A method for transmitting broadcast messages in a spread spectrum telecommunications system comprising: associating incoming pages for remote stations with page indicator bits on a modified quick paging channel, wherein each page indicator bit corresponds to one of the remote stations and an on value of a bit indicates to the corresponding remote station that an incoming page for the remote station is about to be transmitted; associating categories of the broadcast messages with bit indices of a broadcast indicator bit stream, wherein the broadcast indicator bit stream is overlaid on top of the page indicator bits on the modified quick paging channel such that an on value of a bit of the modified paging channel indicates either that an incoming page is about to be transmitted for the remote station corresponding to that bit or that a broadcast message of a category associated with that bit is about to be transmitted; transmitting, for reception by an RF receiver of a remote station during a periodic awakening of the RF receiver, the modified quick paging channel comprising the broadcast indicator bit stream with one or more bits therein located at said bit indices; and after transmission of the modified quick paging channel comprising the broadcast indicator bit stream, transmitting an encoded bit stream; wherein said one or more bits of the broadcast indicator bit stream are transmitted to permit the remote station to compare each of said one or more bits to an on or off value, and to determine from said comparison whether or not the remote station should subsequently decode the encoded bit stream to receive at least one of the broadcast messages. associating incoming pages for remote stations with page indicator bits on a modified quick paging channel, wherein each page indicator bit corresponds to one of the remote stations and an on value of a bit indicates to the corresponding remote station that an incoming page for the remote station is about to be transmitted; associating categories of the broadcast messages with bit indices of a broadcast indicator bit stream, wherein the broadcast indicator bit stream is overlaid on top of the page indicator bits on the modified quick paging channel such that an on value of a bit of the modified paging channel indicates either that an incoming page is about to be transmitted for the remote station corresponding to that bit or that a broadcast message of a category associated with that bit is about to be transmitted; transmitting, for reception by an RF receiver of a remote station during a periodic awakening of the RF receiver, the modified quick paging channel comprising the broadcast indicator bit stream with one or more bits therein located at said bit indices; and after transmission of the modified quick paging channel comprising the broadcast indicator bit stream, transmitting an encoded bit stream; wherein said one or more bits of the broadcast indicator bit stream are transmitted to permit the remote station to compare each of said one or more bits to an on or off value, and to determine from said comparison whether or not the remote station should subsequently decode the encoded bit stream to receive at least one of the broadcast messages.