Atlanta-based syndicated morning host Bert Weiss has teamed with an artificial intelligence company to replicate his voice in a way that will enable him to do more voiceover work in less time.
The Bert Show, which is heard locally on Q99.7 and has been on the station for more than 20 years, is now on 27 different radio stations. Weiss often has to do similar “liners” or script reads for multiple stations.
By using artificial intelligence, MARVEL.ai can take samples of his voice and piece together clips of him to create what it dubs a “high-quality custom synthetic voice cloning solution.”
In a press release, Weiss noted: “They say you can’t be in two places at the same time but we’re sure getting close. Between The Bert Show syndication, my new podcasting network, Pionaire, my family and my nonprofit organization, Bert’s Big Adventure, time is at a premium. We’re all pressed for time.”
In a follow-up text to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he added, “This enables me to cut it once and then duplicate the same production for different stations across the country.”
The Bert Show is heard on stations in cities such as Chattanooga, Tennessee; Eugene, Oregon; Kansas City, Missouri; Dothan, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee; Oklahoma City and Toledo, Ohio.
Weiss said this is an experiment and he will try it for the first time later this week.
“The application could really be used for a bunch of stuff,” he said. “Advanced and a little scary if not properly governed.”
The Bert Show is heard by more than 1 million listeners a week via the radio and podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts.
In 2018, former Cox Radio Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree lost his voice due to a rare medical condition. Cox hired Scotland-based tech company CereProc, which develops text-to-speech technology, to use samples of his past audio work so he could be heard on WSB. The technology enabled his voice to be pieced together and while it didn’t sound entirely authentic, it was better than no Dupree at all.
Cox Media Group, which is now majority owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, let Dupree go last year.
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