The National Radio Systems Committee has introduced a unique Radio Data System Program Identification code for U.S. FM translators, Alan Jurison announced on the NAB Pilot website in late November.
Jurison is chair of the RDS Usage Working Group at the National Radio Systems Committee and also serves as iHeartMedia’s senior operations engineer.
He explains that one type of metadata transmitted by RDS subcarrier is the PI code, which is used by the receiver to uniquely identify the audio program being broadcast by the FM station. In the U.S., the PI code has historically been derived from a radio station’s call sign, which can become complicated when used in conjunction with FM translators.
To resolve this issue, Jurison writes, “NRSC’s RDS Usage Working Group developed a new algorithm just for FM translators, which can assign a unique PI code to each FM translator in the U.S. This algorithm has been implemented using a web-based tool and a list of PI codes for all FM translators in the U.S. is now available at the NRSC website.
To learn more, read the full post here.
