The DNA test results have arrived. Radio, you are the illegitimate father of smart speakers. If you pictured Maury Povich delivering this shocking news to the collective gasps of a live audience, you’re not alone. Despite years of denial, audio is one of the few creative mediums that has yet to be modernized for the twenty-first century. When I discovered a 50-year-old radio station buried and forgotten in a basement on the U.S. Air Force Academy campus, I apprehensively adopted it and the challenge to reinvent radio.
Did you know 9 out of 10 people tune into radio every week? That makes it more popular than Facebook, email and even the internet. The secret to its longevity is fundamentally biological. It’s the human connection that can’t be mimicked by modern-day algorithms and communication platforms.
With consumers experimenting with new mediums like smart speakers in their homes, this presented a unique opportunity for the Air Force Academy to reach cadets, their parents and faculty in a profound, unobtrusive way that doesn’t require sitting in traffic to listen. It also afforded the radio station the opportunity to expand beyond delivering hit music.
Utilizing the Amazon Alexa flash briefing API, we developed an intelligent preloading system to queue sequences of audio files served via WordPress. Capturing audio using a microphone inside a sound booth wouldn’t cut it for aggressive listener acquisition. We infused the recordings with personality and sound effects, pulling in stories of academic achievements, college sports and historical events. Click here to preview.
In less than a year, the Air Force Academy Alexa skill became the #1 downloaded smart speaker voice app across the Department of Defense. With over 5,000 downloads, it has evolved to become so culturally significant that it’s an essential part of staying in the loop from the first day of military training to graduation.