More tuner features RDS, An introduction to RDS

07More tuner features: RDS

Chapter 7:

More tuner features: RDS

European model only

An introduction to RDS

Radio Data System, or RDS as it’s usually known, is a system used by FM radio stations to provide listeners with various kinds of information—the name of the station and the kind of show they’re broadcasting, for example. This information shows up as text on the display, and you can switch between the kind of information shown. Although you don’t get RDS information from all FM radio stations, you do with most.

Probably the best feature of RDS is that you can search automatically by type of program. So, if you felt like listening to jazz, you could search for a station that’s broadcasting a show with the program type, Jazz. There are around 30 such program types, including various genres of music, news, sport, talk shows, financial information, and so on.

The receiver lets you display three different kinds of RDS information: Radio Text, Program Service Name, and Program Type.

Radio Text (RT) is messages sent by the radio station. These can be anything the broadcaster chooses—a talk radio station might give out it telephone number as RT, for example.

Program Service Name (PS) is the name of the radio station.

Program Type (PTY) indicates the kind of program currently being broadcast.

The receiver can search for and display the following program types:

News – News

Affairs – Current affairs

Info – General information

Sport – Sport

Educate – Educational material Drama – Radio plays or serials

Culture – National or regional culture, theater, etc.

Science – Science and technology

Varied – Usually talk-based material, such as quiz shows or interviews.

Pop M – Pop music

Rock M – Rock music

Easy M – Easy listening music Light M – ‘Light’ classical music Classics – ‘Serious’ classical music

Other M – Other music not fitting any of the above categories

Weather – Weather reports

Finance – Stock market reports, commerce, trading, etc.

Children – Programs for children Social – Social affairs

Religion – Programs concerning religion

Phone In – Public expressing their views by phone

Travel – Holiday-type travel rather than traffic announcements

Leisure – Leisure interests and hobbies Jazz – Jazz

Country – Country music

Nation M – Popular music in a language other than English

Oldies – Popular music from the ’50s and ’60s

Folk M – Folk music

Document – Documentaries