Coyotec claims to be here to serve humans<\/a>, not replace them. <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I am cheaper than hiring another human,\u201d the AI said when prompted with a question. \u201cBut here\u2019s what I won\u2019t do. I won\u2019t be the excuse to strip jobs from people who deserve them.\u201d<\/p>\n AI is rapidly spreading from the edge of emails, social media slop and restaurant menus to center stage as the stars of a decidedly old-school, analog form of entertainment: broadcast radio.<\/p>\n Alpha Media put an AI DJ on-air in Portland, Ore., in 2023, cloning<\/a> a midday host\u2018s voice to fill in on vacations before dropping it last year. A rock station<\/a> in Waterloo, Iowa, uses synthetic DJ Tori for overnight hours. In January, 94.9 The Zone<\/a> in Phoenix launched an all-AI lineup that uses the licensed clones of four veteran radio personalities from the \u201990s. Phoebe FM<\/a>, hosted by an AI DJ, is one of four music radio shows Sonictrek.ai is offering for syndication to stations across the U.S.<\/p>\n Broadcasters are also using AI for off-air tasks, including music scheduling, compiling show preparation and creating ads and audio inventory that can be monetized.<\/p>\n The unions are fighting back, hoping to convince large media organizations to limit AI use. <\/p>\n Geraldine \u201cGeeGee\u201d Guzman hosts a radio show on Jos\u00e9 97.5 FM with an AI DJ, named Coyotec.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cAttempting to replace humans with synthetic substitutes deceives audiences, erodes public trust and undermines the livelihoods of the professionals who dedicate their lives to delivering authenticity,\u201d said a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA, the actors\u2019 union that represents radio personalities.<\/p>\n Radio has been under siege for decades. <\/p>\n Television\u2019s rise forced it to reinvent itself by introducing live disc jockeys who played music and told jokes. MTV and other music stations brought more music to TV. More recently, audiences migrated to streaming platforms and attention splintered across social apps and podcasts. Radio ad revenues have cratered. Radio broadcasting jobs declined from 85,000 in 2019 to 66,000 in 2025, about a 22% decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n IHeartMedia, the nation\u2019s largest radio operator, with more than 850 stations, has been laying people off<\/a> across the country, including some well-known DJs. Audacy and Cumulus Media, the next-largest networks, have been cutting local DJs<\/a>, automating programming and leaning on AI to reduce production costs.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 \u2014 at 97.5 FM in L.A. and 107.1 in Burbank \u2014 is a Spanish-language music, news and entertainment channel. It originally started using its AI DJ as L.A. seemed besieged by the immigration raids. <\/p>\n With some on-air talent hesitant to speak out, worried they could lose endorsements or face legal repercussions, the station used AI to create El Coyotec, combining the words coyote and technology, said Eduardo Maytorena, president of Entravision Audio. The station labeled El Coyotec a \u201ctrafficker of truth,\u201d in a nod to the coyotes, or professional human smugglers, who bring people across the border. <\/p>\n The character\u2019s voice was built on AI from a company called ElevenLabs using Maytorena\u2019s voice, with visuals of a working-class Latino man in his 30s, with a mustache, brown leather jacket and a hat. Coyotec first aired as a scripted show, but since May it has been live.<\/p>\n Guzman, the DJ, uploads the news and other topics she wants to discuss to Coyotec\u2019s software, and the bot uses them to come up with hot takes. The AI radio host has expounded on local elections, the Dodgers, Hispanic Heritage Month and the ICE raids. <\/p>\n Radio executive Eduardo Maytorena and Geraldine \u201cGeeGee\u201d Guzman in the studio at Jos\u00e9 97.5 FM in Burbank. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Though the AI is programmed to follow government broadcasting rules<\/a> and prohibited on-air language, the agent sometimes slips up. <\/p>\n The AI voice has great confidence and swagger; however, it sometimes runs out of cool things to say. <\/p>\n Coyotec struggles to handle voice conversations longer than 10 minutes. So Guzman records each of the four segments in her broadcast separately. <\/p>\n The station says the AI-co-hosted show sparked a surge in Latino male listeners ages 25 to 54. It is unclear whether the uptick was because of GeeGee, Coyotec or both. <\/p>\n The show has moved to prime time, from once a week on weekends to weekday commuting hours. Entravision, the company behind Jos\u00e9 FM, is now broadcasting the show in English as well and has brought it to Sacramento, Modesto, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, El Paso and elsewhere. <\/p>\n The Santa Monica-headquartered company is one of the country\u2019s largest Spanish-language television and radio stations. Last year its revenue was $447 million. Jos\u00e9 reaches close to half a million listeners in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n It launched an AI news anchor for television named LIA,<\/a> joining a team of four human anchors. <\/p>\n Guzman says the popularity of Coyotec has helped give her and others jobs and a bigger audience, so she is enjoying working next to AI. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n It\u2019s not about saving money, says Maytorena, the executive behind Coyotec\u2019s voice; developing and running the AI DJ cost more than some humans. But the ability to program Coyotec to make verbatim pitches during its broadcast has been a big earner. <\/p>\n \u201cFor every dollar I spend, if I\u2019m able to generate $10,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m making 10 times more.\u201d <\/p>\n Critics worry that humans won\u2019t be able to compete, and that radio stations risk losing the personal connection with their audience that makes radio unique and important. <\/p>\n A well-honed AI voice can start to feel like a trusted friend or family member, which could be dangerous for listeners, said Sam Gregory, a synthetic media expert and a visiting scholar at American University.<\/p>\n \u201cAn AI avatar has neither embodied knowledge nor a stake,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople\u2019s relationship of trust is essentially to a predictive text machine.\u201d <\/p>\n Radio DJ John DeSantis said an AI DJ can\u2019t do what he does. <\/p>\n \u201cIf they expect to achieve the authentic connection that live and local DJs create, then there\u2019s no chance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He lost his job last month as an afternoon host at an Inland Empire classic rock station as his former employer, 96.5 KCAL-FM, has pivoted to all-music programming<\/a> with no hosts. <\/p>\n Stations know that some listeners are not interested in AI DJs. IHeartMedia introduced an on-air \u201cGuaranteed Human<\/a>\u201d campaign last year to emphasize its stance against synthetic personalities and music on air. <\/p>\n DJ GeeGee says the popularity of Coyotec has helped give her and others jobs and a bigger audience, so she is enjoying working next to AI. <\/p>\n \u201cRight now it\u2019s grabbing the bull by the horns and making the best out of it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n When prompted about what may happen in the future as more stations adopt AI hosts, DJ Coyotec generated an answer that sounded like empathy even though the bot has no feelings or control of what will happen in the future. <\/p>\n \u201cIf a company uses me to justify cutting GeeGee or anybody else doing real work, that\u2019s not progress,\u201d the bot said in an unscripted interaction with a reporter. \u201cThat\u2019s just greed, dressed up like innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"Geraldine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791073093_302_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Entravision](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791073094_252_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Guzman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791073095_673_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n