Radio Data System (RDS)

SEA FM Central Coast is now displaying Title/Artist for songs played during the Hit30 countdown.

Previously it would only do this for local shifts.

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Whoopee, good on JP. He must have had some spare time.

Some RDS notes from the Canberra region…
(Station names below are as displayed on RDS, with notes of additional info where displayed in brackets below)

EAGLE FM
(station name only, no other info)

Hit 104.7
(now playing title & artist info)

Mix 106.3
(now playing title & artist with previous and next song info, plus weather)

SNOW fm
(station name only)

None of the Canberra community stations had RDS.

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A not particularly helpful RDS display for Hot FM 91.1 at the moment :grinning: The PI station number being transmitted is FFFF.

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2JJJ is now rotating


triple j
we
love
music

I have a faint recollection of something similar happening in Melbourne when I went down there in a rental car, but I didn’t think it was noteworthy.

From my observations while in the region, Nowra/Shoalhaven-based community station Triple U FM is running RDS (on 92.3 and 104.5 at least anyway) although it doesn’t seem to be running properly (demo mode?) with all the text being about “AEV Stargate RDS 4500” or something like that.

Aside from that, the major Wollongong/Nowra commercial stations (including the 91.7 Huskisson translator of 2ST) are running RDS but I’m sure we were all more than aware of that.

RDS is also running on 2ST’s 106.7 Ulladulla translator.

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This has been happening on a number of weekends. Hot 91 RDS would revert to this default text and remain so until Monday morning. 97.3 also suffered this one weekend recently.

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TEN FM Tenterfield, discuss RDS on their website:

http://www.tenfm.org.au/about-ten-fm/coverage-area-and-transmission-information

TEN FM has long been a professionally run community station filling a much needed gap of local radio. Being in an area of granite rock, ground conductivity is poor for AM and local commercial stations have transmitter sites a long way away. TEN FM has long filled the gap.

The market changed overnight about 11 years ago when Rebel Media (The Breeze & Rebel FM) expanded from Stanthorpe and were added to the same tower as 2TEN in Tenterfield.

Good on 2TEN for being quick with a good RDS implementation that includes ‘now playing’. Likely Rebel Media RDS will be added on a 2018 Stanthorpe and Tenterfield Rebel upgrade, including ‘now playing’ and AF switching between Stanthorpe, Tenterfield and Goondiwindi sites.

ABC Classic FM in Brisbane should now have RDS as of today, 4 May.

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Yep working here. Just need the J’s to activate it now!

Edit: Triple J does! With current song playing too!

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Yes, them too. Engineering staff are working on them all this week in Brisbane.

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That’s great news for Brissie!

What about Melbourne and the other capitals?
Any RDS on Classic or JJJ there?

So far on the RDS we have “Classic” - ABC Classic FM - Where Music Lives
and
"triple j" that has been stuck on the song Slow Dance - ‘Don’t Believe’ since yesterday

jjj is sending out the time but Classic isn’t

Would be a lot more beneficial if ABC could roll out RDS to its regional transmitters as well; however, of course, budgetary constraints apply. With AF, you’d probably be able to listen to JJJ or ABC Classic FM driving all the way from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane without needing to tune your radio.

Good points tvcl, was there any increase or decrease for the ABC and SBS in this week’s budget?

As much as I would love to see the widespread implementation of RDS happen, I’m a realist; it is probably a low priority. RadioText was static on both broadcasts when I checked last night. Positioning statements only, no live track information.

Regarding funding, I’ve posted here in the relevant thread.

I am off to the United States on Saturday, and I am tossing up between taking 1 of these:

  • Sangean FM-RDS radio
  • Tecsun AM/FM radio

I am led to believe that the USA uses a slightly different version of RDS (called RDBS), BUT that an RDS receiver WILL decode RDBS.

Has anyone tried this in the US?

Not sure this helps, but I do have a cheap US purchased receiver which works fine decoding Australian RDS, except the Programme Type, Programme Identification code & Alternate Frequencies are wrong.

RBDS versus RDS - What are the differences and how can receivers cope with both systems?

It may be worth considering purchasing a portable receiver (for travel bandscans) to decode the numerous IBOC stations broadcasting HD Radio stations within the FM band. Portables such as the Insignia NS-HDRAD or NS-HD01 (discontinued) retail around $50 USD. (HD Radio in the United States is generally widespread, unlike our DAB+ system).