In a digital radio system including a transmitter unit and at least one receiver unit, changes to the system can implemented without modifying the hardware components by providing the transmitter unit and the receiver unit with processing capability. With respect to the transmitter unit, the principal function of the processing capability is to modify the encoding of the transmitted signal stream. The processing capability of the receiver unit provides the ability to identify when the decoding algorithms are not compatible with the transmitted signal stream. The decoding algorithms of receiver unit can be updated to be compatible with transmitted signals in several different embodiments. According to one embodiment, the updated decoding algorithm can be transmitted to the receiver unit along with, or in place of, the program signal stream. The programmable processor of the receiver unit identifies the decoder algorithm signal stream and installs the decoder algorithm in the programmable processor. In this embodiment of the invention, the upgrade of the receiver unit can be transparent to the user. The upgrade of the receiver unit can also be accomplished by manual intervention by the user.