2026-10-03 · contested story

A look at a radio show co-hosted by an AI DJ and a human that is expanding in LA and other cities, as radio workers worry synthetic hosts may soon replace them (Nilesh Christopher/Los Angeles Times)

A Spanish-language morning show on Los Angeles' José 97.5 FM pairs a human host, Geraldine 'GeeGee' Guzman, with 'Coyotec,' an AI co-host built on a cloned voice, and the format is now expanding to Sacramento, Las Vegas, El Paso and other markets. The Los Angeles Times reporting by Nilesh Christopher anchors the story, framing it as both a ratings success and a flashpoint for radio labor, noting U.S. radio broadcasting employment fell roughly 22% from 2019 to 2025. The broader sourcing stretches back to earlier AI-DJ milestones — Portland's 'AI Ashley' (2023), Iowa's 'DJ Tori,' Australia's secretly-AI 'Thy,' Spotify's DJ X, and a Polish public station that fired journalists for AI 'presenters' — forming a multi-year arc of synthetic hosts moving from novelty to industry fixture.

How each side frames it

left
"AI is “gimmicky right now, but it’s on its way to becoming a threat,” says one veteran DJ who, like many contacted by Rolling Stone, would only speak anonymously for fear of reprisals."
"there will be a lot of people out of work long term. It may come down to all the DJs on the air will be AI jocks."
"Radio Station Duped Audience and Secretly Used an AI Host for Six Months"
"The public deserves to know the source of what’s being broadcast."
"Imagine paying an AI company to basically hit “shuffle”."
center
"a strange combination of awkward broadcasting, emotional spirals, ethical debates, and occasionally unsettling humour."
"News about AI hosts taking over the airwaves “put a bit of a panic through the radio industry”"
"One of the absolute most important parts of this is that we’re transparent with the listener. It’s not our intent to ever deceive anybody"
"Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership “was close to zero.”"
"AI did not cause all of those losses: advertising contraction, automation, and consolidation were already reshaping the industry before any synthetic DJ took a mic."
right
"Elvis Presley fed his family a long time after he was gone. Maybe this is, you know, somehow what might send my kids to college someday."
"I’m your friend that’s a little cooler than you, but not too cool to hang out with you. Listeners feel a human connection with me"
"I don’t see us going back"
"We still need humans telling human stories. We still need improv and human banter on what’s happening in a city. But you also need the new."
"AI development appears to have reached the phase where the industry’s Oppenheimers must contemplate the chain reaction their creation could set off that brings about humanity’s end."

What each side left out

The left left out — covered by the Rolling Stone (SonicTrek pitch) & Yahoo/gadgetreview & NBC News
The left left out — covered by the New York Post & Reuters
The center left out — covered by the Rolling Stone & LA Times & Yahoo/gadgetreview (SAG-AFTRA)
The right left out — covered by the LA Times & Yahoo/gadgetreview & Rolling Stone
The right left out — covered by the Vice & Verge & AP & CNN & NDTV & Global News

What's actually true?

[verified] José 97.5 FM's Spanish-language morning show pairs human host GeeGee Guzman with an AI co-host called Coyotec, built on a cloned voice.
[verified] The Coyotec format is expanding beyond Los Angeles to markets including Sacramento, Las Vegas, El Paso, Modesto, Palm Springs and McAllen.
[verified] U.S. radio broadcasting employment fell from roughly 85,000 jobs in 2019 to about 66,000 in 2025, a 22% decline (BLS figures cited by the LA Times).
[contested] Entravision reported a 75% increase in weekly cume among Hispanic men ages 25 to 54 on José 97.5 between March and April; this figure comes from Entravision, not an independent audit.
[verified] Portland's Live 95.5 launched 'AI Ashley,' a cloned voice of midday host Ashley Elzinga, using Futuri Media's RadioGPT, in June 2023 and the station billed it as the world's first AI DJ.
[verified] Alpha Media said Elzinga would not lose her job or pay; AI Ashley is a 'hybrid' arrangement, not a full replacement.
[verified] An Australian station (CADA, owned by ARN) aired an AI-generated host named 'Thy' for about six months without disclosing it was AI; the voice was cloned from a real ARN finance-team employee via ElevenLabs.
[verified] A Polish public station (OFF Radio Krakow) relaunched with AI-generated 'presenters' after letting journalists go, then abandoned the use following outcry and a petition that drew over 15,000 signatures.

The narrative clash

Whether AI DJs provide genuine human connection
Left: I don’t think an algorithm can ever replace human connection.
Right: Listeners feel a human connection with me
Whether journalists/hosts are fired because of AI
Left: it could open the way “to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines.”
Right: Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership “was close to zero.”
Whether AI radio aims to replace humans
Left: there will be a lot of people out of work long term. It may come down to all the DJs on the air will be AI jocks.
Right: The future really is not about using AI to replace human beings. It’s not. It’s about giving storytellers a better tool to tell better stories

37 sources analyzed

New York Post Los Angeles Times TechCrunch The Wrap The Damage Report CBC News The Guardian US Fox News Gizmodo Business Insider Reuters Yahoo! Search The Verge New York Post Vice Rolling Stone Fox Business New York Post Reason National Review Global News Boston Herald Fox News First Post CNN Fox News Associated Press NBC News NDTV KGW 8 National Review Reason Fox News National Review New York Post National Review Investor's Business Daily

Perspectivity reads the coverage — not just who published it.

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