The desert has always attracted people running toward something they can't name. Founders, artists, architects, misfits, second-chapter builders. Something about the light, the space, the distance from wherever they came from. That energy has been here for decades. It just hasn't had a signal.
SunshineFM is an experiment to be that signal.
I've wanted to run a radio station since my high school days in San Clemente (go Tritons!), when I got invited to help out on the late night shows at K-Wave. It never happened. Life went a different direction. And then AI shows up and hands me the entire infrastructure for almost nothing — and suddenly the dream made sense again. Not as nostalgia. But as the most interesting AI experiment I could think to run.
This is that experiment. You're welcome to watch.
What SunshineFM Actually Is.
Three things simultaneously.
A radio station — AI-generated music runs 24/7, programmed around how humans actually live. Not algorithms. Not engagement-optimized playlists. A deliberate arc from early morning through late night that respects the rhythm of a real day. I break in live when there's something worth saying.
A publication — everything you're reading right now. Essays, analysis, opinion on AI, tech, media, and business. Written from the desert, for anyone paying attention to what's happening at the intersection of technology and real life. Not neutral. Always honest.
A gravity engine — the deeper play is making this region legible and exciting to the people who could actually move the needle here. Founders considering a second chapter. Operators done with Bay Area burn rates. Anyone who looks at a mid-size region with no entrenched AI incumbents and thinks: this is exactly where I want to build.
Wondering why we chose radio over a podcast or a YouTube channel? Read this.
Where I Stand on AI.
I'm not an optimist. I'm not a doomer. I think the potential is genuinely transformative and the peril could be just as real — and anyone telling you confidently it's one or the other is probably talking their own book.
I've run over 30 AI workshops across the Coachella Valley — with small business owners, educators, and community organizations, through partnerships with CSUSB Palm Desert, Inland Empire Journalism Hub, and the College of the Desert. I've watched real people in this valley reckon with what AI means for their work, their kids, their livelihoods. Up close. In person. That's not abstract to me.
SunshineFM lives in that honest middle ground. I’ll call it when something's exciting. I'll call it when something's concerning. We won't perform enthusiasm we don't feel or fear we don't have. This valley deserves better than cheerleading or catastrophizing.
What We're Not.
We're not a tourism board. We're not a chamber of commerce. We're not a tech evangelist on a soapbox.
We're a radio station that happens to also be a publication, run almost entirely by AI agents — with a human at the center who knows these streets, has worked with this community, and has a point of view worth broadcasting. At least my AI tells me so.
The Deeper Mission.
The story of what the Coachella Valley becomes in the AI era genuinely hasn't been written yet. No entrenched incumbents. No established AI cluster. A region still finding its footing — and asking who's going to lead. Why couldn't that answer come from within?
That story needs someone to tell it — from the desert, not from San Francisco looking down at a Google map.
Our concrete mission for 2026: convince my Silicon Valley friends working in AI to consider the desert for their second chapter. Not because I pitched them a brochure. Because the signal was compelling enough that they came looking.
That's the play. That's SunshineFM.
Tune in. Subscribe. Stay curious.
Until next time, have a bright and sunshine day.
— Sat