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Our Gm cars have R.D.S. (radio data system).Michigan is the World Headquaters for Gm, but there RDS is not used much here.I have found 1 radio station 96.3FM that use's it the most which list the Artist and Song being played, but it still doesnt update the clock settings or give other details.I take a few trips to New Orleans, each year and most of the way down there it works awesome.So why can't they get it right here?I know most people here don't even understand what it is or what it suppose to do. very sad!

RDS isn't a GM thing, so you're being in Michigan really is irrelevant to the fact there is no RDS support.IMHO, RDS is one of those things that never got big, like laserdisc and ISDN internet connections. Both were used, of course, but never in the massive numbers their replacements -- DVD and cable internet -- are being used.There's only one or two RDS-supporting stations around here...and one of them only says "welcome to the world of RDS smart radio." In other words, some of the stations that spent the money to implement RDS don't even bother to take advantage of it.

Hey... 89x is pretty good about listing that info.

RDS is a pretty nifty technology... When the radio stations decide to not abuse the technology. I don't listen to the radio here (I only do CD or Sirius) but when I did, I was kinda glad we only had a few stations that were using it.I've driven through some areas that have stations horribly abusing RDS... Cincinnati seems to be one of those places... If I'm understanding this correctly, if a station is to display a song title or other info taht changes, they should be using the field that is brought up when you press INFO. Not so around that town, I was seeing crap scrolling across the display - song titles, stupid advertisements for the stations, whatever - without ever hitting any buttons. That's just obnoxious, and even dangerous...Cincinnati has to be the city with the heaviest RDS usage I've driven through thus far.. Last time I was over that way, there had to be like 10+ stations I could pick up with the car between Cicni and Columbus...

I am seeing a lot more stations use RDS. When I bought the car two years ago, there was one, now there's easily a dozen in my area.I like it when artist/title automatically "scrolls" acrosss the display without having to hit any buttons

From what I've read, RDS is an expensive technology to completely implement for the radio stations, which is probably why you haven't seen it widely used, even today. In addition, some stations are now 'trying' to implement the newer HDRadio (in which 'HD' doesn't stand for High Definition or anything for that matter) - which gives listeners with HDRadio equipped tuners higher sound quality in comparison to regular radio. Tuners for HDRadio are still quite expensive, and you're still limited by distance as in all terrestrial radio stations. HDRadio is radio's primary defense against satellite radio, which can't stand a chance when comparing them fairly.Anyway, sorry for going a little off-topic from RDS there.. RDS is a neat technology when used correctly (ie. no SPAMMING, lol) as it's free and can give the listeners info on Artist/Title plus other info.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »IMHO, RDS is one of those things that never got big, like laserdisc and ISDN internet connections. In the US. Europe has been using it for several years, quite successfully from what i've read.I don't believe RDS is that expensive to add on. The device is probably somewhere between $1,000-$2,000. Which, for radio stations, is quite little.The RDS encoder is a box that sits between the audio processing gear and the physical transmitter. It creates a signal that sits higher than human sound in the audio of the station, and that carries the data stream. The data is provided by computer as simple text commands, which the RDS box then encodes into the appropriate fields. Implementing the RDS can be the expensive thing, just because of the computer side, and how the station works. Those stations that broadcast the current song have to have it connected to their playlist computers. Otherwise, it can just have a program running on a computer, updated whenever they wanted.My college radio station actually had an RDS encoder, but the chief technician said it would 'degrade' the signal. I called BS, but I could never get him to actually turn on the darn thing. Aggrivating, to say the least.My Sony Mini-system that I got back in 1999 had an RDS decoder in it...it's purely the fault of car audio manufacturers (and car manufacturers) that it isn't more popular. Nobody knows what it is, so not every station feels compelled to use it..

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »If I'm understanding this correctly, if a station is to display a song title or other info taht changes, they should be using the field that is brought up when you press INFO. Not so around that town, I was seeing crap scrolling across the display - song titles, stupid advertisements for the stations, whatever - without ever hitting any buttons. That's just obnoxious, and even dangerous... You are right about Cincinnati stations abusing the RDS fields. Song and artist should be INFO data (called Radiotext in the standard), not the field where the station identifier goes (which is called the PS field). The RDS standards committee does not allow this misuse of the PS field, but since the standards are not enforced as law, Clear Channel, among other station owners, chooses to just thumb their nose at the standard. Cincinnati happens to be the HQ of Clear Channel Radio. Coincidence? I intend to complain to the FCC about this, as well as Consumers Union and others who may choose to take up the sword on this as being a a driver distraction that the driver has no control over (short of turning off the radio, or knowing which stations abuse the PS field and not tuning those stations). Clear Channel is a blight upon the broadcast industry (in my opinion.... can't get me for slander).

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »In the US. Europe has been using it for several years, quite successfully from what i've read.My Sony Mini-system that I got back in 1999 had an RDS decoder in it...it's purely the fault of car audio manufacturers (and car manufacturers) that it isn't more popular. Nobody knows what it is, so not every station feels compelled to use it..In Europe, the governments generally force adherence to the RDS standards, unlike our FCC. (I understand that Canada also bans scrolling data in the PS field.) You say nobody knows what it is. Well, that's partly because it is different things to different stations, who implement RDS they way they want, and not the way it is supposed to work.Another reason that it is more successful in Europe is due to the way they allocate broadcast frequencies and transmitter power. In Europe, they network many low-power transmitters across the area to be covered, and each one has much lower power compared to the 50,000 watt or 100,000 watt power that is common for US broadcast (FM) stations. Why? Well, part of it is geography and national sovereignty. One station on 100,000 watts of power in the north of France would probably cover most of the United Kingdom. So.... stations are lower-powered, and there are more of them. UK stations get heard in the UK, French stations get heard in France, etc., with little bleed-over.What does this have to do with RDS? Glad you asked. The PS field (program source) in Europe doesn't tell your the frequency or call letters of any particular transmitter; it tells you the name of the Program Source (think BBC, which blankets the UK with many transmitters, all on different frequencies, but all carrying the identical programming most of the time). You don't really care what transmitter you're tuned to if you want to hear BBC, so that is what shows in the PS display. Another feature of RDS, which our radios all have, but which is almost never used in the US, is the ability to detect and silently switch from one station in a network to another. See the beauty of this? As you motor around Merry Old England, you can tune to the BBC and your RDS radio will always seek a nearby transmitter that is part of the network, and you will never hear the switchHere in the US, some states have networks of public radio stations around the state (Wisconsin comes to mind) and these could all be set up as a unified RDS network You would always see "WPR" for Wisconsin Public Radio or whatever they chose for a PS identifier regardless of which local station you were listening to.

That's awesome!I never realized RDS was so "in-depth!"Almost like a mobile phone -- seamlessly switching from cell to cell...

Quote, originally posted by esjones »Clear Channel is a blight upon the broadcast industry (in my opinion.... can't get me for slander).YES! In my opinion as well. Amazing how one (1) corporate entity can singlehandedly destroy an entire industry, yet nobody seems to notice or even care... Just my opinion. But that's neither here nor there, back to RDS.... Someone does need to curb RDS abuse - it's a fascinating technology with lots of potential... It needs to work like you mentioned above -- not to just be used to spam me, telling me how I should listen to BOM & TOM or some crap that... Just MHO of course.

Are there any lawyers here? All it would take is one multi-million dollar lawsuit against Clear Channel or one of the other huge station owners that alleges that an accident was caused by a driver's attention being repeatedly drawn away from the road because their RDS radio was scrolling some message and there was no way to stop it.The car and radio manufacturers' defense is that the radio was built and installed according to RDS standards, which explicitly disallow message scrolling of the PS field. The broadcaster, who (a) has to KNOW the standard, and (b) willingly chose to ignore it, and (c) knowing the danger of driver distraction, transmits the scrolling message anyway, bears some degree of culpability for the accident and resultant injuries and property damages.

Well, I think you'd have a hard time proving distraction anyway. You are, at best, expected to keep your eyes on the road, and not fiddle with your radio. Plus, the radio stations probably have better (and teams of) lawyers that the average consumer can't touch. At any rate, what I find peculiar is why it is so hard to find an aftermarket radio with RDS. Then again, most aftermarket radios don't have the dot matrix type LCDs the factory puts into our stock radios. Higher end aftermarket models have those animated OEL panels (talk about distracting), and some implement RDS, but they are at a premium price. The JVC I just installed even lets me name the radio presets I program in, if I choose, but won't do RDS. So what gives there?K.

Most aftermarket radios are capable of displaying text. Any model that supports CDText and MP3s will be able to support RDS text. As well as any XM / Sat radio ready radio.Why don't they put it in? Probably because they don't see a need. It's something else they have to write into the software, perhaps another decoder to fit onto the control board.. Either way, it isn't popular enough in the US to really warrant it's installation. Most of the time, they're trying to sell the other features on the radio, like sat radio ready, MP3's, etc..Not enough people want it, so they don't justify the cost. Especially since there's so much competition in the aftermarket radio business, spending the money to develop it isn't really costworthy..

I think there is one station in this area that has that sort of thing. The only thing they use it for is to display Z102.9! on my radio. It would be nice if all radio stations adopted that technology. No more head scratching, and radio station calling to find out that one elusive song title.

Most of my driving is during the day, and it seems like the red display on the OEM radios gets washed out pretty easily. If the scrolling RDS distracts me enough to have an accident, it will be because I am using one hand to block the sunlight so I can read it