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An Introduction to RDS & EON
Radio Data System, or RDS as it's usually known, is a system used by FM radio stations to provide listeners
with various kinds of information—the name of the station and the kind of show they're broadcasting, for
example. This information shows up as text on the display, and you can switch between the kind of information
shown. Although you don't get RDS information from all FM radio stations, you do with most.
Probably the best feature of RDS is that you can search automatically by type of programme. So, if you felt like
listening to jazz, you could search for a station that's broadcasting a show with the programme type, "JAZZ."
There are around 30 such programme types, including various genres of music, news, sport, talk shows,
financial information, and so on.
The VSX-409RDS receiver lets you display three different kinds of RDS information: Radio Text, Programme
Service Name, and Programme Type.
Radio Text (
RT
) is messages sent by the radio station. These can be anything the broadcaster chooses—a talk
radio station might give out it telephone number as RT, for example.
Programme Service Name (
PS
) is the name of the radio station.
Programme Type (
PTY
) indicates the kind of programme currently being broadcast.
The VSX-409RDS can search for and display the following programme types:
Using the Tuner
News
Affairs
Current affairs
Info
General information
Sport
Educate
Educational material
Drama
Radio plays or serials
Culture
Science
Science and technology
Varied
Usually talk-based material, such as quiz shows or interviews.
Pop M
Pop music
Rock M
Rock music
M.O.R. M
“Middle of the road” music
Light M
‘Light’ classical music
Classics
‘Serious’ classical music
Other M
Other music not fitting any of the above categories
Weather
Finance
stock market reports, commerce, trading, etc.
Children
Children’s entertainment
Social A
Social affairs
Religion
Phone in
Travel
Holiday-type travel rather than traffic announcements.
Leisure
Leisure interests and hobbies
Jazz
Country
Country music
Nation M
Popular music in a language other than English
Oldies
Popular music from the ’50s
Folk M
Folk music
Document
Documentaries
In addition, there is a programme type, ALARM!, used for exceptional emergency announcements. You can't
search for this, but the tuner will switch automatically to this RDS broadcast signal.
