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Section VIII
“RADIO TEXT PLUS”
“Radio Text Plus” (RT+) is a system of RDS message ‘indexing’
originally conceived by the German public-broadcasting com-
pany, WDR; the German radio broadcast research center, IRT;
and the Finnish mobile-phone manufacturer, Nokia.
RT+ may be simply described as a protocol that describes (to a
computer, for example) what the Radio Text means and how it
should be interpreted. For example, it can mark a certain part
of the Radio Text as a song title and another part of the text as
the artist.
RT+ extends the utility of the Radio Text message field by giv-
ing the user selective access to specific components within the
64-character message. This may be used to generate a more de-
tailed data display on receivers with RT+ capability, and to
permit message ‘tagging.’
Songs may be tagged for later download from sales Websites
for a per-track charge. This frees the listener from having to
remember and identify a song at a later time, find it in the cata-
log of a download provider and download it to his computer or
MP3 player. Tags in other messages can reference telephone
numbers or Web addresses. This entire process becomes total-
ly automatic with RT+.
An ‘interactive’ application of RT+ is of particular value to lis-
teners with mobile phones or other ‘personal’ 2-way communi-
cation devices equipped with built-in FM radios. It allow the
downloading of individual stock market figures, weather fore-
casts or local telephone listings that are pertinent to a specific
radio program or newscast being aired.
RT+ is an extension of the normal RDS Radio Text field. With
respect to scrolling song titles, for instance, the Radio Text
field must contain the artist and title information, even though
this same information may already be scrolling in the Dynamic
PS field where it will appear on all RDS radios. To support RT+
song tagging, station automation must be programmed to send
TEXT= (title and artist), plus the appropriate RT+ ‘tag’ in the
proper data group. Of course if the song information is to be
seen on all RDS radios in the PS field, then DPS=(title and artist)
must be programmed to run concurrently to the RT+ informa-
tion.
