While watching the recently completed 2024 Summer Olympics, we didn’t realize that the nearly ubiquitous voice of Al Michaels, hear round the clock, was not the physical (and presumably sleepy) Al Michaels. But while studying a new survey research deck from Jacobs Media this morning, we encountered “AI Al Michaels.”
A bit of Googling informed us retrospectively: “Al Michaels AI Clone to Voice Olympic Highlights During 2024 Paris Games.” (Fred Jacobs played back a portion of AI AI Michaels in a webinar this afternoon.)
Michaels was reportedly uneasy about the idea at first, but was eventually sold on the AI quality: “Frankly it was astonishing,” he enthused to Tom Kludt at Vanity Fair. “It was amazing.”
The AI voicing was used for round-the-clock scripted highlights.
While we are shamed by our ignorance of Al Michaels, we are happily enlightened by Jacobs Media, first in the article linked above, and then by a massive research deck we received from Jacobs: 9 KeyTakeaways for On-Air Talent in 2024. It represents a July web survey of 489 currently employed radio air personalities, plus 59 unemployed. The interesting 66-page presentation reveals the many attitudes, lifestyles, economics, and professional concerns of radio voice performers. It is interesting throughout; our focus here is the AI Michaels phenomenon, and what public-facing radio pros think of it.
“Al Michaels” appears once in the tidal wave of data, when participants are asked about their opinion of the AI cloning, and whether they would allow AI replicates of their own voices to be used on the air. The (ambivalent) results below:
To our eyes, that slide indicates begrudging acceptance of AI voicing, with a 20% (not unsubstantial!) enthusiasm for AI as a potential career booster.
FOOTNOTE: The Al Michaels business is only a fragment of 9 KeyTakeaways for On-Air Talent in 2024. Below, the actual takeaways from the Jacobs Media study:
- Opportunities for women continue to lag & the “gender gap” is wide.
- Serving their communities is a main reason talent love their jobs.
- The work/life balance aspiration is elusive, exacerbated by all those “hats.”
- The day-to-day routine of talent has been by technology like voicetracking,
facilitating work on multiple stations. - The general vibe is that radio companies are coming up short on talent
recruiting and tech training. - Economically for talent, it’s a case of the Haves and the Have-Nots.
- Dissatisfaction with radio companies has grown since COVID.
- AI fears are subsiding as talent discover “WIIFM.”
- There are concerns about radio’s progress & survivability in this era.
