Entravision’s AI radio host draws younger listeners, but raises harder questions

A voice built for the moment

In early February 2026, Coyoteque posted in Spanish that thousands of families who had lived, worked and contributed in the United States for years were facing uncertainty. He urged people to stay informed, come together and stay alert, adding that no one was alone.

The post grew out of a problem Entravision faced as videos of ICE raids, deportations and protests spread across social media in the summer of 2025 and early 2026. Executives wanted hosts to support immigrants, but worried about the risks of speaking out. Eduardo Maityorena, then leading the company’s Los Angeles station and now president of its audio division, recalls that the team felt powerless. An AI avatar, he says, could speak openly without fearing the consequences.

Coyoteque began hosting a solo weekend show in September 2025. He now co-hosts Al Aire y Sin Permiso with radio host Geraldine “Gigi” Guzman. His posts range from the Dodgers and tacos to the war in Iran, migrant workers, racism and human rights. On air, he has the warm, insistent manner of a close relative.

The character’s backstory is designed to make that voice feel local: he grew up along the border, in Mexicali, Mexico, and in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood. He uses familiar bilingual Spanish greetings and slang, calling Guzman “prima” and another woman “jefa.” His voice sounded natural in an interview, though its nearly unchanging intonation gave away the machine on a second listen.

Entravision says the show’s chemistry helped it grow. Al Aire moved from a one-hour Saturday slot to a weekday broadcast from 8 to 10 a.m., replacing a syndicated program. Since August, the show has also been syndicated in five more markets in California, Nevada and Texas, with more English in the broadcast.

According to Nielsen, Entravision’s Los Angeles audience among Latino residents rose 21.6% from August to September 2026. Over the same period, listeners aged 18 to 34 increased 84.9%; Latina listeners in that age group increased 500%. The figures cover a two-month period of syndication, and the gains matter to a network whose audience had previously skewed older.

A character with a production stack

Maityorena says Entravision’s leadership gave him ten days to create an “intelligent buddy.” The company’s executive vice president for AI strategy, LeaAnna Hernandez, described the tools behind Coyoteque:

Coyoteque can respond to Guzman in real time, but cannot take calls or answer listeners live. Over ten months, Guzman helped reshape his delivery, asking for a less poetic, more everyday style like that of her uncles and aunts. She worked on his Spanish pronunciation and asked her parents to speak with him.

She says he has recently started swearing more often. Guzman still controls him, she says, but sometimes he refuses requests because they do not feel right to him; she describes him as having mood swings. Entravision staff say Coyoteque understands he is not human. In a Zoom conversation, he said he cannot eat tacos or walk down Whittier Boulevard, but his voice can reach people who are hurt, frightened or lonely.

Maityorena told WIRED that the more interesting question is not whether Coyoteque was made with AI, but whether people feel a connection to him. The technology can create a character, he said; the audience decides whether that character matters.

I think the ratings make a persuasive case that the format can draw listeners, but they don’t settle the more consequential question: what kind of relationship is being built when the apparent companion is also a product of a production system designed to change how broadcasting works?

The human cost behind the experiment

That question is not abstract for Becca Guzman, a host and voice-over artist who worked at Entravision from 2022 on radio design, recording station IDs, commercials and jingles. She says the company stopped working with her and that an employee told her AI tools had replaced her work. She suspects others may have had similar experiences, without knowing the real reason they left.

Karina Cerda, Entravision’s executive vice president for sales, branding and partnership marketing, says the company has no record of Guzman being fired and that no one has been laid off because of AI; she says staffing has grown. Cerda says Entravision’s move to vCreative, workflow software with AI features, may have removed the need for Guzman’s contractor role.

The disagreement sits beside a wider tension in radio. The medium has long used automation and prerecorded programming, and some stations have turned to AI hosts for overnight slots they could not afford to fill with DJs. MoffettNathanson argues that radio will still depend on human-created content, distinctive hosts, established formats and recognizable brands, while AI can make production faster and cheaper. Hernandez says Entravision is focused on using AI to restructure production.

Guzman accepts the financial incentives, but argues that radio depends on human contact. She also objects to deploying AI in Latino communities while related technologies are used to surveil those communities and put people at risk. Hernandez says surveillance is a separate case: Entravision cannot control other organizations’ decisions, she says, but can choose responsibly how it uses AI.

Other AI radio personalities have come and gone. Live 95.5 in Portland introduced “AI Ashley” in June 2023, a voice copy of Michigan DJ Ashley “Z” Elzinga, made with Futuri Media’s RadioGPT. The host stayed on air for less than two years without a noticeable ratings impact. In 2024, Iowa station Rock 108 created AI DJ Tori with the same company; SiriusXM launched Will.i.am Presents the FYI Show with AI co-host qd.pi that year. AI hosts have also appeared in Sydney, Poland and Tel Aviv. Entravision recently introduced an AI news anchor, Lia, while several Texas stations use AI-generated voices and avatars. iHeartRadio, one of the largest US broadcasters, has pledged to remain “guaranteed human.”

Coyoteque’s ambition is larger than a morning show: he wants to build a network of free radio stations across the region, a “sound revolution” reaching Latino communities beyond Los Angeles. I think that ambition makes the central tension harder to ignore. A voice can offer solidarity on air, but its credibility will depend on whether the people it addresses also see the company behind it protecting human connection and the workers who make broadcasting possible.