There are Top 40 formats built by committee, Top 40 formats assembled from research spreadsheets and Top 40 formats that sound like somebody simply dumped the streaming charts into a computer and hit shuffle. Hit 40 Today’s Biggest Hits doesn’t appear interested in being any of those things. SonicTrek.ai is expanding its rapidly developing portfolio with a contemporary hit format built around one of radio’s simplest and most important promises — play the biggest records happening right now — and putting veteran programmer Brian Kelly behind the musical steering wheel makes this considerably more interesting than another AI experiment. Kelly spent decades programming actual radio stations, developing personalities, launching brands and overseeing Top 40 strategy at the highest corporate levels. Now he’s taking those instincts into SonicTrek’s technology-driven laboratory, and this could be one of the company’s most natural combinations yet.
Welcome to Hit 40.
Today’s Biggest Hits.
Simple name.
Simple promise.
Potentially a very big idea.
First Things First This Is Not AI Picking Forty Songs and Going to Lunch
That’s where the conversation about SonicTrek.ai needs to begin.
The interesting part of what the company is building isn’t artificial intelligence replacing every decision humans once made.
It’s what happens when experienced radio programmers use new technology as another programming tool.
SonicTrek’s underlying concept combines AI-driven delivery and localization with programming strategy developed by established broadcasters. Its formats use MusicMaster scheduling, while the broader platform has been built around providing localized 24/7 programming that can be adapted for individual markets.
That distinction matters.
Because AI can generate words.
Technology can automate execution.
Software can schedule songs.
But none of those things automatically understands why a great Top 40 station feels great.
Brian Kelly does.
If You’re Building Top 40 Brian Kelly Makes an Awful Lot of Sense
This is where Hit 40 gets instant credibility.
Kelly spent nearly three decades within the company that ultimately became Audacy, eventually serving as its Vice President of Top 40 Programming.
Before Milwaukee became synonymous with his career, Kelly developed his programming instincts in Chicago, including music-director roles connected to WLS, Z95 and 101.9 The Mix.
Then came Milwaukee.
And one particularly important station.
103.7 Kiss FM WXSS.
Kelly helped launch the station and went on to oversee it while also programming 99.1 The Mix WMYX. His responsibilities eventually expanded beyond Wisconsin when he was elevated to oversee Audacy’s Top 40 programming strategy in 2020.
That’s not someone studying Top 40 from the outside.
That’s somebody who has lived inside the format.
For decades.
And Top 40 Is Harder Than People Think
This may be one of radio’s greatest misconceptions.
Just play the hits.
Okay.
Which hits?
How quickly?
How often?
What gets power rotation?
What moves to sub-power?
When does a developing record become undeniable?
When does yesterday’s monster become today’s burnout?
How much rhythmic product?
How much pop?
How much crossover?
Where does a massive recurrent belong?
How do you protect a station from sounding repetitive without eliminating the repetition that makes Top 40 work?
And perhaps most importantly:
How do you make a format built around the same handful of nationally dominant records sound exciting every single time they play?
That’s programming.
Top 40 has always been controlled repetition disguised as spontaneous excitement.
When it’s done brilliantly, the audience doesn’t notice the architecture.
They just know the station feels alive.
Hit 40 Has the Right Name for the Assignment
We actually love the simplicity.
Hit 40
No decoding necessary.
No focus group required to determine what the name means.
No brand consultant standing in front of a PowerPoint explaining that the station name represents the listener’s journey toward musical self-discovery.
Nope.
Hit.
Today’s Biggest Hits.
Done.
There is something wonderfully old-school about that promise being attached to something technologically futuristic.
And maybe that’s exactly why this works.
SonicTrek Is Building Quite the Programming Bench
Hit 40 doesn’t exist in isolation.
SonicTrek.ai has been assembling a portfolio that pairs technology with programmers whose résumés come from decidedly human radio.
Its earlier offerings include Phoebe, an Alternative concept shaped by Dennis Constantine; Starship, a Classic Rock approach created with Lee Abrams and programmed by Constantine; MyCountry.fm, programmed by veteran Country strategist Charlie Cook; and Cool Classics, which also uses Kelly’s programming experience.
That last part is particularly important.
Hit 40 isn’t Kelly’s first trip around the SonicTrek universe.
He’s already been involved with Cool Classics.
Which means one programmer is now working at opposite ends of an interesting musical spectrum.
Classic Hits on one side.
Current-driven Top 40 on the other.
And that requires two very different programming brains.
Cool Classics Is About Memory Hit 40 Is About Urgency
Think about the difference.
Classic Hits asks:
What songs do people still love?
Top 40 asks:
What songs can people not live without right now?
One is built around familiarity accumulated over decades.
The other lives in the moment.
One can lean into memories.
The other needs urgency.
One audience hears a song and remembers exactly where they were in 1998.
The other hears a song and immediately grabs the phone because they just saw the artist on TikTok fifteen minutes ago.
Programming both successfully requires understanding the emotional reason people use radio.
That’s a much bigger skill than simply knowing music.
This Is Where Brian Kelly Could Make Hit 40 Dangerous
Kelly’s career wasn’t built solely around music scheduling.
It was built around stations.
Brands.
Morning shows.
Talent.
Competitive strategy.
Market positioning.
His tenure in Milwaukee included the development of successful personality-driven programming, while his corporate responsibilities eventually placed him in a strategic role across multiple Audacy Top 40 properties.
That matters because Hit 40 cannot simply sound technically impressive.
It has to sound fun.
Top 40 without fun is just an audio spreadsheet.
It needs movement.
Urgency.
Attitude.
Surprise.
Energy.
A little chaos.
A feeling that something is always about to happen.
If SonicTrek can combine that traditional Top 40 adrenaline with genuinely useful localization, that’s where the concept becomes much more than a technology demonstration.
And Here Comes the Big Question
Could this actually help smaller radio operators?
That’s where we’re especially interested.
Imagine owning an FM signal in a market where launching a fully staffed Top 40 station from scratch is financially difficult.
You need programming.
Music scheduling.
Imaging.
Talent.
Production.
Localization.
Digital integration.
And enough ongoing attention to prevent the station from sounding like somebody abandoned the building sometime around Tuesday.
That’s expensive.
Now imagine having access to a format programmed by somebody with Kelly’s background while the technology handles significant portions of localization and execution.
Suddenly the economics look different.
That’s the promise.
Whether it consistently delivers on that promise in actual affiliate markets will be the real test.
But it’s absolutely worth watching.
Because AI Radio Has to Get Past the Gimmick Stage
This is the bigger story.
The first generation of AI radio conversation was predictable.
LOOK THE COMPUTER TALKS
Okay.
Neat.
Now what?
The novelty eventually disappears.
Listeners don’t care how technologically sophisticated the backend is if the station sucks.
Nobody has ever called a request line and said:
“Hey guys incredible metadata architecture today.”
They care whether they’re entertained.
They care whether the music is good.
They care whether the station knows what’s happening where they live.
They care whether somebody — human or otherwise — gives them a reason not to hit Spotify.
That’s where SonicTrek has to win.
Not in the AI demonstration.
In the speakers.
The Human Programmer May Actually Become More Important
Here’s the irony.
AI may make experienced human programmers more valuable, not less.
Because when execution becomes easier, taste becomes the differentiator.
Judgment matters.
Strategy matters.
Knowing what not to do matters.
Anybody can generate content.
Far fewer people know how to construct a compelling radio station.
SonicTrek appears to understand that distinction.
Look at the people associated with these formats.
Lee Abrams.
Dennis Constantine.
Charlie Cook.
Brian Kelly.
These aren’t names randomly generated by an algorithm.
They’re broadcasters with decades of scars.
They’ve experienced ratings books.
Research.
Music meetings.
Talent disasters.
Format launches.
Competitive battles.
Corporate meetings that probably should have been emails.
That’s institutional knowledge.
Now technology gets layered on top of it.
That’s the experiment worth watching.
Hit 40 Could Be the Format That Really Tests the Model
Top 40 moves faster than many other music formats.
That’s precisely why this is interesting.
Classic Rock doesn’t wake up tomorrow and discover Led Zeppelin suddenly stopped testing.
Top 40 can change in a week.
Artists explode overnight.
Songs move because of social media.
A movie creates a hit.
A viral clip resurrects an old record.
Streaming numbers accelerate.
Pop culture changes the conversation before radio has finished scheduling next Tuesday’s music meeting.
If SonicTrek’s technology can respond to that speed without sacrificing the judgment of an experienced programmer, Hit 40 could become a particularly strong demonstration of what this model can do.
Don’t Make It Perfect Make It Exciting
That’s our unsolicited advice.
Please don’t let technology polish every rough edge out of Top 40.
Top 40 should occasionally feel like it’s had three energy drinks.
It should move.
It should breathe.
It should occasionally make you wonder what the hell just happened.
Great CHR has never been elegant background music.
It is controlled insanity with excellent clocks.
Let Brian Kelly program.
Let the technology localize.
Let personalities have attitude.
Let imaging explode.
Let the records feel enormous.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t make the future of Top 40 sound like a very polite robot reading Wikipedia between Sabrina Carpenter records.
Make it radio.
This Is Where SonicTrek Gets Really Interesting
The company isn’t simply building one AI station anymore.
It’s assembling a menu of formats.
Different programmers.
Different audiences.
Different musical philosophies.
And now Hit 40 gives it perhaps the most obvious mass-appeal contemporary format in the portfolio.
That’s important.
Because if SonicTrek wants to demonstrate that this technology can function as an actual radio programming solution rather than an interesting streaming experiment, Top 40 provides one hell of a proving ground.
Fast music cycles.
Young audiences.
Digital-native listeners.
Constant pop-culture movement.
Heavy localization opportunities.
High expectations for personality and energy.
Bring it on.
Brian Kelly Has Spent Decades Programming Hits
Now He Gets to Help Program What Comes Next
There’s something fitting about that.
Kelly’s career spans multiple generations of radio technology.
From Chicago music departments to Milwaukee programming offices.
From individual station brands to corporate Top 40 oversight.
From carts and CDs to MusicMaster and digital distribution.
And now
AI-assisted radio.
The tools changed.
The fundamental assignment didn’t.
Find the right songs.
Put them in the right order.
Create excitement around them.
Give listeners a reason to return tomorrow.
That’s radio programming.
Always has been.
Probably always will be.
Turn Up Hit 40
We’re fascinated by this one.
Not because AI is magically going to save radio.
It won’t.
Not because human programmers suddenly don’t matter.
Quite the opposite.
We’re fascinated because Hit 40 represents what may be a much healthier way to think about radio technology.
Use the machine for what the machine does well.
Use experienced broadcasters for what experienced broadcasters do well.
Then combine them.
Brian Kelly brings decades of Top 40 instinct.
SonicTrek brings a new distribution and localization model.
Hit 40 brings the records.
And the listener ultimately decides whether all of it works.
That’s exactly how it should be.
So welcome to the dial
HIT 40
TODAY’S BIGGEST HITS
A decidedly old-school radio promise being delivered through decidedly new-school technology.
And with Brian Kelly helping choose what comes out of those speakers?
Yeah.
On The Dial is absolutely paying attention.
On The Dial believes the future of radio shouldn’t be a choice between people and technology. The opportunity is finding ways for technology to amplify the instincts creativity and experience of great radio people. SonicTrek.ai’s Hit 40 puts that idea directly into one of radio’s fastest-moving formats with veteran programmer Brian Kelly helping guide the music. If the future can combine decades of programming instinct with technology capable of making syndicated content feel increasingly local dynamic and immediate then this isn’t about replacing radio. It may be about giving radio another way to build it.
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