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RDS Traffic flags: Stations that are slow to switch them off
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I've recently started commuting by car and usually listen to Radio 2 or 4 with the TA function on so that my radio automatically switches to BBC local stations for the travel, before returning me to the station I was listening to before.
This is really useful and usually works well, but I've noticed that a couple of stations seem to take ages to send the signal that the traffic bulletin has ended, so I then have to either listen to several minuted of irrelevant rubbish or take my eyes off the road to manually switch the radio to the station it was on.
By far the worst offenders are BBC Hereford & Worcester and BBC Radio Wales.
The best stations in my experience for use of the TA flag are BBC Radio Gloucestershire and BBC Radio Bristol.
Does anyone else get annoyed when local stations abuse the TA function to force you to listen to them for longer than the traffic bulletin?
This is really useful and usually works well, but I've noticed that a couple of stations seem to take ages to send the signal that the traffic bulletin has ended, so I then have to either listen to several minuted of irrelevant rubbish or take my eyes off the road to manually switch the radio to the station it was on.
By far the worst offenders are BBC Hereford & Worcester and BBC Radio Wales.
The best stations in my experience for use of the TA flag are BBC Radio Gloucestershire and BBC Radio Bristol.
Does anyone else get annoyed when local stations abuse the TA function to force you to listen to them for longer than the traffic bulletin?
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I'll second that !!
On a recent trip to Taunton from West Wales I lost count of the times I pushed the on /off button to cancel the TA to get rid of Radio Wales .
BBC Radio Wales really annoy me --- I don't listen to the station at the best of times..
Regards
Failure to identify themselves and phrases like 'our area', 'the city' and so on do seem to be delibratley trying to be unhelpful to national radio listeners passing through the area.
I can remember Radio Kent refering to I think, The Swanley Interchange', very unhelpful.
I have said that in the past. I would have thought that it should be a general rule that all Travel News bulletins start by identifying the station.
Agreed, but my view is that some stations may use this as lazy programming in an attempt to sound local.
Just for fun, I've put in a complaint. If I remember, I'll post the reply.
It's probably better to quote both. If Radio Kent said that there were delays between J6 and J9 on the M20 I'd be none the wiser unless I was already nearby on that motorway, whereas if they said 'between Maidstone and Ashford' I'd know straight away.
Unless you're a frequent user you're likely to be more familiar with (largish) place names rather than junction numbers.
I've had TA switched off on my car radio for several years due to the inability of Radio Scotland to use the system properly. Several minutes of sports news before the travel, programme trailers after the travel, or as you say no travel at all.
It can't be rocket science to link the fader on the desk, or the playing of the travel sting to the TA trigger?
But once they press the TA button they become part of the BBC National network.
Large places maybe, that are signposted. And junction numbers can be worked out, but Swanley?
Kent is the wrong side of London for most people travelling to the ports/tunnel to have this level of local knowledge.
Same here - Good Morning Scotland in particular appears to be terrible for turning TA on during the sports, then failing to turn it off again after the travel finishes. Also not unknown for a couple of false starts (i.e. radio switches to R Scotland for a couple of seconds of irrelevant stuff, then goes back to whatever it was on) before it sticks on R Scotland for the travel. Whoever's operating that button at Pacific Quay seems to be useless at it.
I turn the volume down for those few seconds then have to alter it again for the TA ---- not difficult I know --- just annoying !!
Regards.
So does someone have inside knowledge on why (it appears) that the BBC locals and BBC Scotland and BBC Wales don't have the TA trigger automated?
It's more than 10 years since I lived (and drove) in the central belt, but Forth 1 and Clyde 1 were automated even then and it was always very slick.......straight in at the very start of the bulletin, travel news is rattled off, finished off with a 5 second station ident, then TA off immediately.
The reason I ask is that my TA went off in my car way BEFORE the actual traffic bulletin recently when listening to Free Radio drive. The format is something like this:
Jo: "blah blah blah, Bruno Mars (almost always) up after traffic next"
ADVERTS
VOICEOVER: "More from Jo & Sparky after traffic...next"
YET MORE ADVERTS
TRAFFIC INTRO "Here's Chiara"... TA
but on this occasion, the TA came up during the "More from" VOICEOVER...
So it's a case of the TA coming up just before the adverts that lead up to the traffic.
Maybe my ears popped when I realised Jo & Sparky where on their way with Bruno again...
any volume change during TA became the volume for any future TA on our recently departed 10 year old Renault (which annoyingly didn't ID the station breaking in) and our current Vauxhall (which does ID the station breaking in - Yay Vauxhall) I'd wager there's a setting in there somewhere for TA volume "boost".
That's exactly how you set the TA volume on many car radios
That's the way most RDS radios seem to work. If you turn the volume up or down during Travel News then you should get the same volume next time.
Many stations don't play a jingle at the start of the Travel News so can't have the TA flag set automatically. I have seen various explanations over the years but there seems to be a button for the person the press that will set it, they quite likely set slightly early to allow the system to operate - the system sends a command down to London to set TA on all networks and then the actual radio has to switch. They seem to have a time-out to switch if off if the operator forgets though I have seen it said that some have very conspicuous warning lights to show it is set.
Those without depend on a presenter or operator remembering to press a button, or leave the end to a timed fail-safe (which I think is about 120-150 secs?).
As to the content of the bulletin, I think stations should look after themselves and their own audiences first. I can't see many PDs changing their editorial priorities on the basis that some new listeners might be joining for 30 seconds. Perhaps we could slow down to 120 wpm and only employ retired R4 announcers to read it?
The comment above about "joining the national network" is wide of the mark, IMO. When you select TA, you're asking to be switched to another station (wacky music bed, locally-relevant placenames and the rest) when relevant stuff comes on. Sure.. the timing and content should be accurate, but you're not getting a tailored bulletin for another station.
One footnote on the timing.. is it true or urban myth that one BBC Radio Norfolk jingle didn't have the requisite gap between the tone and the station ident, resulting in many makes of car radio switching to "....folk travel news" (not pronounced folk, obvs) every time a bulletin came on
Nope - the specific jingle was to trigger the TA flag at the transmitter site using telephone tones - but nowadays a silent signal can be sent along a control channel.
And the BBC have always sent a control signal to their central RDS server at BH London, that's where all the BBC LR traffic signals arrive, and are distributed from there to the relevant local and national Txs via a transparent data channel in Radio 2's RDS stream.
Why Radio 2 ? Because when the system was implemented, that was the only 24 hour BBC national network.
I don't know whether that will now change with ViLOR ?
That will be on commercial stations only.
BBC local radio send a command to London to add the flag to the datastream going out to all network radio transmitters.
.....and the local station's own FM transmitters, and the transmitters of the adjacent BBC LR stations :-)