Metropol

What's the deal with digital radio RDS names?

I'm sitting here listening to my sort-of-brand-new digital radio, the excellent Pure One Elite. In black, too! The station? SMOOTH Radio. Yep, that's right. SMOOTH Radio. No, not 'Smooth Radio', it's 'SMOOTH Radio'. Not even 'SMOOTH RADIO'. And this is my topic of discussion.

RDS names are the titles that pop up on your radio when you tune into a station (I'd say all of them now) on FM that are broadcasting an RDS signal; they show you the name of the station, but due to limits they are usually cut down; for example BBC Radio 1 just says 'Radio 1', while strangely BBC Radios 2, 3, and 4 all say 'BBC R<number>'. Is Radio 1 excluded from the BBC branding? It certainly isn't, after all formal announcements, the website and the logo all say 'BBC Radio 1'. It's only the DJs and the general public (in other words, the sensible people) who call it 'Radio 1'. After all, it's always been called that until the early 90s.

Anyway, this isn't my problem. To be honest, on digital radio they aren't called RDS names, because when you're scrolling through your list of stations of digital, that's one of the major features: no need to keep searching for 10291039.393 FM, the names are there in one list. Just press a button and you there straight away. You could call them 'preset station frequencies and names'. But this isn't FM, is it?

And once again, I go bumbling on. So, before I do it again (I'm doing it again already) here's my point: why do radio stations insist on using ALL CAPITALS in their RDS names? This really, REALLY annoys me. For example, Radio City 96.7's name on digital is 'Radio City'. Yet, Real Radio 105.4 is called 'REAL RADIO'. Why all capitals? Just call it 'Real Radio'! After all, the logo has no capitals, does it? And what's with 'SMOOTH Radio'? Why is 'Smooth' capitalized and 'Radio' not? Most if not all apart from Smooth and Real can put their name out properly, yet Is this to try and make it stand out when you're scrolling through stations?

Yes, I know I'm ranting on about such a small problem, but this is yet another one of those things that annoys me so much I have to rant about it, because nobody else will care. I might as well post this on Metropol!

I would suggest that they use all capitals because the displays on many (most?) RDS receivers are only capable of displaying upper case.

I would agree with that for FM, but for digital I would think otherwise.

It's quite simple, they want to emphasise the Smooth part of the brand.

You should think of the name display as more of a logo, ironically of course the real Smooth logo is all in lowercase.

What about all the stations that use FM or AM or even the frequencies in their display name on DAB? Hardly makes sense - and then there are stations that don't even broadcast on FM that use that in their name - Jazz FM and Asda FM spring to mind.

Would be interesting to see if the stations continue to use the FM/AM handle after the switch off of analogue radio, or whether they all revert to calling them "Radio" or "Digital".

James Vertigan wrote:What about all the stations that use FM or AM or even the frequencies in their display name on DAB? Hardly makes sense - and then there are stations that don't even broadcast on FM that use that in their name - Jazz FM and Asda FM spring to mind.

Would be interesting to see if the stations continue to use the FM/AM handle after the switch off of analogue radio, or whether they all revert to calling them "Radio" or "Digital".

Jazz FM was originally a station only available on FM, then coincidentally was renamed Smooth FM, which closed to make way for Smooth Radio. I'd say the new Jazz FM is a continuation of the original station and brand.

James Vertigan wrote:What about all the stations that use FM or AM or even the frequencies in their display name on DAB? Hardly makes sense - and then there are stations that don't even broadcast on FM that use that in their name - Jazz FM and Asda FM spring to mind.

But the prefix FM has kind of become shorthand for the word radio, I can't see Classic FM ever dropping the FM from it's name for example.

suffix surely?

Yes, sorry.

I would rename the thread to "Why is Real's DLS name in all caps?" but there doesn't seem to be an editning feature on this forum.

Edit: At least not for my first post.

Could it be the same reason why Sky3 continues to be SKY THREE on Freeview? What I mean is, is it simply to catch the eye?