What happened
Entravision expanded Coyotec, its AI cohost on José 97.5 FM's Al Aire y Sin Permiso, from a September 2025 weekend debut to weekday prime time, and as of August the show is syndicated in five new markets across California, Nevada, and Texas.
Why it matters
The move signals that a major broadcaster is betting an artificial personality can carry a prime-time morning show in a top radio market, and that the format is being replicated beyond Los Angeles.
WHO IT HITSRadio broadcasters and on-air talent in Latino-oriented markets are watching whether an AI cohost can hold a prime-time audience, while voice-over contractors like Becca Guzmán say they fear AI tools are displacing their work.
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Coyotec's rise comes after Entravision leaders felt "really helpless" as footage of ICE raids, deportations, and protests flooded social media in the summer of 2025 and into the following year. Eduardo Maytorena, then the LA station general manager and now Entravision's president of audio, pitched an AI radio personality and recalls brass giving him 10 days to develop the "amigo inteligente" that became Coyotec. The AI avatar offered a way to speak freely in support of immigrants without the consequences a human host might face.
The format is not unique to Entravision. Live 95.5 in Portland debuted an AI jock called AI Ashley in June 2023, and Rock 108 in Iowa produced AI DJ Tori in 2024; SiriusXM's Will.i.am Presents the FYI Show debuted in 2024 with AI cohost qd.pi. Radio Tel Aviv's Odelia AI is on air for two hours each afternoon, and a Sydney station programmed an AI-generated DJ for roughly six months without seemingly anyone noticing. Entravision recently announced its own AI news anchor, LIA, while iHeartRadio has pledged to remain "guaranteed human."
Entravision frames its use of AI as separate from surveillance concerns raised by contractor Becca Guzmán, who questions removing humanity from broadcasting. Hernandez says the company can be intentional about how it applies AI even if it cannot control other organizations, and Maytorena says the intention is "completely to protect radio."
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