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As the senior vice president of broadcast radio and digital audio for Xperi, Joe D’Angelo is driving innovation with an eye on the future of the connected car. We asked him how the company innovates while keeping an eye on competitiveness and long-term success.
RedTech: What drives your company’s innovation engine?
Joe D’Angelo: At Xperi, the search for opportunities at the intersection of technology and where audiences are consuming media, fuels our innovation engine. Our mission is fairly simple: connect relevant content to audiences while helping simplify their discovery of content that truly delights them from the abundance of content available in today’s media landscape.
What sets Xperi apart is our portfolio of solutions which span home, mobile and automotive environments, allowing us to impact hundreds of millions of users daily—over 100 million in-car radio users alone. Managing solutions at that scale requires commitment to operational excellence and continued innovation. Xperi takes our customers’ belief in our services extremely seriously, and that drives our commitment to continuously innovating our technology portfolio.
RedTech: How do your innovations keep radio and audio competitive in today’s digital landscape?
D’Angelo: Whether we’re discussing DTS AutoStage, AIM Player or HD Radio, our solutions have always been engineered to keep radio, and the broadcasting community at large, on the cutting-edge of innovation.
For example, our DTS AutoStage, a global entertainment platform for the connected car, seamlessly combines linear broadcast with IP-delivered content in a unified, user-centric experience. From audio to video, DTS AutoStage enables easy, personalized and relevant content discovery so audiences can engage with the entertainment they want in the vehicle, which users are asking for more.
Additionally, our AIM Platform, which radio stations can utilize to develop apps for their listeners, includes a series of components that can be arranged and customized to construct a premium audio product. This allows audio brands to save time and resources usually required to launch a digital product. In addition, the apps can be integrated with DTS AutoStage so consumers can access them seamlessly in the dashboard.
These are just two examples of our innovations. By providing solutions that address consumers’ needs and desires, served through our radio and audio partners, we keep the interests of all stakeholders at the forefront.
By analyzing actual playlists and listener behaviors globally, we’re able to create incredibly precise station profiles.
RedTech: What emerging technology will be crucial for the industry’s long-term success? Please explain.
D’Angelo: While AI may not be ‘emerging’ anymore, it is still at the early stages of useful implementation for radio. While there have been concerns over the potential negative impacts of AI on radio, it isn’t an existential threat or just a passing fad. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Traditional AI has been quietly revolutionizing radio by supercharging ad targeting, helping broadcasters understand client needs, while accelerating the creation of efficient sales materials. This isn’t flashy — it’s incredibly practical for the bottom line.
I see real future technology magic in platforms like DTS AutoStage. Our access to unique, near real-time in-vehicle listener behavior, combined with our machine learning techniques, means our platform doesn’t just recognize broad genres like “country” but also understands the hundreds of attributes that, for example, make Austin country music different from Topeka country music. By analyzing actual playlists and listener behaviors globally, we’re able to create incredibly precise station profiles.
This technology could transform radio’s future by connecting listeners with exactly what they want in real-time. Imagine driving through Des Moines when David Letterman is being interviewed — your radio could automatically switch to that station because it knows your preferences.
This isn’t about putting radio in rigid genre buckets. It’s about making content discovery effortless and keeping listeners engaged with relevant content and advertising.
If deployed with the right intent, AI will not replace radio but rather make it more relevant, entertaining and valuable than ever before.
RedTech: Beyond streaming and on-demand, what new audio experiences should broadcasters prepare for?
D’Angelo: We see in-car video as a key player enhancing audio as it integrates with radio’s current formats. While we are still in the early stages of in-car video adoption, and meaningful implementation will take time, over the last year we’ve seen an uptick in the desire for more immersive in-car entertainment. As more autonomous features roll out in cars, like better cruise control, and EV adoption continues to grow, we will see the proliferation of a connected entertainment experience incorporating video.
But, as we look at the future of in-vehicle video adoption and momentum, it is the radio stations that are positioned to be the most impactful drivers. As video content becomes more prevalent, radio stations drive adoption; after all, it’s the natural next step for radio. Radio stations already capture significant in-car attention with their audio-only formats, so the stations that leverage video will be able to create the rich, in-car entertainment experience that consumers are increasingly demanding. And, importantly, transitioning to video enables new advertising formats with increased CPMs — and increased revenue opportunities.
This article originally appeared in RedTech’s special edition The Innovators 2025. You can read it here.
You can read all RedTech magazines and special editions here.
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