Pioneer VSX-AX5Ai-S manual Using the tuner An introduction to RDS, Displaying RDS information

Using the tuner

An introduction to RDS

European model only

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, theatre, 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 – “Middle of the road” music also called soft rock

LIGHT M – ‘Light’ classical music

CLASSICS – ‘Serious’ classical music

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

WEATHER – Weather reports

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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

In addition, there is a program type called ALARM, used for emergency announcements. You can’t search for this, but the tuner will switch automatically to this RDS broadcast signal.

Displaying RDS information

When the tuner is selected, use the DISP MODE button to display the different types of RDS information available (RT, PS and PTY).

•Press DISP MODE to select the RDS information display.

Each press changes the display as follows:

•RT – Radio Text display

•PS – Program Service display

•PTY – Program Type display

•Current tuner frequency

Note

•If any noise is picked up while displaying the RT scroll, some characters may be displayed incorrectly.

•If you see NO RADIO TEXT DATA in the RT display, it means no RT data is transmitted from the broadcast station. If you have entered a name for the station, it is broadcast instead of RT data. If you haven’t, the display will automatically switch to the PS data display. If no PS data is transmitted from the station, the frequency will be displayed.

•In the PTY display, there are cases where NO DATA is shown. If this happens, the PS display is shown after a few seconds.

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