RDS in Savannah

[faaradar]

Rolled through my old hometown this weekend and was disappointed to see only three stations with RDS.

Some Classical station; 94.1 The Beat, and Jerry's Q.

 

[Witchlover]

Made not even a ripple here when it was introduced. I don't think there was much listener interest in it, so there was no rush to the stores to buy new equipment. The stations did not find any justification to buy the required hardware. The only place I ever saw RDS was in new car models. People are not going to ditch working radios in their homes for what they see as another gimmick. In short, someone did a poor job selling it to the listening public.

 

[faaradar]

The stations did not find any justification to buy the required hardware. The only place I ever saw RDS was in new car models. People are not going to ditch working radios in their homes for what they see as another gimmick. In short, someone did a poor job selling it to the listening public.

But, that's just it. RDS came out in the mid 90's. Not many people that I know have cars that are that old anymore. Nearly every new car has RDS; especially with all the colorful and multi-use screens that are now part of OEM sound systems.

I travel extensively and Savannah is one of the only markets that I've been too recently where a majority of the stations in the market aren't using RDS. One can almost count on Clear Channel, Cumulus, and Cox to utilize RDS in each market that they operate. So I was really surprised that CC nor Cumulus aren't using it in Savannah. BTW, didn't see much of it in Macon either; but I didn't scan the dial like I did in Savannah.

 

[upstate29651]

Don't the Adventure stations use it?

G

 

[kenglish]

Not sure I saw it at all in Macon (there, last July).

 

[Bengalsfan]

Not sure I saw it at all in Macon (there, last July).

It used to be on WPGA. I went round and round with Lowell when I bought the RDS encoder when I was there in the late 90's.

 

[Witchlover]

How much would you have to invest to retrofit a station with RDS?

As far as the Adventure stations, I believe they do use RDS - or at least they did.

 

[faaradar]

Don't the Adventure stations use it?

G

I didn't see any RDS on any of the Adventure stations; but then I didn't get too close to Hilton Head either. I stayed on the southside and in Richmond Hill; so maybe I was too far away.

 

[Bengalsfan]

How much would you have to invest to retrofit a station with RDS?

As far as the Adventure stations, I believe they do use RDS - or at least they did.

I think I spent $350 to put it on WPGA. It depends on how fancy you want to get with it. If you just want the call letters you can do it for about $500-1000. If you want one of those real fancy RDS encoders that Azmet sells, it's about $2500-3000.

 

[Witchlover]

Sell short text ads among the station and program info and the $3k investment sounds reasonable. Or did the FCC think of that and prohibit the practice?

 

[upstate29651]

Don't the Adventure stations use it?

G

I didn't see any RDS on any of the Adventure stations; but then I didn't get too close to Hilton Head either. I stayed on the southside and in Richmond Hill; so maybe I was too far away.

All of them would have shown up by hitting "scan" on your radio, except maybe 103.1. Hmm....

G

 

[faaradar]

Don't the Adventure stations use it?

G

I didn't see any RDS on any of the Adventure stations; but then I didn't get too close to Hilton Head either. I stayed on the southside and in Richmond Hill; so maybe I was too far away.

I was able to hear the stations just fine; I just know that the data doesn't reliably travel as far as the analog audio.
All of them would have shown up by hitting "scan" on your radio, except maybe 103.1. Hmm....

G

 

[faaradar]

Sell short text ads among the station and program info and the $3k investment sounds reasonable. Or did the FCC think of that and prohibit the practice?

I've seen RDS reflect the merchant whose commerical was playing on the radio at the time. I saw that in Oklahoma City when a Hudiburg Chevrolet commercial was being played; their company name streamed on the RDS. That was in the early 2000's. I haven't seen it anywhere else though.

 

[Witchlover]

I have seen weather and temperature, but I don't recall ever seeing sponsor info.

 

[htowler]

Adventure Uses RDS So does CC on WQBT and WAEV . I dont think i seen it on any Cumulus stations here though.