RDS Station Information

[Dr Lobster*]

the local dance music station, once entitled 'vibe fm' renamed itself to 'kiss' sometime ago i understand (i haven't tuned in for years).

but a fellow passenger in my car wanted me to tune in, but i noticed that for some reason, the radio station came up on the radio display as 'vibe', then after about 2 minutes, went to 'kiss'.

does anybody know why this is? apparently it changed its name a couple of years ago.

[Pete]

I think the radios have a cache. When Radio One changed from "BBC R1" to "Radio 1" it flashed up and changed after a few seconds until I retuned the radio.

[Spencer For Hire]

In my previous car, once in a while, the BBC stations would flash up with the original format of 'BBC 1 FM', "BBC 2 FM', etc. when tuning in - before flicking over to the current 'Radio 1' or 'BBC R2'.

I've no idea how this could happen, as I got the car (with integral radio) new in 2004, which was years after the format changed - so I don't know how it could have cached the old version.

[Ant]

I've always been a little confused as to why Radio 1 was the only station whose name had changed to the "less formal" version. At least Radio 2 could do it? Unless there's a reason i'm not quite getting?

[wells]

BBC Radio 1 is nearly always referred to as Radio 1 on-air, BBC Radio 2 is referred to as BBC Radio 2, possibly the reasoning behind it?

[Nick Harvey]

On most radios, the station name gets stored in the memory when you set up the tuning of a preset button; so the radio knows what to search for if you next switch it on in an area with no signal on the frequency last used.

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 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.

[Dr Lobster*]

ah, that explains it. i didn't think i had it tuned as a preset, but i must have somewhere (i have presents 1-6 in 6 sections) but it's such a faff i never bothered tuning anything other than the first six because you can't change station very easily driving. i'll go through them all one day and see if it's been put there by somebody somehow.

[Steve in Pudsey]

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.

The BBC do the same, with a dot added and Radio 1 going back to the conventional format, eg BBC.R1, BBC.R2 etc

This is generated from pre-programmed settings at the tx sites and in normal operation is over-ridden by dynamic data from the studio end. If there are problems with the RDS data or if the transmitter has failed over onto RBS, the locally held data are used.

[Nick Harvey]

The dot in the middle of a BBC station name specifically means "transmitter not (currently) fed by a direct line link".

The Marlborough transmitter for BBC Radio Wiltshire on 104.9Mhz, for instance, always shows as "BBC.WLTS" because it is designed to be an RBR of Naish Hill, rather than have a line feed from the studios.

[Alexia]

We have two amalagamated codes round here: REDRAGON and BBCYMRU. I noticed when on holiday in Paignton last year there was GEMINI T - I assume that Exeter reads GEMINI E?

Best one I ever saw was at RIAT a few years back when instead of going with their usual RSL name of WINGS, as we approached Fairford, 87.7Mhz read VULCAN instead, as part of the Vulcan to the Sky funding push. Put a smile on my face.

[Steve in Pudsey]

The dot in the middle of a BBC station name specifically means "transmitter not (currently) fed by a direct line link".

The Marlborough transmitter for BBC Radio Wiltshire on 104.9Mhz, for instance, always shows as "BBC.WILTS" because it is designed to be an RBR of Naish Hill, rather than have a line feed from the studios.

I (respectfully) disagree Nick - the dot means no dynamic RDS data. You don't routinely see BBC.R2 around London where Crystal Palace RBLs Wrotham, or around the North West where Winter Hill is RBL Holme Moss. The transmitter failing over to RBS is the main reason for the dynamic RDS failing though.