I was wondering how useful RDS is in the LA / Orange County area. Are there a lot of stations that broadcast info? And how detailed is it? For example does it ever tell you if there's a sig-alert on the 405? Or does it just broadcast the station call letters? And how many stations in the area do you think broadcast the info?

Thanks a lot!

Curly

I don't have the Empeg tuner but RDS data is built into my factory radio. I'm in OC but drive in LA frequently.

It's semi-worthless.

Some stations broadcast their call signs, and a very few (mostly college stations) also broadcast the name of the show that's playing and when it's normally on.

I've never seen a traffic notice sent out that way, and the few stations that send the "Traffic Annoucement" signal at all do so constantly, so you just jump to their channel if you try to go to a traffic annoucement, regardless of what mindless pap they're droning on about.

I've decided to forsake radio completely in favor of the Empeg. If I could only get Speed-sensitive volume I could remove the factory radio completely and it would make my life much simpler.

This one is a FAQ entry.

You're knee-jerking, Tony. The FAQ entry says nothing directly about the availability of RDS signals in Orange County, CA. Assuming that since the majority of the US has spotty RDS usage that Orange County has equally spotty usage is a bad conclusion, even if it is accurate.

Okay, I will update the FAQ now so that it's even more accurate.

Now I'm going to go off topic, so please forgive me.

I've been researching CD/recievers lately to put in the 2nd DIN, and it seems like it will cost about $100 extra to get a tuner with RDS capability ($300 as opposed to $200). I thought it would be cool to see the song info (song title, band name, genre, etc.) and traffic info on screen. I do mostly listen to KCRW 89.9, KLON 88.1, and KROQ 106.7 and you mentioned that the "college" radio stations use it. Would those mentioned happen to use it, and to what extent? Maybe the extra $100 isn't worth it because of the lack of use?

Thanks in advance,

Curly

This list is probably a little out of date, but should help let you know what stations have RDS.

http://www.crutchfield.com/rds/