RDS Station Information

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Spencer For Hire
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue 24 Aug, 2004 17.47
Location: From The North

Nick Harvey wrote:Spencer, can you remember if you set up the preset buttons yourself, or simply stayed with the ones that had been stored in the factory when the radio was tested? That could be something to do with it. Radios can sit around on car manufacturer's shelves for quite a while before they get fitted into a vehicle.
I set up the presets myself. Fiddling with the radio is one of the big excitements for me of getting a new car - probably more so than driving it! Also, it was a Renault, so I would presume if the radio was sat on a shelf for years, it would have been in France.

The only thing I can think of, is that the radio had a function whereby if you were listening to a CD, it would constantly scan the FM band, and add new stations to an alphabetical list. Perhaps one day, during engineering works, the station names were switched back briefly to the old ones, and it remembered them???
I like the "secret" codes that get sent out in station names by the broadcasters. The most famous is Classic FM, where a space AFTER the word CLASSIC means that the main transmitter is in use, a space BEFORE the word indicates that the standby transmitter is in use. If you're right on the cusp of two transmitter areas, when one's on main and one on standby, the word appears to dance backwards and forwards in the little window. That seems to happen quite frequently round here, as we're right on the cusp of Wenvoe and Rowridge.
Via the automatic scan function I mentioned, I often used to find 'BBC ENG' on the list. Does anyone know anything about this? I presume it's short for BBC Engineering. My parents live near Evesham, so could it be some broadcast from Wood Norton I've picked up whilst down there?
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Nick Harvey
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Steve in Pudsey wrote:I (respectfully) disagree Nick.
And you're allowed to, Steve, because I'm mixing up my full stops and my hyphens.

Marlborough puts out BBC-WLTS, not BBC.WLTS, as I found driving over the hill yesterday afternoon. It's definitely an RBR of Naish though.
dvboy
Posts: 218
Joined: Wed 03 Dec, 2003 01.59
Location: Wolverhampton, West Midlands

Alexia wrote:I noticed when on holiday in Paignton last year there was GEMINI T - I assume that Exeter reads GEMINI E?
That's like the two Beacon Radio stations round here, 97.2 is just "beacon" but 103.1 is "beaconSH" (for Shropshire). Also Smooth Radio is "SMOOTH-W" and in the East Midlands it's "SMOOTH-E" (anyone know what it is elsewhere?).
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nwtv2003
Posts: 700
Joined: Tue 20 Jan, 2004 22.20
Location: Granadaland

dvboy wrote:Also Smooth Radio is "SMOOTH-W" and in the East Midlands it's "SMOOTH-E" (anyone know what it is elsewhere?).
In the North West it's just 'SMOOTH'

There's a new station in Manchester called Rock Radio and that appears as '1061ROCK'
steve
dvboy
Posts: 218
Joined: Wed 03 Dec, 2003 01.59
Location: Wolverhampton, West Midlands

nwtv2003 wrote:
dvboy wrote:Also Smooth Radio is "SMOOTH-W" and in the East Midlands it's "SMOOTH-E" (anyone know what it is elsewhere?).
In the North West it's just 'SMOOTH'
Ah right. I guess maybe it's because there's a big overlap.
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Spencer For Hire
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue 24 Aug, 2004 17.47
Location: From The North

Galaxy differentiates its Yorkshire and North East stations in a more subtle way on RDS. Galaxy Yorkshire is 'Galaxy', whereas in the North East, it's 'GALAXY'. Of course if your radio doesn't differentiate between capitals and lower-case, you'd never know!
wells
Posts: 747
Joined: Sun 31 Jul, 2005 14.52

Spencer For Hire wrote:Galaxy differentiates its Yorkshire and North East stations in a more subtle way on RDS. Galaxy Yorkshire is 'Galaxy', whereas in the North East, it's 'GALAXY'. Of course if your radio doesn't differentiate between capitals and lower-case, you'd never know!
It's 'GALAXY' in Birmingham.
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