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SouLRioT
11-19-2003, 03:00 PM
Ok, this might be old news or just something I missed since I joined. But I've had RDS on since I had the car but seen nothing, until recently. The radio station I listen to just go their programming up and the RDS feature now works. Now this will only work if your radio stations that transmits the info, but if it does, it will display the stations name, number, Artist singing, and songs name. So I hope this informs some of you guys and to say the lest the stock unit isnt that bad.

http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/data/500/903MOV00819.MPG

TAF
11-19-2003, 03:02 PM
Cruisin' to Linkin Park...sweet!

SouLRioT
11-19-2003, 03:05 PM
What did you expect? And remember, if its too loud, your too old.

RF Overlord
11-19-2003, 03:12 PM
Originally posted by SouLRioT
And remember, if its too loud, your too old.

No, I'm not 2 old, YOU'RE 2 DEAF!!!!


:lol:

Mad1
11-19-2003, 03:18 PM
If only the radio stations here used that feature for good!

I turned off the RDS feature after only a short time, because several stations in Nashville use the screen to run ADVERTISING into my car.

How long could you stand a repeating scroll that says: 102 THE BUZZ, LISTEN TO BOB & TOM IN THE MORNING, 102 THE BUZZ, LISTEN TO BOB & TOM IN THE MORNING, etc. ad infinitum.

If you said more than a minute, you're a better man that I am.

Jeremy
Mad1 - A definite candidate for radio rage.

TripleTransAm
11-19-2003, 03:26 PM
Most stations up here support the RDS info, but one of them got funky by trying to get the artist/song/station info to scroll across the display. Maybe it was a MM-specific thing, but it would drop characters every now and again... so you'd end up with screenfuls of:

"LTN JOH GOD YE ROD" "AUL MARNEY AMAED" etc... scrolling 3-5 letters at a time, each time missing a different letter. It was better if the car wasn't moving.

It only lasted about a week, then they went back to just station ID and slogan, with the occasional TRAFFIC when they broadcast a traffic report during the drive home.

There's also an RDS feature which will light up a "TRAF" indicator on the radio display face, right above the frequency if I recall. It lights up whenever the station switches to a traffic report. Pretty useless, unless you have the radio muted, I guess...

(In case you're wondering about the songs above, it's a francophone soft-rock station up here, and the songs were "Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Paul McCartney - Amazed".)

TripleTransAm
11-19-2003, 03:32 PM
Originally posted by SouLRioT
What did you expect? And remember, if its too loud, your too old.


Haven't bought their second album, as I can't really get into some of the tunes. But the first album... wow. Crawling makes the hair on the back of my head stand straight up, there's so much emotion in that track.

I was interviewed by CBC radio twice, speaking on behalf of the Montreal F-body club on matters of the plant closure etc. One of the interviews involved me driving the reported around, and she asked what kind of music I listened to. I reached into the glove box and pulled out a home-made CD, containing a range of stuff from Linkin Park to ZZ Top to Metallica to REO Speedwagon to Barbra Streisand. So, much to my chagrin, she of course HAD to mention the Streisand stuff on air... :help:

Can you folks imagine how many gag voice mail messages I received at work the day after the interview aired, containing snippets of Streisand songs???

Ross
11-19-2003, 03:36 PM
I've always wondered about this feature. I leave it turned on, but the most I have ever seen on the screen is the call letters of the station, and that's only on a few stations. I wonder if there just aren't a lot of stations down here that use the feature, or maybe it's just on the hard rock stations that I don't listen to!

Ross
11-19-2003, 03:38 PM
"TTA, People who need TTA,
Are the luckiest people in the worrrrrrrlllllddddd..."

Sorry, TTA, I couldn't help myself.

TripleTransAm
11-19-2003, 03:45 PM
That one went right over my head, Ross...
Clue me in on the reference?

Ross
11-19-2003, 03:59 PM
The Barbara Streisand song

"People, people who need people,
Are the luckiest people in the worrrrllllddddd"

Remember that one?

And I thought I was being so clever...

SouLRioT
11-19-2003, 04:18 PM
TTA the new LP from LP is really good. Defently not a sophmore slump, check it out.

TAF
11-19-2003, 04:23 PM
I got it Ross...and it WAS funny...

so I guess the question is...what Streisand song was on that CD, /Steve?

SergntMac
11-19-2003, 04:48 PM
/Steve...I feel your pain.

I show up in Hershey with my brand new "cutting edge" trinket, a Pioneer in-dash DVD player, and what do I use for the demo?

The Bee Gees...

One step forward, two steps back, the motif of my life.


Originally posted by RF Overlord
No, I'm not 2 old, YOU'RE 2 DEAF!

Y e a h...I don't think so.

If it's too loud, you ARE too old.

okay, IMHO...Just my .02c...oh, this is gonna bruise...

MapleLeafMerc
11-19-2003, 04:58 PM
Originally posted by Ross
I've always wondered about this feature. I leave it turned on, but the most I have ever seen on the screen is the call letters of the station

Same here- showing song title would be great, because actually naming the songs they're playing seems to be passé for most stations.

RF Overlord
11-19-2003, 05:49 PM
Originally posted by Mad1
If only the radio stations here used that feature for good!

I turned off the RDS feature after only a short time, because several stations in Nashville use the screen to run ADVERTISING into my car.

The RDS (or, more correctly the RDBS in America) feature is used much more extensively in the UK and Australia (and I a$$ume in most of Europe and Japan, as well) than it is here...like Tele-Text on your TV, it never really took off here as no one could figure out how to MAKE MONEY from it... :rolleyes:

God forbid anyone should do anything in the public interest...

MapleLeafMerc
11-19-2003, 07:09 PM
Originally posted by RF Overlord
it never really took off here as no one could figure out how to MAKE MONEY from it... :rolleyes:

God forbid anyone should do anything in the public interest...

RF, want to borrow my user title? ;)

dok
11-19-2003, 07:57 PM
5 stations in Charlotte just started transmitting artist and song title. There was an article in the paper about it. Turns out that my favorite station is one of them.

Only problem is that by the time I read all the info, I've driven off the road. :lol:

MapleLeafMerc
11-19-2003, 09:04 PM
Originally posted by dok
by the time I read all the info, I've driven off the road. :lol:


:lol: :lol:

Maybe radio should remain an audible experience only!

TripleTransAm
11-20-2003, 07:53 AM
Originally posted by Ross
The Barbara Streisand song

"People, people who need people,
Are the luckiest people in the worrrrllllddddd"

Remember that one?

And I thought I was being so clever...


LOL! Hey, I'm not THAT big a fan of her stuff... LOL!

No, the songs she spotted on that fateful CD were "Guilty" (duet with Barry Gibb) and "Woman in Love", pretty much the only two songs I can tolerate.

So what did the reporter do? As I was mentioning that I had a lot of memories tied into my GTA (my grandparents loaned me some of the cash allowing me to purchase it) and that it would forever serve as a tribute to my family for all the support over the years, she overdubbed some "Memories" song by B.Streisand as a background music track. *sigh*

(in reality, she did send me a pre-copy of the radio piece before broadcast, so it's not like I didn't see it coming. I'm okay with laughing at myself... everyone else keeps doing it, so why not jump on the bandwagon :help: )

TripleTransAm
11-20-2003, 08:07 AM
Originally posted by MapleLeafMerc
Maybe radio should remain an audible experience only!


As long as they don't try to broadcast versions of pop videos populated by "stick men" on that RDS channel!

I agree about the song/artist... I've got a few Montreal radio station phone numbers on speed dial on my cell phone. Many times I'll bombard them with "what the heck was that you just played?" types of calls.

Funniest phone call: I called our classic rock station to request a song for the all-request 5-o'clock drive home show, for my kid (he REALLY likes "Living After Midnight" from Judas Priest, honest!). The DJ thought that was cool, and patched me on the air, saying "nothing like getting them into Satanic worship at an early age!" to which I replied "yeah, we've got a family ritual sacrifice happening this weekend". My 2 year old was listening at my parents' place at the time (we called ahead to say I'd be requesting something for him) and thought it was cool to hear dad on the radio.

Sarge: the general population's music tastes are cyclic. I recall in the 80s when anything remotely disco-related was instant puke and then suddenly in the 90s it was the IN thing. I've never really cared about what people thought of the music I listened to, I'll readily admit that "Night Fever" from the Bee Gees is one of the tracks I included on last week's compilation CD I burned. One of these days I'll have to dig out their 60's greatest hits compilation, too... it's not every band that is able to span over 3 decades with good music (and Morris played a Rickenbacker bass too... how cool is that? :coolman: )

Ross
11-20-2003, 08:16 AM
OK, I checked this out on the way home last night. I made sure that the RDS was on, and that the "song title" feature was on. Then, I tuned all the way around the FM band, hitting all of the many FM stations in Houston. About 6 of them showed the station's call letters, and only two showed the name of the song.

TripleTransAm
11-20-2003, 10:52 AM
Okay, we flew off topic there regarding the Barbra Streisand stuff, but I poked around my web space looking for something I thought I had uploaded, and found this:

http://www.tripletransam.com/misc-old/cbc.rm

It's the interview I was referring to. Unfortunately I sound like a real moron on there, but you have to understand that it was way below freezing that night in December 2001 and we were conducting the interview outdoors... it was really hard to keep from shivering while speaking.

MAD-3R
11-20-2003, 11:00 AM
Well, I have just one thing to say.

Disco still sucks. But like an auto acedant, you just can't help but look, or in this case listen :)