Washington, and Arlington, VA - Sep 7, 2011 - The National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC), co-sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), released a request for proposals (RFP) on location-based services technologies for terrestrial radio data broadcasting that could form the basis for future NRSC standards and/or guidelines. The NRSC hopes to identify other new and innovative services using geo-location data that will benefit broadcasters and radio listeners alike.

"Local radio offers an ideal platform for the delivery of location-based services. This investigation by the NRSC will help to identify new opportunities for broadcasters to serve their communities and potential new sources of data broadcasting revenue," said Kevin Gage, executive vice president and CTO, NAB.

Digital radio technologies, specifically HD Radio in-band/on-channel digital radio, and the FM subcarrier-based Radio Data System (RDS), are already being used to disseminate traffic information which is one type of location-based service.

"Location-based services are increasingly popular and useful for consumers across many platforms, and through this RFP, this committee hopes to bring consumers more location-based options over radio broadcasts," said Dave Wilson, CEA director of Technology and Standards.?The RFP, Location-based Services Protocols for Broadcast Radio Transmission, is being released by the Digital Radio Broadcasting (DRB) Subcommittee, which is co-chaired by Andy Laird, vice president and chief technology officer, Journal Broadcast Group, and Mike Bergman, vice president of new digital technologies, Kenwood USA. It was developed by the subcommittee's Geo-coding Usage Task Group (GUTG), which is chaired by Mike Starling, vice president, CTO and executive director, NPR Labs.

The location-based services RFP is available for download from the NRSC website. Responses to the RFP are due by Oct. 15, 2011.