In a RadioDays Ireland session hosted by Will Faulkner, a panel of radio leaders discussed some of the most important current issues for the Irish radio industry.

The Irish radio industry reaches 3.4 million people each day, out of a population of 5 million in Ireland. “Understand how important that is, all those people chose to come to our station every day,” said Chris Doyle, CEO, Bauer Media Audio Ireland.  “I love that moment when somebody says ‘I heard this on the radio today…’”

The other panel participants were:

Aoife MacEvilly, Broadcasting and Video on Demand Commissioner, Coimisiún na Meán,

Patricia Monahan, the new Director of Audio at RTE

Ronan McManamy, CEO, Clare FM/Tipp FM

Sean Barry, Managing Director, Wireless Ireland

Commenting on the value of radio to advertisers Sean acknowledged that radio is undergoing a lot of change. “If you look at the commercial proposition there is still value in radio but the world has changed.

“We really need to understand the complimentary benefits of addressable digital advertising. The future of our sector is multi-platform. We will be part of new distribution platforms to maximise reach and maximise impact. Trust is also important in the modern environment when there are some other media that can’t be trusted.”

Broadcasting Commissioner Aoife MacEvilly said radio is “a diverse and dynamic medium. A wide range of initiatives are going on in the radio sector.”  The Department is promoting trusted journalism and digital innovation in its activities. “We want to support the radio sector so it can support democracy,” she said.

Discussing policy issues, Ronan McManamy said: “Social media takes a lot of revenue out of the market, we need funding and policy support from government for future media initiatives, just like other media are getting from government.”

RTE’s Patricia Monahan said the industry must embrace both podcasting and audio. “We’re brilliant at it, let’s lean into podcasting. We are working towards understanding the new consumption habits to determine what best to use audio, radio and podcasts for.”

“People call radio a traditional media, we are anything but traditional!” she said.

Chris Doyle talked about how radio is changing with it’s listeners.

“Our industry needs to look at digital listening survey collection methods, but there are challenges. That is the most important piece of work we need to do. There are things happening in places like Australian to update survey methods that we can learn from.

“There are new models for us to expand audiences on other platforms that are aimed to keep people in our ecosystem. Once we get hold of that audience we can push them to us, that is the trick to attracting younger audiences to our radio platforms.”

Ronan said, “if we keep producing rich content, it will continue to attract audiences to us because they care about what is happening in their local area.”

Patricia said: “It’s simply not true that young people don’t listen to radio, they do. We should take advantage of that by supplementing linear stations with other types of digital audio, so we need to have complimentary products to our linear schedule.”

Sean’s network launched some new DAB services this week to “provide more touchpoints for the audience.” In the absence of any new FM spectrum availability in Ireland, DAB expansion is important.

Aoife said the regulator will be looking at spectrum availability and what content the audience wants in a format that people are engaging with.

Chris made the point that Ireland needs to keep young people coming into the industry. There is huge competition for people with media skills from other Ireland based international technology companies. One suggestion he had was to change the job titles used in radio. “Researcher, producer, announcer are old job titles, make them more compatible with other industries.”

Using Artificial Intelligence in Radio

In another future focused session, a panel considered the use of AI in radio.

Glen Mulcahy, Titanium Media, James Cridland, PodNews, Joanne Sweeney, Digital Training Institute spoke to moderator Jess Kelly from Newstalk about using AI in the radio industry. Key points included:

• Know the difference between generative and transformative AI. Generative can create something new, transformative can change something existing. Generative AI can be used to create new scripts and clone voices to create artificial announcers. Transformative AI are the tools we use to clean up audio or perform other editing tasks.

“Generative is the more scary type of AI, transformative can help us be more productive.

“Where does the human voice sit in relation to artificial voices? Radio has the edge in human connection, AI has no soul.”

Europe is enacting a first-ever legal framework on Artificial Intelligence with the AI Act, which was introduced in August last year and will take full effect in two years time. It aims to limit the potential harmful effects of AI while still benefitting from the productivity gains that AI can bring.

• Efficiency. Quickening administrative and editing tasks can bring new levels of efficiency to the back end work of the audio industry.

“AI has given sales people 40% more time on the road because the AI tool makes administration more efficient…

“Every station should develop a use-kit for AI. ask, what are the regular tasks that AI can do for me? Determine what they are, then articulate the guidelines for how you will use the tools for every use-case. After that explain to staff how that sits within your policy and the EU rules  and explain to your audience how you are using AI…

“Where will you draw the line? Will it be simple spellchecking, grammatical improvements using tools such as Grammerly, or will you go as far as getting AI to write content or write a speech? Articulate your use-cases clearly.”

• Tools

Vocal remover – allowing you to take the voice out of a song mix

Audo.AI – clean background noise

Descript – transcriptions

Opus Clip for creating short clips for socials from long video reports

Adobe voice enhancer

Cloned voice tools

Humanisers

Open Clip

• Journalism and editorial content.

“For serious content, nothing should be put to air without editorial oversight. Use AI tools for research or comparisons, but before publishing make sure editorial checks are completed properly.

“The risk is that if you use AI wrongly and you are caught, it will irreparably damage your brand. Never hide the fact that you are using AI, if you use it, use it under clear policies and disclose your editorial process so that your audience can trust you and be aware when AI is being used.”

The panel discussed an interesting case where the British Technology Minister was asked to disclose his ChatGPT usage by a New Scientist journalist under the Freedom of Information Act. Everybody was surprised that he did release his AI searches and the details of what searches had been made. It also reinformed the watchdog role of the media. There was nothing improper about the minister’s use of AI, but it was an interesting insight into how AI is being used in many types of jobs.

Initial article:

The UK’s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has asked ChatGPT for advice on why the adoption of artificial intelligence is so slow in the UK business community – and which podcasts he should appear on.

Analysis piece:

New Scientist’s revelation that a UK minister is asking ChatGPT for advice raises the question of what role these new AI tools should play in government – and whether we should really think of them as intelligent

The interplay between social media manipulation and its links with the new AI technology were also discussed, with the panel referencing the work of Tristan Harris which explains how social media tools manipulate people’s perceptions.

Reporting: Steve Ahern