Does Anyone Broadcast PAD Data Correctly?

** See update, below **
After implementing dynamic RDS while interning at WXXI in Rochester, I set out to find a way to send the same information out over the HD Radio PAD (Program Associated Data) system, so that people with HD Radio receivers could see the data as well. In the process, I discovered that we weren't the only ones who couldn't seem to get PAD data working. In fact, very few stations in the area had it working. This then got me wondering, how many stations back home, in a major radio market, have it working right? So I did a little experiment to find out, and the results are rather surprising...
UPDATE: After looking at this further, I have a bit more of a theory as to why this is happening, and if I'm correct about what's going on, the blame may actually be split between the tuner and the stations. On the stations that appear not to be broadcasting useful PAD data (specifically the blank ones, the ones broadcasting "1", and 93.9 with its static "939 WKYS"), the tuner will not allow me to access its info screens. You can see where they should be (as the frequency display changes slightly), but the actual info is blocked out by the message (or lack thereof) being transmitted by the station. Now, HD Radio's PAD system supports a few special message fields (such as "Comments" and "Commercial") that allow stations to transmit special textual messages to listeners' radios. From what I understand, this Sangean tuner, upon receiving one of those messages, will replace all other PAD data on the display with that message. So my best guess is that the stations around here, for whatever reason, are transmitting empty/meaningless (or in the case of 93.9, simply misplaced) strings in their PAD Comments field (or some other similar field), rather than removing that field from the transmission when it is not in use. It may be that whatever HD Radio tuners they use to test their HD reception ignore that field or display it elsewhere, so it appears fine to them. But since this tuner blocks out all other messages upon seeing the mere presence of that field in the transmission, any other data they may be sending is not visible to me or anyone else with this tuner or any other tuner that behaves this way.

[@vwestlife]

Maybe something is wrong with the Sangean tuner? Every HD Radio signal I can pick up here in the NYC/NJ area displays some form of data on my Insignia NS-HD01, usually song titles or program names, and at the very least the station's call letters. See for example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJyci62BfJVgpc0

[@IfYouLikeGoodIdeas]

+vwestlife That's entirely possible, especially given it has been quite finicky in other ways (like needing to reboot it to regain reception). That being said, when I had this tuner up in Rochester, it did correctly decode the PAD data on the few stations that had it, and other HD Radio tuners behaved the same way in that area. It could also be that stations in the NYC market are simply better about transmitting that information over HD Radio's PAD system and not just RDS (which would make sense given how big a radio market NYC is). I'll have to see if I can get my hands on another tuner (or make some improvements to my setup with this one) and see if there's any difference (I'll post a follow-up video if something particularly interesting comes out of that), because it does seem really strange that stations in a market as big as DC wouldn't be transmitting proper/useful PAD data in addition to RDS.

[@jimster586]

Who uses HD radio anyway? :-)