I Nearly Built a Radio Station for One Play Button

An audio request, a lost Sunday, and the discovery that the right solution was much smaller than the idea.

Someone asked if The Pineapple articles could also be available as audio. It was a fair request. People are busy. Reading needs time and attention, while audio can travel with us as we walk, drive, cook or clean.

Press play. Simple.

Except that the play button does not appear by itself. Behind it sat a Sunday.

The Parked Idea

The request did not create the idea. At the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, I had already experimented with turning Pineapple articles into audio. Then Janita joined Brida, our priorities changed, and the idea was parked.

Parked is the business word for putting something in a corner while continuing to think about it.

When someone asked about audio again, the old idea switched its headlights back on. I began testing. The first version worked, but it did not feel like The Pineapple. The voice was clear. The words were correct. The file played.

But The Pineapple comes from real conversations. It carries personality, pauses, strange turns and small details. A voice can pronounce every word correctly and still miss the feeling of the article.

So I continued. One test became another. A test became a process, and the process began looking suspiciously like a product.

Radio Brida appeared. It needed a name, a website, files, links, pictures and descriptions.

Nobody wakes up on Sunday morning planning to build a radio station. You begin by testing one article. By lunchtime, you are running one.

Interest Is Not Demand

Eventually, I had something that worked. We tested it with Pineapple 20, and I also sent it to the person whose request had restarted the idea.

The email was not opened.

This is not an accusation. People are busy. Emails disappear under other emails. But I had already spent the Sunday.

The problem was not the unopened email. The problem was that I had treated interest as demand. Someone had said, “I would listen to that.” I heard, “You should build it.”

For the person making the suggestion, it was an idea. For the person building it, the idea became work.

Interest is light. Commitment has weight.

What Was the Actual Need?

Then I spoke with Bruce. Our conversation was about Maslow, human needs and artificial intelligence. Somewhere inside it, a simpler question appeared.

What was the real need behind the request?

The member had not asked for a radio station. Nobody had asked for a separate audio platform, a new publication or another Brida product.

The need was much smaller. Someone wanted to listen to an article. That was all.

I had confused the need with my largest possible solution.

This happens easily in business. Someone asks for a small improvement, and the maker begins imagining a system. The system needs a name. The name needs a design. The design needs a website. The website needs a process.

Soon, the original request is standing in the corner, wondering what happened.

I had nearly built a radio station when what we actually needed was a play button.

The Smaller Answer

The practical question became:

What is the smallest useful solution that meets the need?

The answer was ElevenLabs.

It offers an API that can create an audio version of the article without creating a second publication around it. The cost is manageable. The quality is good enough for me to be happy with the result. Most importantly, it saves time.

Another service was cheaper. On price alone, it looked like the sensible choice. But the cheaper service required more testing, troubleshooting and technical work. The money saved would disappear into hours of frustration.

The cheapest tool is not always the tool that costs least. Time is a cost. Attention is a cost. Energy is a cost.

A tool that saves six euros and consumes half a day may not be saving anything useful.

ElevenLabs costs more, but it removes enough work to make the difference worthwhile. Not the lowest price. The lowest total burden.

AI Did What It Was Supposed to Do

Artificial intelligence helped analyse the options. It compared the tools, explained the trade-offs and wrote much of the code needed to connect the audio service to The Pineapple process.

This is what technology is supposed to do. It should not create another institution for me to manage or save three hours after demanding six hours of setup. It should remove repetitive work and leave the human being with the decisions that matter.

AI can compare services, write code and help connect one system to another. But it cannot decide what The Pineapple should become.

I still have to listen to the voice and ask whether it respects the article. I still have to decide whether the result is good enough. I still have to protect the member behind the story.

And I still have to know when to stop building.

The Maslow Connection

This is where Maslow became practical.

The request for audio was not really a request for more technology. It was a request for easier access.

Perhaps someone reads slowly in English. Perhaps listening feels more natural. Perhaps a person wants to follow the article while walking or driving. Perhaps audio opens a doorway that text does not.

The need is human. The tool is only the response.

Problems begin when we become more excited about the response than the need. A larger system may look more impressive. It may offer more features and possibilities.

But if the person only needs one play button, the larger system is not more useful.

It is simply larger.

Access Is Not Attention

I still have mixed feelings about audio. People often want to listen while doing something else: driving, cooking, cleaning or answering messages.

There is nothing wrong with this. Audio may help someone enter a story they would otherwise miss.

But Pineapple articles come from real people. A member has sat at a table and spoken about family, work, fear, food, sleep, money, childhood, disappointment or hope. The article carries that meeting.

A play button can create access.

It cannot create attention.

That remains a human choice.

Radio Brida Is Still Parked

Radio Brida remains parked. Not cancelled. Not a failure. Parked.

The larger idea may return one day, when enough people want it and the purpose is clear. But we do not need to build the whole future every time someone points towards it.

For now, The Pineapple can have audio without becoming a radio station. One article enters the system. AI helps prepare the code. ElevenLabs creates the voice. The listener presses play.

The need is met.

Less infrastructure. Less troubleshooting. Less invention around a simple request.

One useful play button.

That may be less.

This time, it really is more.