AI, more AI, SiriusXM, and The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am. That’s a condensed version of the role radio played at CES 2025, as reviewed in Jacobs Media Strategies’ Tuesday (Jan. 21) webinar.
Simply put, “AI was everywhere,” Jacobs Media owner Fred Jacobs says. Adds Jacobs’ Director of AI, Digital, and Revenue Generation Chris Brunt, “95% of vendors had AI, [so] you didn’t want to be the vendor that doesn’t.”
As for radio, Fred says, “[It] was there, but in different forms.” One of those forms was AI-powered Timekettle, which provides real-time translation into five languages and is already being used by Worthington, Minnesota-based company Radio Works’ Chad Cummings, who’s using it to create a Spanish language service in the market, where 60% of the population is Hispanic.
“Think about that from the radio lens,” Jacobs’ VP/GM Paul Jacobs says. “As our audience diversifies, or we create Latino targeted streams, the ability to use AI technology to do that translation for us, or to use it if we’ve got Spanish language clients, [will] help our salespeople better understand the clients if they don’t speak English. So when we talk about how CES or AI impacts radio, here’s this brand new technology [that’s] an amazing convolution of new tech and old radio thinking coming together.”
Also, at CES, The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, in partnership with LG and Mercedes, debuted RaiDiO.FYI, a platform enabling users to create custom stations featuring AI DJs, which he said in his presentation, “takes radio to the next level. It’s no longer [just] listening: it’s engagers, active and dangerous. So, you come to FYI, you build the project, and then the project is now playing through a station.”
Adds Brunt, “will.i.am wants to create interactivity with his AI DJ, and with the advertisements that run on the platform. One thing [he] was very vocal about is that the DJs are inclusive of multiple demographics, genders, ages, and ethnicities. It does add a different dimension to the radio experience.”
While few radio companies presented, Fred notes that “at CES, it’s often about who shows up, [and for] SiriusXM, just being there elevates them.” Brunt says, “I had the pleasure of sitting through two demos [from their] ‘sound is magic’ team. My favorite example was when they had people drinking and smelling two coffees and writing down notes [about each one while] they played music. What people didn't realize was it was the same coffee, but they were playing different music each time, so the participants had written different notes about how the coffee scent was based on the music, showcasing the power of audio engineering and that's something that they’re taking to their clients moving forward.”
Also notable was Reddit’s CES presentation. “[Reddit] is showcasing what’s maybe a good data platform for radio,” says Brian Comiskey, Senior Director of Innovation and Trends for CES’ presenter, Consumer Technology Association. “When we think about it in terms of who has some of the best hyper-personalized data in the world, it’s radio platforms, and Reddit might be a model to look at in terms of how to use it with AI on your own terms.”
Comiskey notes that one of Jacobs’ tour attendees, KPBS-FM and KPBS-TV General Manager, Deanna Mackey, is using Reddit “as a way to tap into the community, with ‘ask me anything’ sessions with their journalists and news people around the election, and it [was] a great way to tap into the like-minded people who are already out there and have those conversations with them.”
He adds, “Personalization is the word you’re hearing over and over. I think it applies to the radio industry quite well, and I think that’s a huge takeaway when I think about what in AI is powerful.”
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