Slightly OT: RDS radio in North America

[Jay 535i]

The Alpine C43 radio, which was available in the Z3 and late E36, has RDS ability, which means it can display information about the radio station (like its name) on the LCD.

Does that work in North America, or is it a Europe-only thing?

EDIT: Nevermind -- I went and bought the C33, without RDS.

[jjw]

It works in most station now. You will see the station name and song title, maybe artist name.

[SRR2]

I'm located in PA about 60mi west of NYC and 50 mi north of Phila. Not exactly a hotbed of broadcast activity. It looks like about half the stations I can recieve have RDS capability of some sort. About half of those show nothing more than the call letters.

[Jay 535i]

I'm located in PA about 60mi west of NYC and 50 mi north of Phila. Not exactly a hotbed of broadcast activity. It looks like about half the stations I can recieve have RDS capability of some sort. About half of those show nothing more than the call letters.

Thanks. As I thought, support is minimal.

I.E., not worth the extra price of the C43, considering I'm already in the minority of people who think the stock stereo sounds plenty good.

[SRR2]

I was satisfied with the stock radio/audio in my '89 535. It was already the 'premium' audio and I added a CD changer. But then, my tastes run to music that's, shall we say, somewhat calmer than one frequently hears today.

Funny though, the handful of FM stations I listen to all have pretty good RDS support. I find myself looking at it more often than I would have expected.

If it's not an expensive upgrade in your decision, you might want to think about it.