Radio Discoverability in the Generative AI World

AI search tools are changing quickly. Can radio keep up? Experts say these changes could have a big effect on radio station sales and programming teams.

People are clicking on radio station websites less often. Audiences and advertisers are increasingly asking AI assistants to help them choose what to listen to and where to spend money. This creates a problem for radio stations because they cannot compete with major technology companies on the algorithms those companies use.

People are searching for information much more often through large language models (LLMs), the AI systems behind tools such as ChatGPT. The effects on local media may not be obvious yet, but experts say it is reasonable to expect them to grow.

Advertisers and advertising agencies are increasingly using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini to come up with advertising campaigns and decide how to spend their budgets.

Radio industry experts say this is a challenge for broadcasters because these digital tools also seem to give streaming services an advantage. Local media companies often do not appear clearly in results produced by generative AI search tools.

“I don’t think bias is the right word for it, but I think there’s a couple of challenges for radio where AI-generated search is concerned,” said Dave Casper, senior VP of digital services for Radio Advertising Bureau.

“The big one is that radio is an audio business for the most part, and AI can’t see a lot of what radio does because radio is audio.”

Casper said AI tools know very little about local radio stations. They can only use information they find on station websites and other online sources. Often, there is not much information available.

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) recently finished a series of live presentations to help broadcasters use AI to support their sales work and find new business opportunities.

AI is “rapidly reshaping how sellers work, research, prospect and communicate,” Casper said.

The webinar series showed broadcasters how to add AI tools to their sales plans. It included demonstrations, ideas from other professionals and examples of successful work.

Casper said AI search tools have not been trained to know much about individual radio stations.

“In a lot of cases, [AI search] is defaulting over to Wikipedia. Well, heck, a lot of radio stations probably haven’t looked at their Wikipedia page since 2005,” he said. “Or it’s looking at some Chamber of Commerce article that was written 10 years ago.”

Casper said broadcasters need to regularly publish information that AI tools can learn from.

“That’s true for our station brands just as it’s true for our clients. Having a marketing blog for your station is really important now because that’s how the LLM can learn about the different opportunities your station offers to clients in your market,” he said.

“That’s something that an LLM can consume and learn about and use as part of conversations that helps to solve the problems that potential advertising clients are asking.”

RAB even recommends using Claude or ChatGPT to create website pages that are designed to be easy for AI tools to read and use.

“LLMs can do a lot of this work. They can do a lot of the heavy lifting for us,” Casper said.

“A tool like Claude can code that for you; it doesn’t have to be hand-coded anymore.”

Gordon Borrell, president and CEO of Borrell Associates Inc., said broadcasters also need to learn how to help clients stay visible online. They can start by talking with clients about how AI is changing marketing.

“Losing visibility is on their minds, but you could also open the discussion about how they’re using AI for marketing purposes. Ask whether they’ve been using AI for marketing suggestions. Also make sure you’re going onto Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT to see what the LLMs are recommending,” Borrell said.

Remember, too, that the answers from LLMs can be influenced by the person using them.

“So if you’ve been asking a lot of radio-related questions, your answers will likely be radio-biased,” Borrell pointed out.

Borrell said another important fact about AI search is that it relies heavily on Reddit.

Borrell called Reddit “an interesting platform in that it’s not a bulletin board where you can slip in the door, pin something about yourself or your product and walk away. You have to participate, contribute, interact.”

Borrell said one strength of AI search is that it considers information before showing results to users.

“I’d enlist an expert — a company, preferably — in GEO, in generative engine optimization, and learn from them. You’ll need to rely heavily on structured information like Apple Business Connect and Google Business profiles, Yelp, Facebook and directories,” he said.

“Also look for authoritative sources, not blabby free-for-all bulletin boards.”

Chris Brunt, director of digital revenue generation and AI for Jacobs Media, said that when people use generative AI to search, they may also visit fewer websites.

“Overall, traffic to media websites has declined significantly in 2026 as users increasingly get information from Google’s AI summaries rather than clicking through to the sites where the news or information originated,” Brunt said.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that traffic to CNN and Business Insider had fallen by more than 30%. Other reports suggest that 68% of Google searches now end without a click because people find the information they need directly on the search results page.

Brunt said that optimizing websites for AI search was not even a formal skill 18 months ago, but it has now become a priority for many business owners.

“The starting point for radio stations is the same as it is for small and midsize businesses: making their mission, services and content clear and discoverable by both search engines and AI platforms.”

Losing visibility

Broadcasters need to consider several factors if they want their stations to appear in AI-generated search results.

Jerry Del Colliano, publisher of Inside Music Media, said online publishers are tracking changes in search because these changes affect website traffic and revenue. Radio companies, however, often are not doing the same.

“Radio on the other hand is still often measuring Google searches,” Del Colliano said.

When people ask for listening options, Del Colliano said ChatGPT is likely to suggest Spotify playlists, YouTube music, SiriusXM or a national podcast before it mentions a local radio station.

Del Colliano believes that as AI becomes another way for people to discover content, “broadcasters risk losing visibility before losing listeners.”

He said stations need to create local programming and add more press releases and marketing ideas to their websites if they want to appear in local searches.

“As it stands right now, who cares what regional or national radio personalities do, want, need or like? To be relevant on the first page of searches, radio needs to fix their financial tinkering and be in the front of mind for local listeners.”

He also said radio broadcasters need to give AI tools much more useful information about their stations.

“If I’m running a radio company, I am loading AI with example after example of success stories. Radio operators think AI is a magical mystery tour, but you have to give it things to skim.”

More info: SEO to GEO

Experts say radio broadcasters need to move from traditional search engine optimization (SEO) to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to improve their chances of appearing in AI search results.

To do this, broadcasters should organize website content in clear formats that computers can read, using questions and answers. They should publish written transcripts of radio segments and build a strong local reputation and a clear station identity across the web.

The following list of tools and methods for improving radio stations' visibility in AI search was created using a prompt in Gemini:

Write in everyday language: Write website content using the kinds of phrases people naturally say and specific questions they might ask. For example, “How do I listen to [Station Name] in [City]?” or “What country music show plays on Saturday mornings?”

Give clear answers first: Start articles, DJ biographies and station guides with a short summary of 40 to 80 words. This makes it easier for AI tools to find and quote the main information.

Make content easy to scan: Organize text with clear headings written as questions, bullet points and short summaries.

Create dedicated FAQ pages: Build detailed pages of frequently asked questions about local events, how to listen online, contest rules and advertising rates.

Publish transcripts of audio: Turn on-air interviews, local news segments and special-interest shows into written transcripts so AI tools can find and use information from spoken content.