Techniques for support broadcast and multicast services in a wireless communication system are described. In an aspect, a transmitter (e.g., a Node B) sends configuration information conveying a mapping of long service identifiers (IDs) to short service IDs for advertised services. The transmitter also sends scheduling information conveying a mapping of short service IDs to radio resources used for scheduled services in the current scheduling period. The short service IDs reduce the amount of scheduling information to send. In another aspect, the transmitter sends information identifying services being transmitted and services being advertised but not transmitted. Receivers (e.g., UEs) may use this information to determine whether or not to send requests for services of interest. In yet another aspect, the transmitter sends configuration information for services being advertised but not transmitted. This may allow the transmitter to start these services quicker when requested by the receivers.