Radiotext

j1smithy

When I was in the States a lot of stations broadcast radiotext with their now and next songs titles and artists appearing on the screen of the radio. I recently bought a tuner with that function here at home, do any irish stations do the now and next or do they all just repeat their names over the service?

monkeyfudge

What is it? RDS?

I think the UK & Irish regulators frown on RDS being used in that manner as it was thought to be destracting for drivers.

Also the Traffic Announcement system was being abused as well.

Bard

Yep, to the best of my knowledge, it's illegal here to animate the RDS in any way. It has to be just a static message (usually the name of the station), as otherwise it could cause distraction to drivers.

Bit silly, if you ask me.

Pirate stations do it the odd time, as do UK/NI stations.

More Music

BCI will only allow static station name and no fancy use of radiotext. It was thought to be distracting to drivers. Probably a dated rule now considering drivers have Sat-Nav, iPods and other such devices to distract them.

The Traffic Announcement flag was being used by a national station to pull in listeners and they would then leave it switched on for longer than required to keep the listener. I don't think it's used by any stations now.

Firetrap

Digital Radios have the song names on them I think.

luckat

When DAB started, Lyric was doing this, I think, and you could see if they were playing Thugamar Fhéin an Samhradh Linn or Beethoven's Fifth, but it seems to have disappeared.

I wonder do they have to input the names, or is it automagical.

More Music

The artist/track info that gets displayed on the radio is taken directly from the computer playout software. Usually a serial port connection or HTML feed.

The info is typed in/downloaded when the songs are being input into the playout system. It's the same data that gets displayed on the computer screen in studio (if it's a live broadcast).

Big Tone

I notice there is some confusion here between RDS RadioText and Dynamic RDS. RadioText IS allowed and here in Ireland it isn't widely used maybe due to an unwillingness of stations to put up additional info about tracks being played, programme schedules or whatever. RTE use it on to give the time!

In Cork Red FM use this facillity to show their schedule. Most RDS tuners do not have the RadioText option but now some new DAB radios with FM do show the scrolling text.

Dynamic RDS on the other hand is where more than just the name of the station is flashed up, in parts or southern Europe Dynamic RDS is used and you can see the changing text on car radios there.

In this country Dynamic RDS is banned due to its distracting nature when driving but I have noticed a certain pirate station (they were raided last week) in Cork was using it. I have yet to see a car radio that displays RadioText too.

j1smithy

Thanks for your replies. Such a shame it isn't used here in Ireland to its full potential, the now and next was nice to have when I was driving in the States. RTE should be able to do better than having "Radio one Service of RTE" scrolling across the screen, assuming its legal to do so of course.:)