[BC] RDS

[Broadcast List USER]

Two things.

First of all, I believe I was the first station to put RDS on the air
in the USA.

I got a call from the BBC asking if I would put RDS on the air for an
international convention in DC.  It turns out they had been turned
down over an over and were very surprised that I immediately said yes.

The BBC technician came and we installed the equipment.  I explained
that I was required by FCC rules to run a Proof of Performance.  He
offered to help.  It went well.  We had breakfast at the nearby diner.


I had worked in England, and understood that it is VERY easy to make
friends there, but not at work.  I had access to LOTS of restaurant
trade, so I offered to take him, and his wife who was traveling with
him to dinner.  I explained that in the USA we would actually
socialize with work associates.  He had to discuss it with his wife.
She OKed the dinner, and we became friends.  Anyway...  back to the
subject.


We ran an RDS demonstration.  I liked it.  We couldn't do the song ID
as we were cart based and I wasn't about to do the FSK stuff to get
that on the air, but we changed the data, and showed off the system.
BBC folks ran the data, and they had a successful demonstration.  At
the time, not even the Blaupunkt radios in German cars had RDS in the
USA.

The BBC gave me everything on the system.  I got full sized prints for
all the circuits.  I think I still have them.


Several YEARS later, another station in town did a demonstration.
They were trying to show off the EAS type features.  They did a
demonstration and failed to send the EOM when they hung up the phone.
Monday morning, all the area BMW dealers had MANY cars in the lot with
dead batteries.  It turned out the EAS turned on the radios at LOUD
volume, and there was no way to turn them down or off.  The customers
drove the cars to the dealerships and dropped them off.  The radios
drained the batteries.


OK, all of that aside, I agree that RDS (or the USA RBDS) would be a
good idea to fully implement.  The system could be improved by adding
GPS to the alerts.

It doesn't take over the on-air signal, so it is less of a problem for
broadcasters, yet it is fully automatic so people get the alerts.

Too bad we didn't embrace RDS.


OH, by the way, the traffic part of RDS is very cool, even though we
don't do it right in the USA.  In the European system, you can be
listening to a cassette (What is that?) or a CD, and important traffic
information will stop the tape or CD and you hear the traffic.  Once
the traffic report is over, you go back to what you were listening to
before the report.  That is useful.  Oh, well...

--chip

On Oct 9, 2009, at 1:15 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

>Message: 8
>Date: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:02:44 -0500
>From: Mark Earle <mearle at mearle.com>
>Subject: Re: [BC] Fine? 5k for eas botch?
>
>Larry Fuss wrote:
>>>I believe Larry is right on this and Sid is wrong.
>>
>>I think Sid's point is that we SHOULD be doing all of this.  He's
>>right.
>>But unless you're being monitored by other stations, the duck farts
>>don't
>>accomplish anything.  Responsible broadcasters get this stuff on- the-air
>>anyway.
>Yes - the stations I work for are the "end of the line" monitoring NWS
>LP1 LP2. If we originate duck farts, they are heard audibly by
>listeners, but serve no purpose-- in that no one is decoding them. .
>Perhaps the listeners "perk up" upon hearing the farts. But it is
>quicker for the talent to just open the mic and speak, be it a weather