What is RDS?
Some tuners/receivers come equipped to display RDS (sometimes called RBDS or Radio Broadcast Data System), which is a text display, usually in the form of a song title, artist name, station call letters, or format. More adventurous information might include a scrolling message saying "be caller number 10 now and win $100!". RDS is widely used in Europe, where it was introduced in 1987 (It didn't debut in the U.S. until 1993). Not all stations use RDS, and those that do may not offer full RDS service. In addition, the functions may not work properly during poor reception. RDS features ordinarily include RDS search, format search (PTY), traffic announcement search (TA), emergency program reception, alternate frequency (AF), and automatic clock adjustment (CT).