The 2024 NAB Show is underway in Las Vegas, and the organization’s President and CEO — Curtis LeGeyt — is sharing his optimism for the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.

During his opening remarks at the show, LeGeyt told attendees about his enthusiasm not only for the bill, stating “I think we’re gonna get this over the finish line”, but also for the reversal from Ford to keep the AM band in its new models going forward.

Additionally, LeGeyt stated that the strong response from the general public in support of the proposed bill should be an encouraging one to those in the broadcast industry.

“To me what’s most encouraging about this is what this says about all of you, the radio station owners in this room. It can be tough in this landscape. When you’re managing payroll to payroll in some cases, quarter to quarter, it can feel like a slog. And there’s so much disruption going on around this medium and questions about its ongoing relevance,” said LeGeyt. “This has put tremendous wind in our sails. To see hundreds of thousands of people who took the time to reach out to their legislator and say this matters to me. It matters to my family. They care.”

LeGeyt continued, “I just think what we’re doing to serve local communities, whether you’re in radio, television, AM or FM, this should be an inspirational story to all of us on the best of broadcast if we all fulfill our mission, but every station needs resources to do it and I’m fighting for that.”

Curtis LeGeyt stated that the bill has received support from more than half of the House of Representatives, adding that the backing comes from nearly a 50/50 split of both Republicans and Democrats.

“It’s unifying. There’s hope for America,” he said with a chuckle.

Artificial Intelligence has been a hot-button topic for media executives. Futuri has released the findings of a groundbreaking study about AI from media consumers.

In a study alongside CMG Custom Research, Futuri polled 5,200 media consumers about their familiarity with AI, and their willingness to embrace the technology.

For instance, 89% of respondents said they were familiar with AI, while 59% said they have knowingly used it. Nearly 60% of respondents were unable to decipher AI voices from human voices when presented with samples.

While many have insinuated that media consumers do not want artificial voices, 78% of those surveyed said they would listen more if AI were to “fill in gaps” in broadcasting schedules. Meanwhile, 30% of audio listeners said AI-generated content would “definitely improve” their podcast experiences.

“Futuri’s study shows that audiences are open to media’s adoption of AI for content creation. In fact, 1 in 5 listeners believe they already listen to a radio station that is using AI,” said Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig. “Listeners also believe that AI will assist media in creating more relevant and engaging content. They just want to be informed of its use, and for it to be used in the right scenarios.

“This study reveals an industry at the dawn of an AI revolution. The demand
for content in general, is at an all-time high, and AI promises to make broadcast teams capable
of generating the sheer volume of audio content across multiple platforms that audiences
demand.”

Specifically in radio, many respondents said they would embrace more usage of the technology. 85% of those surveyed believe artificial intelligence would definitely or somewhat likely improve weather and forecasts in radio. 89% said it would better song selection and 86% said it would improve introduction to songs.

However, 90% expressed the opinion that stations should disclose when AI is being used to create content or create on-air voices.

“Now is the time for radio to maximize its human talent, and use AI to enhance our ability to produce content for every daypart and every platform. The radio industry is not served by debates about whether or not AI is coming… it’s here, it’s inevitable,” concluded Anstanding. “Content creators are using AI to grow their audience and revenue every day.

“Now, we in radio need to adopt practical tools and solutions to make ourselves more efficient and impactful. Radio is also not served by debates about replacing humans with AI. We need all the human ingenuity and creativity we can get, and we need to augment and extend it with AI. A strong media industry is good for democracy, and good for society. ”

The 2024 Presidential primary ended up being a clunker for advertising, and now conservative media outlets are feeling the sting, too, with website traffic taking a nosedive.

According to a recent study from TheRighting, conservative media website traffic has plummeted compared to 2020, with 86% of the top outlets seeing drops of 44% or more.

Fox News continues to dominate the conservative media landscape in web traffic. More than 83 million unique visitors went to the outlet’s website in February. However, that’s a drop of 22% compared to 2020, when more than 100 million visited.

That 22% drop pales in comparison to drops other prominent websites have seen. The Federalist has seen a drop of 91%, while The Washington Times declined 89%. Other outlets, like TheBlaze saw a decline of 67%, with Breitbart dropping 76% and The Daily Caller falling 57% in unique visitors.

Other notable outlets like Drudge Report (81%), Daily Beast (45%), The Washington Post (43%), and The New York Times (22%) also saw declines.

Only one right-wing outlet tracked by TheRighting saw an increase in unique visitors compared to February 2020. Newsmax saw a 37% increase compared to the previous Presidential election year. The conservative media entity founded by Chris Ruddy saw a total of 4.3 million unique visitors in February, according to Comscore .