National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Handbook, 10th Edition

CHAPTER 4.14 Radio Broadcast Data System

SCOTT A. WRIGHT

Soneticom West Melbourne, Florida

THOMAS D. MOCK

Updated for the 10th Edition by

WYE Consulting Sheffield, Pennsylvania

INTRODUCTION

Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) is the official name used for the U.S. version of the Radio Data System (RDS) Standard, which was first adopted in 1993 by the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC) and revised in 1998 and in 2005.¹ RDS is a standard originally adopted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for transmitting low bit rate (on the order of one kilobyte per second) digital information to appropriate receivers using conventional FM radio broadcasts. The RDS system standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time and station ...