The author attended the CES show in pursuit of future tech that will enhance our radio industry. (Read his previous posts.)

As I traveled back to D.C. from CES 2026 and reflected on ways that AI will impact the radio industry, I continued to picture in my mind the dashboard of the BMW X3 M50 at the Xperi booth.

The photo above shows a “Radio” icon on the BMW dash with a dozen or so others. We may be living through the final model years of many automobiles in which an icon plainly labeled “Radio” is on the dashboard screen.

In another significant impact to radio, the content side of AI was illustrated at CES in an optimistic way.

CES showed a culmination of multiple technologies coming together somewhat serendipitously.

AI has been with us for some time. Think back to the times when making airline reservations we resorted to yelling “agent … agent … agent” at the phone, as the airline foisted upon us its early attempt at AI prowess.

Multiple discrete technologies and our robust democratic social order have matured and combined to enable AI as we know it today, including computers, fiber, networking, software, TCP/IP, wireless, integrated circuits, data storage devices, screen technologies and our First Amendment. Posit the lack of any of those, and it is doubtful that AI in its current form would exist.

What is radio?

We now need to ask the existential question of “what is radio” while on the AI highway to the singularity.

Radio is certainly no longer simply AM, FM, the transmitter and an FCC license to spew RF on a specific portion of spectrum.

Radio is also not everything electronically audio. “Everything audio” envelopes too much and implies that amateur radio hams and Spotify are radio broadcasters, which they plainly are not.

I suggest that radio’s definition flows from that pesky, never clearly defined Communications Act term, “the public interest.” Therein lies radio’s uniqueness to drive forward.

Sadly, there are many radio stations that clearly do not serve the public interest. Eighteen-minute commercial blocks and jukebox programming are antithetical to the public interest.

Radio stations that defile the public interest deserve to die a horrible death at the hands of AI. Those stations that observe good business practices and have as their mantra “service to the public” will, I predict, prosper with AI.

AI will force each broadcaster to choose whether its stations will be suffocated in AI’s chaos of unlimited choice, or whether its stations will use AI in a positive way to rise to the top.

Content creation AI

I believe that the next seminal stage for radio will be through many of the AI content creation technologies.

I circled back to Lee Perryman, owner of Sylacauga’s Radio Alabama, who in the first post in this series spoke of seeking “any appliance that a listener, reader or viewer might use” to reach audiences. I asked about his use of AI technologies.

Lee comments that at his oldies station, he has taken airchecks of heritage local air personalities from the 1960s and ’70s and, with permission, uses ElevenLabs AI along with OpenAI and Voitrai to create voice tracking content that hosts current shows, even to the extent of taking requests from listeners.

Big John Small, owner of Sioux Falls, S.D.’s Sunny Radio and, with his wife, co-host of “ on more than 300 radio stations, says, “I may be Gen-X, but I lean boomer on many things, so I was not a fan of ‘anything AI’ when it first came out.”

Lately, however, John has warmed to a few AI tools including ElevenLabs. “As a small team it has allowed us to have additional voices for our commercials. I pay for a bigger ElevenLabs plan, not for more volume as I’ll never need this many credits, but I wanted more voice choices.

“I use the ‘voice changer’ feature, so I record the ad with the proper inflection and the proper pronunciation, then I convert the file to a new voice. I’m quite impressed with the results. It sounds amazing and is an affordable solution for a small team like ours.”

Sandra Lange’s The Original Company Inc. in Vincennes, Ind., uses ChatGPT in sales and proposal help. In production they use ElevenLabs. Sandra notes that “with dwindling staff resources, it helps us make the most of the time and hands that we have.”

AI in the dashboard

As important as AI’s content creation abilities are, radio will also be affected by the technological AI controlling automobile dashboards much as it now controls many smart speakers and TVs.

On the floor of CES, Quu’s Steve Newberry suggested that I was living in the past for advocating for the “AM for Every Vehicle Act” and for my optimistic belief that radio can be kept predominant in the automobile dashboard.

Steve feels that radio has been fighting the wrong battles for a number of years. Steve believes that our industry should focus on persuading auto manufacturers and third-party dash software designers to ensure that radio programming is continued to be delivered by whatever AI is embedded in the dash.

He encourages radio trade associations to advocate on behalf of radio for mutually beneficial arrangements with auto manufacturers to boost radio in the AI environment, similar to SiriusXM purchasing its dashboard position in many vehicles.

For radio to survive, he says, it must newly fight for its place in the soon-to-be AI curated dashboard audio choices.

Evolution, not failure

Fletcher Ford is owner of an Iowa group of stations and CEO of RadioWorkFlow, which is billed as an AI-powered workflow for the modern radio station.

“Radio keeps saying it’s about appealing to a new generation,” Ford said, “yet we keep framing the dashboard debate around what was easy for the last one.”

What felt intuitive to one generation often feels outdated to the next, he feels. “That’s not a technology failure, that’s evolution. Every generation learns the tools placed in front of them, not the ones we’re nostalgic for.”

Fletcher says, “This isn’t just about kids … The same broadcasters arguing that radio needs to be easy to find are using smartphones every single day. We learned how to navigate iPhones and Androids. We learned how apps work. We learned how to scroll, search, swipe and customize. We figured out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto without instruction manuals, training videos or panic buttons. No knobs. No presets. No problem.”

Anyone with children can validate that even “very young kids today can find Disney+ on a screen in seconds. They can scroll YouTube, jump between platforms, search content and customize their experience faster than most adults can unlock their phones. … Screens don’t intimidate them, they expect them.”

So why, in radio, Fletcher asks, do we keep acting like listeners are fragile?

“We argue that radio must be one button away … that if it isn’t immediately obvious in the dash, people will abandon it. Meanwhile, those same listeners, young and old, have no trouble finding navigation, streaming apps, podcasts or social media buried multiple taps deep.”

Radio’s problem isn’t discoverability, Fletcher says. It’s familiarity.

“Nothing in the modern dashboard is easy the first time. Drivers are trained, consciously or not, on how to access what they value. They learned Bluetooth. They learned CarPlay. They learned Apple Music. They learned podcasts. Repetition creates access.”

Looking back, Fletcher observes that “radio, for decades, relied on habit instead of education. Presets did the heavy lifting for us. Now that the dashboard has evolved, we’re blaming technology instead of adjusting our mindset.”

He said radio doesn’t need to be the simplest thing in the dash. It needs to be the most trained. It isn’t a technology problem, it’s a mindset problem.

“The listener didn’t suddenly get dumber. Our generation didn’t suddenly forget how screens work. The dashboard didn’t get unfair. The rules simply changed,” he said.

“The broadcasters who win won’t be the ones trying to slow down technology or force it backward. They’ll be the ones who embrace evolution, teach access, reinforce behavior and remind listeners, across every generation, why radio is worth finding in the first place.”

Fletcher closed by beseeching our industry to “stop resisting change. Start training the audience we actually have — not the one we remember.”

New analytics

I wrote last week about DTS AutoStage. Lee Perryman says the platform “has changed my life, because I’m able to show prospective advertisers where and when people are listening, which I can’t do otherwise.”

Because he is in an unrated market, there are no metrics.

“I can’t prove anything, so we produce coverage maps that show our proposed coverage areas which we layer into DTS AutoStage Maps showing where people are listening, and pair that with data from our streaming services to show the demographics of those people are as representative samples.”

After leaving CES, I caught up with Mike Hulvey, president and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau. He spoke about DTS AutoStage on two fronts, one globally, and one from the radio industry’s perspective.

Mike observes that DTS AutoStage “is a tool that is now available to every broadcaster regardless of market, from the smallest of markets to the largest of markets. By establishing a communications link with the automobile dashboards in your market, you’re able to access near real-time consumption data, regardless of where you’re at.”

Mike continued: “One of the things I hear a lot at RAB from marketers is, ‘We know digital, we know that digital is consumed and things occur. But how do we know that from radio?’ DTS AutoStage is a tool that allows a radio station to have that kind of engagement from the audience, regardless of market size, so that’s exciting.”

Mike is former CEO of Neuhoff Media. “We were one of the first adopters of the DTS AutoStage technology in our markets. We would take DTS AutoStage heat maps out to local advertisers who questioned the viability of our radio station to show them who’s driving in front of their store real time which was our listeners.”

He noted that DTS AutoStage is available at no cost to stations and helps the industry to tell its story. It works whether or not a radio station is utilizing HD Radio.

DTS AutoStage is only available where carmakers have enabled the technology. But his perspective is that “it captures consumption, allows stations to share important information directly from the automobile, advertisers are excited about the capabilities the technology provides.”

Reaching into the future and touching upon RAB’s expertise, Mike observes that “the ‘Holy Grail’ in advertising is attribution. How can we prove that some action occurred because a commercial ran on the radio? Measuring consumption is important, but expanding attribution will always be the goal.”

An RAB webinar last month explored DTS AutoStage further.

Lessons for radio

We see how new tech and AI shown at CES will scramble things. Broadcasters of today destined to succeed tomorrow will no longer be substantially assisted by FCC or government regulatory welfare. There are scant things the FCC could change that would have a significant impact on our radio industry’s prospects.

Soon, stations will be selected on the automobile dashboard based upon what AI thinks the listener likes. Revenue realization for stations will be based upon real-time metrics of who, where and why a listener is listening, and subsequent listener choices. With AI, radio ads increasingly will become targeted personal invitations to consumers that will reliably hit targets.

Tech shown at CES will enhance operations for the station that has moved beyond relying only upon its multi-kilowatt transmitter by using AI and branching into streaming, podcasts, video and whatever form of content is welcomed by the listener community.

Irrespective of where or whether the Radio icon sits on the display, still-nascent AI radio content will lead to radio as an equal or better among the stars in the media galaxy.

There are multiple articles, blogs, podcasts, posts and videos on the cool consumer tech at CES 2026. This Radio World series is not one of those. My focus was to approach the show in pursuit of future tech that will enhance our radio industry.

Content AI and dashboard screens are not anything that will show on a CES top-10 new tech list with cuddly AI-enabled stuffed animals and recipe-assisting refrigerators. Content AI and the all-media-inclusive automobile dashboard, however, are the predominate radio tech emanating from the show. So here’s hoping that content AI and new automotive dashboard tech will assist radio in continuing to prevail in our 21^st century plethora of media sources.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

The post CES Wrap: Reflections on Radio, AI and the Future appeared first on Radio World.

The author is attending the CES show in pursuit of future tech that will enhance our radio industry. (Read his preview post and first-day coverage.)

“GOOD MORNING CES!!!”

Will.i.am is doing morning drive in the LG xboom by Will.i.am radio studio. The LG booth (LVCC, Central Hall — 15004), the largest booth at CES, has a glass-enclosed studio complete with “On Air” light.

LG introduced its Wallpaper TV, described as the world’s thinnest (9 mm), true wireless, OLED TV. This brought to mind my reading long ago of the classic dystopian Ray Bradbury novel “Fahrenheit 451” in which home walls were all covered with video screens. This possibly is not the image LG wanted to convey with its branding.

As smart TVs populate homes and offices, LG points out that radio is now included through such apps as LG’s myTuner Radio, pitched as “all you need to listen to more than 50,000 free radio stations and podcasts from more than 200 countries and territories … including the local AM and FM radio stations you can’t live without.”

While actual radio receivers were far and few at CES 2026, a Blaupunkt-branded “jobsite” radio was on display at the Star Glory Limited booth (LVCC, Central Hall — 15813). Star Glory Limited is a licensed developer of products for global brands such as Westinghouse, Kodak, Polaroid, Head, Blaupunkt and Daewoo. There are a number of radios on the market like this intended for use outdoors and in workshops, garages and the like, typically equipped with Bluetooth, an LED light and other nifty features.

Found tucked away in the South Hall was a true domestic radio company. Fuse, headquartered in the City of Industry, Calif., offered retro radio receivers along with vertical turntables that incorporate AM/FM receivers and Bluetooth.

Multimedia in the car

I spent a good part of the day thinking about Xperi, given that it is the CES exhibitor most actively talking about anything to do with radio.

Joe D’Angelo of Xperi (LVCC West Hall — 4041) spent time with me discussing DTS AutoStage and HD Radio. Joe has been with Xperi for many years and was one of the founders of its predecessor iBiquity Digital Corp., the company behind HD Radio technology.

Joe and I had a long conversation about radio’s future with the DTS AutoStage dashboard now a reality, and with HD Radio offered by most auto manufacturers. He pointed out that Xperi was promoting radio to the Las Vegas skyline with an LED billboard on the entire side of the new Resorts World hotel.

DTS AutoStage is an Xperi product aims to unify the connected car in-dash experience, bringing together radio, audio, video and gaming content. DTS AutoStage is global, now with 14 car companies supporting the platform and DTS AutoStage now in 14 million active cars around the world. Nine million of those are in the United States.

In November 2025, DTS AutoStage expanded the capabilities of the analytics Xperi makes available to stations based on approximately 1.5 billion radio measurement events a day.

Asked if DTS AutoStage will be a competitor to Nielsen, Joe demurs, saying “No, we are not. We are a compliment to Nielsen. We are another view into the audience.”

Nielsen, he said, does statistical sampling it extrapolates to represent an entire market. “DTS AutoStage rather gives a very specific actual data set, but for only the car and only the cars that have our technology.”

Joe’s explanation raises the question of whether Xperi would consider selling that data for audience measurement purposes to a third party, say to a competitor to Nielsen, or to Nielsen itself.

Here Joe was less reticent. He pointed out that Xperi has TV viewership data that it gets from its own platforms as well as third parties, and it has a whole business in selling TV viewership data to companies. So with respect to DTS AutoStage data, Joe says “Absolutely, we will. We will enable other aggregators to take advantage of our radio data.”

Video is playing a growing role in the car, and at this show, Xperi is highlighting that Mercedes-Benz is a new DTS AutoStage client and has adopted the nascent DTS AutoStage Video, an in-car video extension of Xperi’s in-home TiVo video service.

DTS AutoStage Video aggregates a number of streaming providers and provides a discovery layer on top, using the metadata surrounding video programming, in a way similar to what a Roku or smart TV does, but for automobiles. For Xperi, TiVo is their aggregator product. In the auto manufacturer realm, BMW adopted DTS AutoStage Video three years ago.

Does this approach leave radio behind? Joe said that in Xperi’s view, the foundation of DTS AutoStage is broadcast radio. “We support 50, 000 radio stations around the world … OEMs are adopting DTS AutoStage for a better radio experience.”

As I mentioned yesterday, more broadcasters are integrating local video streams into their operations. The incoming Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters President Will Payne stated that he “sees a time where there will be no difference between live video streaming and live radio.”

DTS AutoStage is an integrated platform that supports audio, including broadcast radio, video and gaming. A mom or dad waiting in the carpool line at their local school in Will’s radio markets may be able to view a video replay of their son’s weekend football game.

“Tthere’s no one doing what we are doing for broadcast radio anywhere in the world,” Joe said. Xperi is “taking a broadcast radio signal, creating a live program guide around all that content in the local market and enriching it in a real-time basis with meaningful and accurate metadata.”

Video is a bleeding edge for car companies. For now it is intended for use when the car is parked or for the use of passengers. But Joe observes, “We are getting ready for the day of autonomy,” meaning driverless cars.

Looking at the future data collection capabilities of DTS AutoStage, Xperi has defined over 950 radio markets based upon listening patterns and signal coverage. In its current version offered now to radio broadcasters, Xperi has only published data for the first 250 markets. Its launch metric goal was to get at least 1,000 equipped cars in each of the first markets.

At first, DTS AutoStage only released a broadcaster’s own data to the broadcaster, and did not give comparative data, because broadcasters themselves told Xperi that they did not want anyone else to see the data.

But Joe says that in response to broadcaster requests, Xperi has now started to loosen that limitation. Now DTS AutoStage has a ranker so a broadcaster can see competitive market information.

There are still limitations to the released DTS AutoStage data, however, such as detail for dayparts and audience flow, which currently cannot be seen by competitors.

But broadcasters using the portal will see share, cume, rankers and even TSL, for all the stations in the market. Further, he said, “That could change … at the direction of the radio industry.”

Joe closed on the subject of DTS AutoStage with an admittedly self-serving comment of imagining if there was no DTS AutoStage — which gives car owners graphic and meta-data even for non-HD stations — and HD Radio.

Xperi believes it is making radio competitive with the experience of other platforms. Without DTS Auto and HD Radio, stations would display only with frequency and RDS, which is no competition with the data and images on the Spotify and Sirius/XM screens among others.

This led to a discussion about making some of the HD Radio attributes, such as radio-with-pictures graphics and metadata, available for smaller stations such as FM translators and LPFMs.

Joe pointed out that FM translators and LPFMs can now sign up for DTS AutoStage and have both graphic and metadata displayed irrespective of whether the station has signed up for HD Radio.

He acknowledged that in automobiles that have yet to implement DTS AutoStage, that solution does not yet yield benefits.

Joe pointed out that transmitter manufacturer Nautel has instituted an HD Radio Digital Test Drive that utilizes Nautel’s software-based air chain, resulting in a far lower equipment cost for HD Radio implementation.

I remarked that the software-based air chain only appears to be available on high-power GV2 line of transmitters, which are far outside the power range used by FM translators and LPFMs (and likely not FCC-compliant for low-wattage operations). Joe promised to see what could be done in Xperi’s role as the developer of HD Radio.

“We’re doing everything that we can with the supply chain to make it affordable. We’ve taken our royalties down almost zero. We’ve done software implementations; we’ve done hardware implementations with Nautel,” he said.

Joe said that if lower-power stations, FM translators and LPFMs speak as an industry voice on HD Radio to manufacturers and tell them what the needs are, “we would absolutely support that.”

After my conversation with Joe, Xperi VP of Automotive Engineering Jason Carlock showed me the video implementation of DTS AutoStage in the Xperi BMW X3 M50.

Jason stressed that, to the extent that he and Xperi can influence auto manufacturers in their implementation of DTS AutoStage, there will always be a “radio” icon on the main menu.

Heading out

CES 2026 is now over for me, with a flight back to Washington Thursday morning. But the exhibits remain open through late Friday afternoon.

At CES 2026, artificial intelligence is claimed to be incorporated into almost every new product. Whether the consumer will see AI integration as a selling point or as a personal intrusion is yet to be seen.

As we know, AI at its most robust implementation sucks up personal data in such wide swaths that it makes previous privacy concerns about browsers and credit card use at grocery stores almost laughable.

Data upon which AI functions will live forever. Even Xperi’s DTS AutoStage is collecting dashboard that buses data to function, a collection that Xperi says is anonymously collected.

CES is an industry show in which entities show off their latest to other entities, but the entire exercise is designed to get new products into consumer hands.

In the future, if the consumer wants radio, either as the current linear audio experience or in a product with an expanded definition of audio content, then manufacturers will continue to provide radios.

If the consumer determines that everything currently offered by radio is otherwise available through a more convenient, more exciting or more expansive device, the paucity of actual radios at future CES shows may continue.

For myself, I am far from convinced that any other medium can replicate or supplant the friend that radio stations have been for over 100 years.

For years it has seemed to me that roughly a third of our nation’s radio stations are stars that print money. A third are in a mediocre middle where each day is a business struggle. And a third of radio stations are miserable failures.

Through the years, the radio call signs and radio band in each category have changed dramatically, but I am not at all sure that the basic ratio today is significantly altered.

There are still many stations for which programming, and associated audio and video content, is a success story. It may be up to those radio station stars comprising the top third to continually remind the public, our government, manufacturers, merchants, automobile companies and advertisers, that radio remains vibrant in our expansive CES 2026 multimedia world.

Find more CES coverage of consumer electronics products at the website of our sister brand Twice.

The post CES Day Two: DTS AutoStage Video and Musings on AI appeared first on Radio World.

The author is attending the CES show in pursuit of future tech that will enhance our radio industry. (Read his previous post.)

The first hour of CES 2026 upon my arrival in Las Vegas unfolded in an encouraging way. The cab driver who ferried me from the airport to my hotel was listening to over-the-air radio!

Even better, the taxi radio was tuned to FM translator K272EE, rebroadcasting AM station KQLL, known in Las Vegas as KOOL102, thus immediately validating the AM-enhancing wisdom of the recent petition for rulemaking filed by Press Communications LLC and 19 others seeking a reinstitution of the previous FM translator move window for AM stations.

The next morning, on my trip from the hotel to the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center via the underground Vegas Loop, the Tesla driver had Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” playing. I asked him the source of the music. His response was Sirius/XM Channel 25 (Classic Rewind), noting how it even reaches into the tunnels Well, I thought, at least the content he is enjoying is still linear radio as we know it.

In the West Hall, the ubiquity of AI was overwhelming. The hall this year features the CES 2026 hub for vehicle tech and advanced mobility. Finding something other than AI was going to be a challenge.

I had been forewarned about the AI omnipresence in Fred Jacob’s newsletter post, which he humurously headlined “Observations From CES 2026: Day .5”. Steve Newberry, CEO of radio dashboard visual enhancer Quu, began the first seconds of Fred’s audio blog by warning that the days of preset and habitual listening to radio “are going to shrink, shrink, shrink” because, Steve said, AI will be able to “access audio anywhere.”

On the prowl

On the exhibit hall floor are numerous automobiles, almost none being promoted by their manufacturers but instead being shown for the discrete AI technology integrated into the vehicle by the exhibiting entity.

I had the urge to get into each car and ask “where’s the radio,” but I restrained myself, deciding that being an irritant was not the way I wanted to start my day nor theirs.

Still, determined to find some new tech that had applicability to radio in cars as we know it, I began by prowling the perimeter of the floor to try to find peripheral products that would point in the right direction to radio’s continuing presence in the automobile dashboard.

As automobile dashboards morphed in the past 10 years to universally include screens capable of showing video from a back-up camera, we have seen the knobs, controls and sliders previously associated with radio gain and tuning, as well as other significant vehicle functions, become visual icons in ever larger and larger dashboard screens.

It is my theory that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandate of a rear-view system for every vehicle as a child safety measure kick-started the rapid automobile dashboard transition to the arguably driver-distracting chaos of visual image controls that must be viewed to be operated.

Cars are doing away with mechanical controls easily found by touch, replaced by visual icons on a screen and tiny buttons on a steering wheel. From a driver perspective, this is an enormous safety deficiency and an unintended consequence of trying to protect children playing behind a parked vehicle.

Getting a feel

On this subject of the elimination of mechanical controls including radio knobs, I came across the exhibit booth of Gruner, attracted to it solely by the presence of the word “haptic” with reference to the sensory feel of buttons on a steering wheel and a mock dashboard.

Gruner’s haptic technology for the automobile dash and steering wheel is halfway there: The user can feel the utilization of the buttons, but all buttons “feel” the same. To get all the way there, the Gruner haptic buttons each need to each have a different feel prior to being pressed, so that the driver can control automobile functions including radio without taking their eyes off the road.

But the haptic feel of Gruner’s dash icons is at least a start in improving the distracting visual-only screen controls now prevalent in today’s vehicles.

Next, I came across a massive booth where P3 is promoting SPARQ as their own turnkey infotainment solution based on Android Automative OS. I lost my reticence and popped the question: “Where’s the radio?”

Daniel Glaenzer and Paul Stanescu from the SPARQ team assured me that radio as an over-the-air device is included in their infotainment solution. Paul said his wife listens to the radio, and more broadly, their research shows that 81% of people are still using radio.

Paul noted that SPARQ OS / Android Automotive OS serves as the vehicle’s central infotainment system, independent of the driver’s smartphone, with support for unlimited aftermarket apps.

The wrong battle?

In the almost-pure radio vein, Xperi has a significant presence in the West Hall.  I stopped by the booth and noted that there is no longer that familiar wall of automobile radios displayed at previous shows.

Xperi shows off three automobiles, the Genesis GV80 luxury SUV, the BMW X3 M50 xDrive and the Mercedes-Benz CLA luxury sedan. Strangely, in the Mercedes CLA, there are no video screens in back for passenger viewing, something I would have expected given that the inclusion of DTS Autostage Video is an announced part of this vehicle.

I will be meeting with Joe D’Angelo of Xperi on Tuesday to learn about their latest tech including DTS Autostage Video.

I then met up with Steve Newberry. He is CEO of Quu as well as the founder of a radio group and a former joint board chair and executive VP at the NAB. He has been vocal for years about the issues surrounding radio’s visibility and role in cars.

Our conversation started badly when I used the word “demeaning” with reference to Steve’s comment that radio listening is going to “shrink, shrink, shrink.”

“We fought so hard to protect the old model [of radio] that we are missing the opportunities for the future,” he told me. Steve warns that “radio is fighting the wrong battle” and asks, “What have we won in the past 10 years?”

He continued: “The entitlement that [radio] worked hard to earn is now irrelevant in the dashboard. AI is going to change the way that consumers interface with their technology, not just in the car and their home and their work and their social life. Everything. Radio is going to have to earn its way.”

Steve forecasts that AI will enable his Quu products to make radio stations more relatable and engaging. But he states that radio is losing the vehicle dashboard.

Quu researches and publishes studies each year that survey the 100 best-selling vehicles. The most concerning negative trend is a deep drop in “one-touch” access to even get to the radio.

Two years ago in 2024, 36% of the surveyed vehicles had one-touch access to the radio. In 2025, only 26% feature a dedicated, one-touch radio button.

I asked him what he would do if he ruled the world. Steve would encourage broadcasters to “really earn the legacy that they have … and build it for the future with meaningful programming content that is an indispensable part of their communities, for 10 years from now, not just for now.”

And Steve touches on a third rail for much of the radio industry, seeking a potential business relationship between our radio industry and vehicle manufacturers. He says such a synergy that would make sense for both.

On Tuesday, in addition to revisiting Xperi, I will learn more about Xperi and its plans, and how it has weaved AI into their product lineup. I hope to visit the North Hall for robots and the Internet of Things, the Central Hall for audio tech and the South Hall for tech accessories.

Through the century since the Roaring ’20s, radio has survived an onslaught of new tech. Some say linear programming of media is dead. I disagree. While the internet appeared for a while to emphasize “pull” content (i.e. what-you-want-when-you-want-it), that favoring of choice over linear “push” content (with radio and TV the prime examples) is largely being erased by AI.

AI for media content promises not “what-you-want-when-you-want-it.” It offers “what-you-did-not-know-you-want-anytime-you-want-it.” Reduced to its essence, for audio this sounds a lot like targeted radio programming.

The AI evolution may not be easy for jukebox stations annoying their audiences with multiple 18-unit commercial blocks. But stations that have always excelled in community service and delivery of quality audio products may significantly benefit from an AI that delivers new listeners, and advertisers, who did not know that they wanted it.

The post CES Day One: West Hall, Vehicle Tech and Advanced Mobility appeared first on Radio World.

The January 2026 Consumer Electronics Show with its astounding assortment of innovative technology, gadgets and software is about to begin!

I retired from the practice of communications law five years ago, but with the encouragement of several radio broadcaster friends — who likewise share my enthusiasm for fresh technology — I will be there.

I am in pursuit of future tech at CES 2026 that will enhance our radio industry. While CES usually focuses on consumer goods, even robotic vacuums and programmed lawn mowers keep broadcast facilities in good shape with commensurate personnel savings. And as I describe below, media companies are increasingly finding radio and TV station use for consumer tech.

AI will undoubtedly be the overall theme of CES 2026. For radio stations, the question will be, how does AI fit into the medium’s future?

I keep watching for the announcement of an AI radio salesperson, possibly in the mold of the Star Wars R2D2 droid, that robotically attracts new advertisers while reducing the cost of sales. That robo-consultant, just like the Jetsons’ flying car, has unfortunately yet to materialize.

As I preview CES 2026, held Jan. 6–9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, I looked to go in search of answers to questions that a manager of a station might have.

Finding car radio knobs

In talking recently with radio companies, the two interrelated questions I have been told to ask are: “Where’s the radio?” And, with respect to automobile dashboards: “How do you find the radio?”

To me, it has been hugely distressing in the past several years to drive rental cars that make me feel utterly ignorant in finding the radio. On one overseas rental, a KIA Sorento had mutable knobs that toggled from controlling radio volume and tuning to setting HVAC.

So, you guessed it, when trying to tune the radio, I instead made my ride uncomfortably toasty.

[Related: “Radio Must Fight for Its Car Dashboard Placement”]

In another rental, a Toyota Highlander obliterated the radio once Android Auto began functioning. The only way to get to AM/FM functionality was a benign button on the steering wheel marked “mode.”  Who would have guessed?

So, in every new automobile I get into at CES 2026, I will be looking for the radio, and — hopefully — a dedicated volume knob, a dedicated tuning knob and at least five buttons for radio station presets.

Do I wish for too much?

Tech for efficiency

For radio managers and decision-makers that attend a show as vast as CES, what do they typically seek?

Lee Perryman, the president and owner of Sylacauga’s Radio Alabama, told me that if he were to attend CES, he would be searching for consumer tech that allows his team to “do what we do in a commercial world at a lower cost.”

He pointed to his stations’ use of the RØDECaster Pro II, a standalone audio production studio in the $700 USD range, that he has interconnected in all studios. Citing budgetary restraints,  Perryman said what he is doing with multiple RØDECasters was not possible with professional technology.

The key for Perryman is that, for everything he produces, he wanted to be able to reach “any appliance that a listener, reader or viewer might use.” If his stations can make use of consumer tech — and save approximately $50,000 — it allows his group to be more nimble.

Will Payne, the upcoming president of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, is on the lookout for any AI-based software that makes his commercial production easier. The Payne Media Group has expanded from audio into live video streaming of sports and community events through Paynecast.com using consumer tech AI-powered OBSBOT Tail 2 video cameras that can go live on his websites.   

He advised me to check out the Hollyland booth (LVCC, Central Hall — 22227) for radio and livestreaming products, including the Lark M2S that he uses for audio in doing live broadcasts.

Payne sees a time where there will be no difference between live video streaming and live radio.

“They are interchangeable,” Payne explained. “It does not matter whether it is FM, AM, HD or live video, it is all content that we are pushing out to as many spaces as we can.”

Jeff Jury of Xperi is among those who have echoed Payne’s sentiments, noting that the evolution of the DTS Autostage dash with video isn’t necessarily bad news for radio.

In hot pursuit

The most remarkable CES broadcasting-relevant tech that sprang out at me last year was ElevenLabs‘ speech AI. Its speech-synthesis technology is already being used by a number of radio broadcasters for text-to-speech, voice cloning and language translation. In 2025, ElevenLabs occupied a minuscule booth at CES, which belied its potential future importance for radio content.

There was also the clear glass-pane LG television receiver, the 77-inch LG Signature OLED T. The LG Signature TV had an exhibit presentation befitting everything extravagant about Las Vegas, demonstrated in a cylindrical tower of multiple clear glass-pane TV screens opening and closing in a French casement window style as evidence of its transparent and picture modes. Its lavish display would make for a striking control- or studio-room window, but it comes with a $59,000 USD price tag.

Xperi, the HD radio folks, showed off at CES 2025 their emerging DTS Autostage technology, which among other aspects, has the potential to transform radio broadcasting ratings, metrics and data. 

I am looking forward to my visit to Xperi’s booth (LVCC, West Hall — 4041), which this year will include the U.S. premiere of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA incorporating advanced DTS Autostage video features.

Companies radio will recognize

Thinking back to CES 2025, I saw tech that, while not broadcaster oriented, can be utilized by radio broadcasters in their revenue-generating activities.

A crowd pleaser was the FaceHeart CardioMirror, an AI-powered smart-mirror that scans a user’s face and within 60 seconds provides measurements for heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, heart rate variability and a stress index. Bob McAllan of New Jersey’s Press Communications perceptively noted how the CardioMirror could be a crowd-attracting prop at remote broadcasts for hospitals and medical practices.

ElevenLabs (Fontainebleau, Meeting Rooms — FT-03) will be back at CES 2026.  I also see industry names familiar to Radio World readers like Nielsen (Cosmopolitan, Hospitality Suites — Cosmopolitan Hospitality Suites 2), Gracenote (Cosmopolitan, Meeting Rooms — Condesa 2), Katz Media Group (Vdara Hospitality Suites) and WideOrbit (by appointment).   

There’s also SoundHound (LVCC, West Hall — 5867), an AI voice developer for, among other consumer products, automobiles with a goal of turning the dashboard into an ROI-positive platform.

And then…

The highlight of CES 2024 for radio station owner Larry Fuss of Delta Radio Network and South Seas Broadcasting, Inc. was a booth hawking sperm testing for male infertility, a booth he insisted that I pose in front of with him for a photo to satisfy his latent morning-jock sense of humor.

I, of course, obliged.

The challenge for the radio industry in the AI era is to use new tech to enhance radio broadcasting operations while keeping radio as a solid business proposition.

I hope to find at CES 2026 new technology that can make radio content more informative and compelling, enhance radio listening experiences with graphics and metadata, improve radio station operations by being more cost-effective, and dramatically increase ROI for advertisers with real-time listener data and metrics.

I also hope to be surprised at CES 2026 by new technology that surprises, enchants, inspires and amazes.

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