Leadership changes are on the horizon for two working groups of the National Radio Systems Committee focused on important technical matters for U.S. radio broadcasting. One focuses on digital radio standards development, the other on radio metadata.
The NRSC is a technical standards-setting body co-sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters, representing the transmission side of the radio broadcast industry, and the Consumer Technology Association, representing the reception side.
The NRSC’s IBOC Standards Development Working Group, which is a subgroup of the Digital Radio Broadcasting (DRB) subcommittee, will be chaired by Alan Jurison, a senior operations engineer with iHeartMedia. Jurison has served as chair of the NRSC’s Metadata Usage Working Group since 2012.
Jurison will be tasked with overseeing headline-making activities within the IBOC standards group. This work includes developing an NRSC guideline for all-digital AM radio stations and updating the NRSC-5 digital radio standard (the technical standard behind Xperi’s HD Radio digital radio system).
Updating that standard is a task undertaken by the group every five years.
“Having Alan as the new [IBOC group] chair is a great development,” said Glynn Walden, consultant to Audacy and co-chair of the DRB subcommittee. “Alan has been a major contributor to NRSC technical documents and done an outstanding job at the helm of the [Metadata Usage Working Group].”
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As for the Metadata Usage Working Group, consultant David Bialik of David K. Bialik & Associates takes the helm as chair. The working group is a subgroup of the Data Services and Metadata Subcommittee, chaired by Steve Shultis, CTO of New York Public Radio.
Right off the bat, Bialik will be responsible for leading the development of NRSC-G304, a guideline for streaming audio metadata.
“David’s expertise in the area of streaming for broadcast audio will be put to good use as the new chair,” Shultis said. “Radio broadcasters rely increasingly upon their audio streams and the NRSC is eager to help develop better standards in this area.”
Alan Jurison succeeds Randy Woods, who until recently was with New Hampshire Public Radio, and David Bialik succeeds Jurison as chair of MUWG.
