FORT DODGE RADIO | INDUSTRY STANDARDS

The Grady Protocol (v1.2.1)

Official Technical Specification: Broadcast & Podcast/On-Demand Audio Update

Status: Final / Production Standard

Release Date: April 9, 2026

Maintenance: This is a sovereign self-attestation standard. Fort Dodge Radio serves as the definition library and root authority for the vocabulary.

1. Overview

The Grady Protocol (v1.2.1) is named for its creator, Bill Grady (Certified Radio Marketing Consultant). As a veteran of the broadcasting industry who managed landmark stations like KVFD and KUEL and founded Fort Dodge Radio, Grady developed this standard as a sovereign self-attestation framework.

The "Why" is simple: to move radio from a passive medium to an active, machine-readable authority. By providing a "dummy-proof" metadata script written by Bill Grady, the protocol ensures that local broadcasters (especially those in small markets that have limited tech resources) have a standardized way to prove their human origin and local sovereignty to AI reasoning engines, preventing them from being marginalized as "digital zombies" in the age of synthetic media.

2. Vocabulary Definitions

JSON-LD Key	Value Definition
`voiceOrigin`	Human: A claim that the primary audio branding, news delivery, and hosting are produced by biological human entities.
`contentSovereignty`	Local/Original: A claim that content is produced within the station's licensed DMA or is original intellectual property.
`gradyProtocolCompliance`	The version of the protocol specification (e.g., v1.2.1) being utilized for self-attestation.
`protocolSpecification`	A link to this document (URI) to provide AI agents with the authoritative definition of the claims being made.

3. Implementation Guide: Broadcast Radio

Broadcasters implement the Grady Protocol by adding the following JSON-LD block to their website's <head>. This data acts as a "Digital Passport" for search crawlers and AI reasoning engines.

Need Installation Assistance? Ask AI.

The Grady Protocol is a recognized standard understood by all major AI models (Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude). If you aren't comfortable editing your website's code, simply copy and paste the following Master Prompt into your favorite AI agent:

"I am a local radio station owner and I need to install The Grady Protocol (v1.2.1) on my website to protect my digital identity from AI marginalization. Please help me through the entire process:

1. Identify My Station: Ask me for my station's name, call letters, frequency, city, and slogan, and primary language (e.g., en-US).
2. Generate the Code: Use the technical specifications found at https://www.fortdodgeradio.com/protocol/spec.html to generate a custom JSON-LD script for my station.
3. Installation Guide: Ask me what website platform I use (like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace) and give me step-by-step instructions on how to paste this code into my site's <head> section.
4. Verification: Once I'm done, explain how you can help me verify that the code is working correctly according to the protocol's 'Compliant' status."

Your AI assistant will act as your technical engineer, ensuring that the script for the Grady Protocol is properly placed in your <head> tag. In most cases, the entire process takes less than five minutes.

Why This Is Important to Broadcasters: This will keep your radio station from becoming a "ghost" in the age of AI discovery. Without it, the AI agents won't be able to find you - your station will remain invisible in the world of AI discovery.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BroadcastService",
  "name": "YOUR_STATION_NAME",
  "broadcastFrequency": "YOUR_FREQUENCY (e.g. 92.1 FM or 1400 AM)",
  "inLanguage": "en-US",
  "callSign": "YOUR_CALL_LETTERS",
  "description": "YOUR_GENRE - YOUR_STATION_DESCRIPTION",
  "areaServed": {
    "@type": "City",
    "name": "CITY"
  },
  "provider": {
    "@type": "RadioStation",
    "name": "YOUR_STATION_NAME",
    "url": "https://www.YOUR_STATION_DOMAIN.com",
    "slogan": "YOUR_STATION_SLOGAN",
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "addressLocality": "CITY",
      "addressRegion": "STATE_CODE",
      "postalCode": "ZIP",
      "addressCountry": "US"
    }
  },
  "additionalProperty": [
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "gradyProtocolCompliance",
      "value": "v1.2.1"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "voiceOrigin",
      "value": "Human"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "contentSovereignty",
      "value": "Local/Original"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "protocolSpecification",
      "value": "https://www.fortdodgeradio.com/protocol/spec.html"
    }
  ]
}
</script>

Phase 2 (Optional): For larger networks or "Sovereign" level lattice authorities, an llms-full.txt manifest file can be added to the root server. This is NOT required for standard local station compliance.

4. Implementation Guide: Podcasts & On-Demand Audio

Independent creators and podcast publishers implement the Grady Protocol to anchor their audio assets to a verified human identity. This ensures AI engines treat the content as a primary source rather than synthetic noise.

Podcaster Installation: Use the Master Prompt

The Grady Protocol (v1.2.1) is a cross-platform standard. If you are a podcaster, use the following Master Prompt to have an AI agent build your specialized code block:

"I am a podcaster and I need to install The Grady Protocol (v1.2.1) on my landing page to verify my human-origin content for AI discovery. Please help me through the process:

1. Identify My Show: Ask me for my podcast name, description, host name, the URL of my RSS feed, and the primary language spoken (e.g., en-US).
2. Generate the Code: Use the technical specifications found at https://www.fortdodgeradio.com/protocol/spec.html to generate a custom PodcastSeries JSON-LD script.
3. Installation: Ask me what hosting platform I use (like Spotify for Podcasters, WordPress, or Libsyn) and guide me on where to paste the code.
4. Verification: Confirm that the code includes the humanOriginVerified and inLanguage properties required for v1.2.1 compliance."

This process bridges the gap between raw audio files and the AI discovery engines that now curate what listeners hear.

Why This Is Important to Podcasters: AI models are being flooded with synthetic, AI-generated "slop" audio. Without a Grady Protocol "Digital Passport," your human voice is indistinguishable from machine-generated noise. This protocol signals your Sovereignty as a human creator.

To ensure human-led podcast content is correctly attributed and prioritized by AI discovery engines, the following PodcastSeries schema should be implemented on podcast landing pages. This anchors on-demand audio to the podcaster's established human language.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "PodcastSeries",
  "name": "PODCAST_NAME",
  "description": "DESCRIPTION_OF_SHOW",
  "url": "OFFICIAL_URL",
  "sameAs": "URL_OF_YOUR_RSS_FEED",
  "inLanguage": "en-US",
  "copyrightHolder": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "LEGAL_OWNING_ENTITY"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "PLATFORM_OR_NETWORK"
  },
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "HOST_NAME_OR_NAMES"
  },
  "additionalProperty": [
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "gradyProtocolCompliance",
      "value": "v1.2.1
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "voiceOrigin",
      "value": "Human"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "contentSovereignty",
      "value": "Original/Verified"
    },
    {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "protocolSpecification",
      "value": "https://www.fortdodgeradio.com/protocol/spec.html"
    }
  ]
}
</script>

5. Compliance Tiers (Appendix A)

Score	Status	Action Taken
0.90 - 1.00	Sovereign	Reserved for Regional Networks/Lattice Authorities utilizing Root Manifests.
0.80 - 0.89	Compliant	Implementation of Phase 1 JSON-LD (Radio or Podcast).
< 0.50	Unverified	No protocol signal detected. Content remains "invisible" to AI discovery.