Anyone an export on FM Radio Broadcasting?

[nordschleife 0]

Hi All,

Here in Hawkes Bay we seem to be behind the rest of the country in terms of our FM broadcasting hardware. The only radio station that broadcasts RDS in Hawkes Bay is the National station.

I've done some research and found that the hardware needed to transmit RDS - an RDS Encoder isn't a costly piece of equipment - they start at about US$500 up to about US$2000.

Even a small community radio relying on donations on the North Shore manages to have this technology but the commercial stations don't, anyone know why?

I've contacted the Radio Works and am waiting a call back from them. Is it harder / more expensive that it seems? Am I missing something? Even some mobile phones do it these days.

It would be nice for all those RDS equipped cars to be able to use what they already have.

Some sources here:

http://lenny.dmlive.co.nz/summatives/03/

http://www.rds-encoder.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stati..._in_New_Zealand

Cheers

Matt

[Guest Simon*]

Haha Matt I agree but it seems like the tail wagging the dog for the stations to change just because we've got the gear in our cars.

Always refreshing to hit Auckland or Welly and all the RDS info to scroll across the headunit

[Mark 178]

I work for Mediaworks Radio (formerly Radioworks) in Christchurch. As far as I know, most of our stations around the country don't have RDS technology set up. Our More FM station in Christchurch does, so does one of our opposition stations ZM.

I'm not sure why we haven't implemented this technology, especially considering most of our broadcasting equipment has been updated within the last year. It has been brought up with management however. One reason I can think of for us not using it is that RDS is most useful for Traffic updates which aren't that important outside of Auckland!

Perhaps if you and others brought this to the attention of our bigwigs, something may get done about it. The best person to contact would be Mediaworks Radio CEO Sussan Turner. PM me if you are serious and would like her email address.

[bravo 35]

Hell, we even get limited RDS (station name only) in Northland - including on the mediaworks stations.

My itrip transmits it too including artist and title.

[antil33t 90]

There was only one or two stations in Dunedin, and that was the Classical one.. and talkback...

and my old headunit had some queer mode where it only found RDS stations -q

[nordschleife 0]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Mark, please PM me those details when you get a chance.

Would be nice if Hawkes Bay could catch up to the rest of the country!!

[nordschleife 0]

Some good news here. I had a response from the Radio Network.

Apparently their plan is to roll out RDS to Rotorua next then Napier. They don't have a timeframe but hope for this year.