes with a pleasant sounding personal assistant that asks me what I want to listen to, then curates my music etc."

Then sends your musical tastes to a Cloud database where your personal data can be sold and ads can be tailored to you.

[cyberdemon]

Re: No, but maybe

And doesn't in fact "store" any tracks, but generates completely "new" ones on the fly from all the world's art that it has stolen er, "learned from", and thus avoids paying a penny of royalties to anyone, while it learns your habits and preferences and flogs them to data brokers the world over.

[TheMaskedMan]

We have AI podcasts in which the "hosts" are allegedly stunned to discover that they're not human, so why not AI DJs (or "presenters" if you prefer Classic FM to the pop-tune mills).

For the kind of DJ whose job is more or less "that was ... This is..." and otherwise keep prattle to a minimum, I don't see why an AI couldn't do the job at least as well as a meatsack. Even requests shouldn't present much of a problem if made by email, xeets etc.

I'm not sold on the social experiment angle, though. It's a cost cutting measure, pure and simple. It makes sense from that perspective, but I'm not sure the listeners will accept it. Lots of people listen to radio for the "company" - they could just play their own music collection if all they wanted was the tunes. Nice idea, but I suspect the meatsacks will be back soon enough.

[Doctor Syntax]

For the kind of DJ whose job is more or less "that was ... This is..." and otherwise keep prattle to a minimum, I don't see why an AI couldn't do the job at least as well as a meatsack

Automating the bottom of the barrel.

[Sudosu]

Wasn't this a WKRP episode?

[Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese]

Quite a few of the internet-based radio stations that I listen to have dispensed with DJs/presenters altogether. Songs played back-to-back, interspersed with a few pre-recorded station idents, and some adverts. If you want to know what's playing then the info is shown on the streaming app - it also shows up as info when listening in the car - or just use Shazam if you're really interested.

It feels a bit de-personalised, but that may not be such a bad thing given the sheer banality of a lot of DJs (which seem to be aimed at the youths, of which I am not one)

[Charlie Clark]

I guess Spotify, et al. have shown the way forward for the majority of listeners who really don't care what they hear and find subscriptions a convenient way of paying for it. They'll be even more profit when all the music played is generated. You mean it isn't already? Well, maybe not all.

Those of us who remember DJs like John Peel – deservedly a legend – are in a very small minority: Trouser suits, that's what I was thinking about as the mic came bake on during a session from The Sundays.

[Filippo]

>They'll be even more profit when all the music played is generated.

There will be more profit - until the users figure out that, since they are getting generated crap anyway, they can generate it themselves, either on their own hardware or for a pittance. We'll see what happens to profit then.

[Like a badger]

"Nice idea, but I suspect the meatsacks will be back soon enough."

Well, I hope the Reg is going to keep us updated on how this progresses; I can't see what we have to lose if it comes to the UK. Here, local and niche radio is already dead thanks to scumbucket groups like Global, Bauer. Any newish station is rapidly acquired, and then the corporate deadheads of Global or Bauer squash all life and individuality out of it underneath their sweaty, flabby corporate buttocks. You can drive between areas where these horrible licence aggregators operate and the music stays the same (in real time) and it's only the gobshitery between tracks that changes, as a token to the area supposedly being served.

In the niche area Classic FM started out as a fabulous station, often sounding like it was run by real enthusiasts from a garden shed. Now it's dull, dull, dull playlists of classical pops, with presenters who are probably broadcasting from Global's DJ and presenter farm that operates in a converted multi-storey car park in Luton. Scala radio's going the same way under Bauer's misguided control freaks, and even be re-branded as "Magic Classical". FFS, which wax-crayon wielding retard chose that?

[yetanotheraoc]

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

"it's only the gobshitery between tracks that changes"

The gobshitery is freely recycled. I heard the exact same story twice on the car radio, separated by four years listening time and 900 miles of driving distance, supposedly about a spider "yesterday" in some "local" DJ's garden. An LLM trained on all DJ patter could not do worse than that.

[Jedit]

"why not AI DJs"

Because if you want music curated by an algorithm you can go to Spotify and have it learn your personal tastes instead of having to suffer through what the average person wants to hear. Which will be determined by what has already been played a lot, so ultimately you're never going to hear anything new on an AI station.

You're dead right that the "social experiment" thing is bollocks, though. It's like literally everything else AI-related these days: a business wants the creative output of a person and doesn't want to pay them for it.

[Sam not the Viking]

Re: "why not AI DJs"

In common with many things in life, some politician/reporter/advertiser/executive/pollster/influencer wants to put a 'label' on you in order to 'sell' you something. They think that if you can be labelled, your future behaviour is predictable. They may have a host of statistics to support their view, but as soon as anyone has a trend imposed upon them, a natural reaction is to rebel.

I regret the passing of good DJs; In the past they knew their stuff and introduced genuinely weird, tangential material. Could Kenny Everett ever be re-invented? On the other hand, can it get worse than Tony B.......?

One is/was irrepressibly unpredictable, you have to listen; the other is irretrievably locked in a predictable waste of earspace......

And which do you think AI will reproduce?

[Sudosu]

Re: "why not AI DJs"

Per ChatGPT (never used it before)

"AI DJs have actually been making waves in recent years! They can analyze vast amounts of music data to create unique mixes, adapt to crowd vibes, and even produce original tracks. However, they still lack the human touch—like understanding cultural contexts or connecting emotionally with the audience. It’s a fascinating blend of technology and artistry, and while they can enhance the experience, many people still cherish the creativity and intuition of human DJs. What do you think—would you enjoy an AI DJ set?"

I have now replaced myself with AI for Register comments apparently

[tiggity]

@TheMaskedMan

TBF, the "that was ... This is..." type of DJ is often* a lot less irritating than those DJs who chat excessively .

* A rare few talkative DJs are entertaining / informative, but far too many are just wasting time that would have been far better spent just going straight to the next track.

[FIA]

See I find the opposite.

I'm a fan of a talky DJ, I can listen to my own music (rather than the 6 standard songs that 'define' whatever genre the particular stations represents) if I want to listen to a song. It's much more likely to be a song I like.

Moyles spends the first 45 minutes of his show each day often talking about farts, but it's still much more entertaining that listening to the same songs playlisted over and over.

For me 'commercial radio' has long ago been replaced by Spotify and it's ilk.

If you want diverse and interesting new music, then that's what 6 Music is for. (You know, that radio station that's actually good, but no-one really listens to....)

[BenDwire]

There is a halfway house available, where the DJ only speaks after several tracks, and there are no adverts. I refer to the wonderful internet station Radio Paradise. They make a point of it being human curated, and long may it continue.

[Killing Time]

Max Headroom!

As predicted, now made real.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Max Headroom!

He would be worth listening to…

[Sudosu]

Re: Max Headroom!

Get ready for the Blipverts!

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our Polish DJ AI overlords. People may scoff at this but once the AI has broken the human spirit with Taylor Swift songs on repeat the damage will already have been done and we won't be able to shake it off.

[FirstTangoInParis]

I can just hear the AI saying Look What You Made Me Do (Dave) ……

[IGotOut]

"has broken the human spirit with Taylor Swift songs on repeat the damage will already have been done"

So Global have been doing this AI thing for 20 years or so then?

[shawn.grinter]

Fox News Next Please

Given the huge sums paid to American "news" anchors I hope they are looking over their shoulder!

And lets face it some of them could do with being replaced.

Thinks: I wonder if there is a "fake news" (aka lies) available in ChatGPT....

[Bebu]

A Live Interview with a Dead Poet...

pissed off a few Poles apparently This Polish radio station dismissed its presenters and turned to AI. Then they interviewed a dead poet.

High tech necromancy? Next up Max Headroom interviewing William Shakespeare?

Presumably the AI would suck up all the plays and sonnets but poor Max might well get responses like:

Max: "Will, what do you make of the current state of AI?"

(The) Bard "The foul fiend rages, eats cow dung for sallets, swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog,"

"Ghastly. It all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it."

[FIA]

If they don't have fart sound number 6 I'm not interested.

[Howard Sway]

I suspect this experiment may fail

As this is one of the few jobs where AI output is going to sound much more intelligent than the average daytime radio DJ, and may get the listeners turning off when they start hearing coherent sentences containing actual facts.

It's also a job where AI hallucinations could be positively entertaining : "That was 'Oops I did it again by The Beatles which spent 437 weeks at number one back in 1927! Coming up after the news, we have an exclusive interview with Jon Bon Jovi live from his igloo on Venus".

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

In a few months, there will be the inevitable headline: "Polish radio station shuts down as listeners find AI presenters a turn off"

Now, where did I put that popcorn maker...

[Evil Scot]

Let's go back to the rock...(Ain't talkin about Dub)

By Apollo Four Hundred and Forty

(according to DJ X)

[Ian Johnston]

Finally ... college students with predictable pronouns.

[FirstTangoInParis]

I wonder if a tall person might prefer the pronouns Fi, Fie, Fo and Fum.

[Anonymous Coward]

*yawn*

[IGotOut]

@Ian....

Just checked, the Daily Mail is still going to keep using people for now, so you're quite safe.

Quick...someone's spotted you peeking out from the curtains....I think the they heard the tutting and grumbling about the youth of today.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

We seem to be. . .

Poles apart on this issue.

[martinusher]

AI Radio, AI Content, AI Music

...so maybe AI listeners?

A lot of the music we hear on the radio or stream is generated by machine anyway so why not get rid of the rest of the vestigial humans that work in the business? (Same with non-music content -- so much copy is now written automatically as clickbait now.)

[Sudosu]

Re: AI Radio, AI Content, AI Music

WRBT

Music written and played by robots, for robots.

Next up the two hour extended version of Assembler Arms' "Dial-up" followed by the new hit "Why Won't You Send Me A Facsimile" by Swift Bailer Unit 587

And now a message from our sponsor;

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[Brave Coward]

Next up

Next up: the new AI-generated pope. Craftily polish-ed.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: Next up

IIRC, the main thesis of Christianity is that all intelligence is AI.

[that one in the corner]

Radi with AI chat between tracks

So, you're a waffle man.

[Tron]

I beg to differ.

Given how bad the teenagers DJing on Radio 1 are now, I would prefer to listen to an AI trained on 'Steve Wright in the Afternoon'.

[IGotOut]

Re: I beg to differ.

I thought Steve Wright was AI anyway. Trained on material from the 1980s and just regurgitated over and over.

[Nifty]

It works! Or has since the advent of MTV on satellite TV in the 1980s.

https://youtu.be/cYdpOjletnc

Seriously though, Tommy Vance's voice is now licensed and used regularly on Boom Rock:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Vance (RIP)

Boom Rock only has a couple of hours of live programming per day, the rest is jukebox.

It would be nice if during jukebox hours there was at least an intro and an outro on the artist, song & album and maybe even a micro-wiki on the track. It will happen with AI.

[IGotOut]

Meh...

...I don't think my teenage kids would even know how to tune in a radio. The only time they listen to it in in the grandparents cars, and hats only when the batteries on their phones have died.

I listen to one of the many SomaFM stations when not streaming. What's a DJ again?

[JamesTGrant]

It’s probably temporary… but we fired the humans and they won’t be back?

[druck]

OFF Radio Krakow?

Radio Krakow OFF more like.