Welcome to “Halftime 2024.” This 4th of July holiday marks the mid-point of the year. As this holiday full of barbeques and fireworks is upon us, I’ve got four fundamental questions to answer for our radio stations, our companies, and ourselves. Enjoy your time off and today’s post.

The deluge of new media and technology compels us to think differently, whether you’re an FM radio station in Minot or you’re Microsoft. Last month, the CEO of the latter challenged the industry and his own company to be more relevant or face the inevitable thinning of the media and technology herd. In today’s post, I’ve taken that charge seriously, providing three good examples of how to pivot a career and make it work. Will it be inspiration to you at this time in your career cycle? You tell me.

Radio’s issue with AI – or vice-versa – get more interesting with each passing week. The newest episode comes from television where a certain high-profile network sports personality has given his permission to use his voice for a high-profile marketing campaign around the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. There are major implications with using the AI voice of a superstar talent for promotional purposes, something radio broadcasters will eventually have to deal with, probably sooner rather than later.

The COVID ordeal is one we’d all just aa soon forget. But the pandemic resurrected QR codes, a safe, clean way to access restaurant menus. And from there, the technology was reborn. Today’s blog post shares the newest research results for QR codes – who’s using them and what they use them for. For radio, they might prove to be a free promotional tool during an economic time when marketing budgets are at a premium or they no longer exist.

This week has been packed with stories about innovative tools and creative outputs being developed with AI models. Intertwined with copyright controversies and fears of…