How does the traffic bulletin syestem work on my car CD player?

Question

You know, when the CD is on and the radio interrupts with the traffic report. Does someone at the radio station press a switch to send out a signal or something?

Answer 1

Exactly, there is a special frequency which is reserved for traffic announcements which the radio stations are allowed to switch on for traffic announcements only (usually depicted as a TA or TP on the stereo). If your stereos supports it, then it automatically changes to this frequency so you can here the updated situation.

1) It can be annoying on certain times of the day when the frequency is constantly used during rush hour and you can't listen to you Cd's

2) There were a number of cases where the radio stations were fined for leaving this frequency switched on even after the traffic announcements and getting advertising across the air! Sneaky!

Hope this answers your question

Answer 2

No, the radio stations use signals anyway so if you have the TA on in your car it sends it picks out the specific wave they use to give news/traffic reports on the radio and emits them as because you have activated it, your aerial picks it up - clever stuff eh?

Answer 3

yes the station sends out the signal and it works if your car radio suports rds, i don't think they need to press a button as the station will most likely automate the task but if they needed to i'm sure they could create a button for it.

Answer 4

mine dosnt work if the cd is on only the radio and it very annoyingly switches channels when in the middle of a good song