NPR Labs started with the Tomorrow Radio Project in 2003. The project began with a meticulous practical analysis of the HD Radio system, involving months of drivetesting in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

After declaring victory in multi-channel HD Radio Research, the team championed Multicasting as a new business model for HD Radio. NPR Labs broke off from NPR Engineering in 2006 as its own unit, and has continued to research HD Radio, as well as other methods to help public radio stations get content to their listeners more effectively.

In January 2008, NPR Labs established the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology (ICART) – a collaborative effort between NPR and Towson University. ICART’s mission is to design and advocate for accessibility features to be included as radio broadcasting accelerates the global transition to digital transmission. As we like to say:  “Accessible design is good universal design”