RDS Milestones

1974

Pre-developments starts within EBU.

1980

First Field Trial at Bern/Interlaken, Switzerland.

1982

Tests start in Stockholm, Sweden Evaluation of eight systems in Helsinki.
RDS Baseband Coding agreed Second Field Trial at Bern/Interlaken.

1983

Industry/Broadcasters meeting at EBU.
Industry/Broadcaster Field Trial in Munich, Germany.
RDS adopted by EBU and Industry - submitted to CCIR.

1984

First US presentation of RDS in Detroit.
Ford starts RDS car radio development.
RDS Specification EBU 3244 published.

1985

Large scale pre-operational trial in Germany.
EBU recommends RDS introduction.
Industry/Broadcasters confirm first receivers and broadcast services to start in 1987.

1986

First presentation of RDS at NAB in Dallas.
RDS as CCIR (now ITU-R) Recommendation published.
First RDS logo created by BBC published by EBU.

1987

Ireland, France and Sweden introduce RDS.
First RDS Receivers shown at IFA Berlin.
Volvo markets World’s first RDS Car Radio.

1988

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and UK introduce RDS. Blaupunkt, Grundig and Philips manufacture RDS Car Radios.
BBC creates new RDS logo for EBU. EBU recommends use of new RDS logo instead of the old one from 1986.

1989

RDS enhancements: EON developed and tested in UK.
Portugal, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland introduce RDS.
Presentation of RDS in Washington DC and at NAB Las Vegas, USA.

1990

First presentation of RDS at Broadcast Asia, Singapore and in South Africa. RDS European Standard CENELEC EN 50067:1990 published.

1991

RDS EON Receivers shown at IFA.
Hong Kong introduces RDS.
First presentation of RDS in China.

1992

South Africa introduces RDS.
RDS European Standard updated - CENELEC EN 50067:1992 published.
Products in USA will also use RDS name and logo (created by BBC in 1986, redesigned in 1988).

1993

RBDS Standard published in the USA.
RDS portable radios become available.
RDS Forum created by EBU.
RBDS promoted at Consumer Electronics Show, Chicago.

1994

RDS-TMC endorsed by EC.
DGPS first implemented in Sweden.

1998

RDS/RBDS standards harmonized. Some differences remain nevertheless.
CENELEC EN 50067:1998 – Newly updated RDS standard published. ODA is part of it.

1999

RDS Forum is becoming independent of the EBU and established as a not-for profit industry association in Geneva.

2000

RDS CENELEC standard EN 50067:1998 is re-issued as IEC standard 62106 – Edition 1.

2005

Updated RBDS standard is published as NRSC-4-A.
RT+ is agreed in RDS Forum as an important enhancement.
FM/RDS radio starts to be increasingly used in mobile phones, small music players and short-range transmission devices.
For FM/RDS radio IC chips the market growth becomes gigantic. Over 100 million of these chips are made within one year.

2006

Broadcasters in Germany start to use RadioText Plus (RT+).

2008

Broadcasters in the USA start to use RT+.

2009

25th anniversary of the publication of the first EBU specification of RDS.
Updated RDS IEC standard 62106 – Edition 2 is published.
RT+ is implemented in iPod nano (5G).
Over 600 million FM/RDS radio ICs are now made within one year.