AI didn’t kill the radio star: the resurgence of traditional media in the age of sloppification

Pat Murphy, founder and CEO of global advertising consultancy MurphyCobb Associates, explores why AI is leading to a renaissance for forgotten media formats such as radio.

For the last decade, we’ve been told that traditional media is dead.

Television was dead. Radio was dead. Cinema was dead. Print was dead. Outdoor was apparently standing by the grave. And yet, rather awkwardly for the digital evangelists, traditional media is not dead at all. In fact, it never really went away.

Here’s some stats.

• TV trust rising from 33% to 46% since 2021 (MediaWeek)

• Radio ROI outperforming all-media average by 22% (WPP Media Research)

• 75% trust online content less than ever before (New York Times)

• 68% of top brands increased TV ad impressions in 2025

• Connected TV viewing up 46%

I’ve been in the industry for 35 years and have been wondering lately why there are so few ads of today that I will ever recall in the years to come. I can rattle off at least 10 ads from the top of my head that I grew up listening to, singing along with, or just laughing out loud. The ad breaks were better than the shows they sat in between! One of those was my favourite – Hamlet Photobooth – it’s just pure blissful humour, well crafted and I was about to say edited, but it was actually only one shot.

Yet now, it seems we are entering an age of what is known as AI-sloppification: a world where content is being produced faster, cheaper and in greater volume than ever before, but not always with more thought, craft or care.

AI has given marketers extraordinary tools. Used well, it can help with ideation, versioning, localisation, research, editing, optimisation and speed. I am not anti-AI. Far from it. I think it will transform production. It can empower great creatives to turn ideas that were unachievable before because of budget constraints into reality. Amazing.

But there is a very big difference between transformation and dumping 400 slightly different pieces of synthetic content into the digital soup and hoping someone, somewhere, clicks on one of them.

That is not strategy. That is pollution with a media budget. And probably not very eco-friendly either.

As AI makes content easier to produce, the value of genuinely well-produced communication will go up, not down. And that is where traditional media, particularly TV and radio, becomes very interesting again. Look at the success of radio in the UK right now. It still reaches more than 50 million adults every single week (RAJAR) – that’s extraordinary in an era where people constantly claim “nobody listens to radio anymore”. And digital didn’t kill radio, it reinvented it – 76% of all radio listening is now digital and online listening alone accounts for 30.4% of all listening, overtaking AM/FM at 24%.

Great TV and radio ads force a discipline that much of digital has forgotten.

A good TV commercial still requires a proper idea. It needs a script. It needs casting, direction, music, timing, performance, edit, grade, sound design and all the other wonderful creative arts that turn a message into a moment.

Radio is the same. In many ways, radio is even more ruthless. No lovely pack shot. No big glossy end frame. No influencer holding a protein drink next to a suspiciously clean kitchen. Just voice, writing, sound and imagination. If the idea is weak, radio exposes it immediately. Brutal, but fair.

This matters because performance is not just about clicks. We have allowed performance to become too narrow a word. Somewhere along the way, “performance” came to mean immediate digital response: click-through rates, completion rates, cost per acquisition, conversion windows and dashboards full of numbers that look terribly important in meetings.

They do matter, of course. But they are not the whole story. Not even close.

The best-performing brands are not simply the ones that chase the cheapest click. They are the ones that create memory, trust and fame. They are the ones people have heard of, feel good about, and vaguely like before they even know why. I remember sitting in the pre-production meeting for Cadbury Gorilla [the famous drumming ad set to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight], and the whole purpose of the ad was to bring ‘joy’ to the viewer. There was virtually no branding except for the purple Cadbury background, and from memory once the ad was completed, it sat on the shelf for a fair while as the CEO of Cadbury couldn’t figure out what it had to do with chocolate. Luckily, the CMO went out on a limb and the rest is history. And people still recall it today – as well other classics such as the Guiness ‘Surfer’ ad.

That is what TV and radio do very well.

TV creates scale, emotion and shared attention. It still has the ability to make a brand feel bigger, more established, more trusted. There is something about appearing on a proper screen, in a proper environment, with proper craft, that gives a brand weight. It says: we are here, we are real, we have invested in this, and we are not just another disposable tile in your feed.

Radio, meanwhile, does something beautifully intimate. It gets into the car, the kitchen, the school run, the morning routine or late night listening. It becomes part of life. Done badly, it is wallpaper. Done well, it is a voice or a jingle in your head. And as someone who started a radio production department many moons ago at Saatchi & Saatchi, I can tell you that a brilliant radio idea can outperform its budget in a way that still feels slightly magical.

The production point is crucial. Traditional media rewards craft because it is less forgiving. You have fewer chances to get it right. A 30-second TV spot or a 20-second radio ad has to work hard. There is no endless scroll to hide in. No algorithmic fog. No “we’ll test 97 versions and see what survives”.

That pressure is healthy. It makes people think.

And this is where AI can actually help traditional media rather than replace it. AI should not be used to flatten everything into cheap sameness. It should be used to improve the process around the craft – faster pre-visualisation, better localisation planning, smarter asset management, more efficient adaptation, improved version control, cleaner approvals, and better performance learning.

In other words – ‘use AI to remove the sludge, not the soul’.

The danger is that brands think because they can make more content, they should. But audiences are not sitting there thinking: “What I really need today is another 63 pieces of snackable branded content”. Most people are trying to get through the day, pay the mortgage, get the kids to school, and remember where they left their glasses.

Brands need to earn attention, not assume it. I really believe that because there is so much averageness out there, now is an opportunity for marketers to stand out from the crowd with emotionally driven brilliant work, crafted with gorgeousness.

Traditional media helps because it still creates appointments with attention. Not perfectly, not always, and not without waste. But waste is an interesting word. We have become obsessed with eliminating media waste while ignoring creative waste. A perfectly targeted bad ad is still a bad ad. It is just a bad ad delivered with surgical precision.

The best future is not traditional versus digital. That is a false argument. The smart play is integration. Use TV to create fame, trust and emotional memory. Use radio to build frequency, intimacy and distinctive brand voice. Use digital to extend, adapt, measure, convert and learn. Use AI to make the whole ecosystem smarter and more efficient. Make it all holistic, decide what your primary medium is likely to be, and then everything flows from there.

For production companies, agencies and brand teams, this is a very important moment. The winners will be those who can combine craft with intelligence. They will understand that production is no longer just about making assets. It is about designing a content system that performs creatively, commercially and operationally. And let’s be clear about this, that doesn’t mean it all has to be done under one roof with an agency holding company. That’s just lazy. The best solution is to have access to the most outstanding teams you can lay your hands on across, creative, media, production, and all the other ancillaries, and build a ‘fluid’ network that can function under brilliant processes and platforms. It is a model we have been designing for our clients at MurphyCobb.

That means asking all the right questions upfront. What is the role of this TV asset? Is it building fame, launching a platform, driving reappraisal, supporting retail, or creating emotional distinction? What is the role of radio? Is it reach, frequency, sonic identity, humour, tactical response, or local relevance? What needs to be produced beautifully? What can be adapted efficiently? What should never be automated because it carries the soul of the brand?

Because as AI-generated content becomes more common, the premium on human judgement, taste and craft will rise. Audiences may not always be able to describe why something feels better, but they can feel it. They know when a performance has life. They know when a line has been written by someone who has actually met another human being. They know when music lifts an idea rather than merely fills a gap.

So I wouldn’t say we will see a resurgence of traditional media as it has always been there quietly getting on with what it does best. It is not a return to the past, but a return to standards.

TV and radio win not because they are old. They win when they are made with intelligence, craft and purpose. They win when they are connected properly to the rest of the media ecosystem. They win when brands realise that efficiency without effectiveness is just a very tidy way of wasting money.

So yes, bring on the AI. Use it. Test it. Learn from it. Let it help us move faster and work smarter.

And as my old P&G training taught me, let’s not forget the thing advertising always needs most: a proper advertising idea, beautifully made, and easily translated to any medium.

And please, preferably with a decent script. Always a decent script.

Pat Murphy is an ex C-suite advertising executive, public speaker, podcast host, and founder and CEO of global advertising consultancy MurphyCobb Associates (MCA), who has built an award-winning career in advertising production for some of the world’s most iconic brands.