danted23

All, I was in Cleveland last weekend and the artist and song title started appearing on the LCD! I have an SE with dpp. I did not know the radio could do this. I live in Michigan and have yet to see a station show the artist and song title.

Does this all depend on the broadcast signal?

chrisaust

It all depends on the station itself. You see more and more stations now at least broadcasting their call letters, or some phrase like "TODAY'S BEST MUSIC, HITS 104"... something like that... but some of the more advanced stations now are broadcasting the song info along with their call letters. Soon, no doubt, we'll be seeing ads on there, I've already seen them driving through LA, albeit for music-related internet sites, but I think its pretty cool that they do the song info. I remember seeing about 8 years ago a billboard in San Diego for a radio station, and the billboard would show the song artist and name that was playing on their radio station at that moment, and I remember thinking back then how cool it'd be if they could do that in your car.

95Max

You are correct the radio station has to broadcast the information

danted23

Thanks guys, I figured it had to do with the station itself. I don't live in a city as large as Cleveland but I'll keep my eye on it the next time I am near a larger city.

chrisaust

Radio stations dont HAVE to broadcast that info, but some of the bigger ones, or the ones with more money, do. But it IS a nice feature, I've even seen a station in Santa Barbara broadcasting the weather forecast for the next day

Spunko

it's all a part of the RDS (Radio Data System), of which the station has to have the equipment to support.

chrisaust

The RDS system was implemented as an Emergency warning device, just like the one they have for TV which is pretty much useless nowadays. But according to the CA Emergency Alert System website, it says "The Commission encourages FM Broadcast Stations to provide emergency warnings via subcarrier using RBDS but does not require their use. Therefore, the Commission does not require FM Broadcast Stations to purchase any equipment to provide emergency warnings using RBDS." So basically its encouraged to have RDS, and I'm sure a lot of the stations that dont continuously broadcast via RDS still have the system installed and ready if an emergency arises.