Finnish media company Sanoma Media is using AI from Radio.Cloud to bring a voice to its afternoon drive on Loop.
The afternoon drive program was previously unhosted, but now listeners will hear a program hosted and programed by Anni, a virtual host created by Voicetrack.ai and based on the voice of Satu Kotonen, program director for Loop’s sister station HitMix.
“My vision of a good radio voice is authenticity, clarity, and presence,” stated Kotonen. “The voice material comes from broadcasts I have done on HitMix, which means real situations and energy.”
The Voicetrack.ai platform is used on nearly a dozen channels worldwide, according to Radio.Cloud CEO Christian Brenner; however, “This milestone marks a groundbreaking moment as we now support a national FM station airing a prime-time show…”
Anni is not the first foray into AI for Sanoma Media. In September, the company began trialing local weather forecasts assembled by AI and read by a machine voice on its HitMix and Aito Iskelmä channels
“We are constantly developing our products so that our listeners get even better and more interesting content. We are currently testing HS Turku local news read by machine voice in Turku. Local weather reports are another perfect application, where artificial intelligence and machine voice make production fast and efficient,” stated Nelonen Media Content Insight Strategist Sami Virtanen. Nelonen Media is the business unit for Sanoma Media’s broadcast operations.
“AI does not compete with radio professionals on the same level but enriches the broadcast where such a service would not otherwise exist,” Virtanen stated. “In accordance with our ethical principles, listeners are always informed when AI is speaking, and all text read by AI is reviewed by a human before it goes on air.”
Those ethical principals were outlined by the company in June 2024 with the goal of ensuring safe, appropriate and responsible utilization of artificial intelligence. The six principals are:
- Use AI fairly for a positive impact
- Human responsibility
- Explainability
- Transparency
- Assessment of risks and impact
- Monitoring and review
[Read more RW stories about the adoption of AI by broadcasters.]
