Gijsje Groen, the Backflip Boys, Baylo Baby: these are all non-existent artists that you can now hear on HDFM. There are deejays, such as Renzo de Koning and Evert Kist, who you don’t know and there is news that is not reported in NRC or on Nu.nl. The radio station is called High Definition Fake Music and is completely dependent on artificial intelligence.
The deejays, the commercials, the news, the music: everything is made with AI and therefore not real. The radio station was created by Jeffrey Wirtz, who is known on YouTube as Egbert, but can also be seen as a sidekick in the television program Beau. Jeffrey is real, but his radio station is not. We thought it was an April Fool’s joke for a moment, but this radio station is really listenable. Jeffrey hopes that people will vote for the music, so that a top 50 with the best AI-made tracks can be broadcast over the weekend.
He got the idea from Skyradio: there are no DJs on it at all, but according to him this is one of the best-paid computers in the Netherlands. Of course, there is a bit more work involved in Skyradio than just turning on a computer, such as creating leaders, arranging commercials, and so on. However, Jeffrey has come up with an even smarter idea: making an entire radio station completely AI. On Telegraaf he says that there are twelve hours of listenable music, but who knows, maybe more will be added if HDFM proves to be a success.
Jeffrey started it with two friends and together they watched Radio 538 and SLAM! to copy the trick. After all, many radio stations have a certain structure, with news on the hour, a few songs and then commercials, all day long. On HDFM you can even hear news reports every half hour, namely in Nepnieuws. Funny detail: although the advertisements on the channel are made with AI, companies can buy airtime and have the AI advertise for that specific company.
Curious about what that sounds like? You can now listen to HDFM via Twitch.
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