I'm sure this must be a bug of sorts in the firmware for the system. This is on a '10 MCS with nav.

When turning on RDS display function, the system seems to grab whatever the preset stations are broadcasting over RDS right at that moment. So, for station displays you wind up with some odd stuff, like "OF", and other word fragments, rather than the station's call sign. The problem is, it remembers this stuff, so that even after turning off RDS and turning it back on, the garbage reappears.

I ASSume that if I reset the system somehow, I can force it to read again and might have better luck on subsequent tries. Does anyone know how to reset the system, short of disconnecting the battery, which I don't want to do? There's apparently some way to enter a diagnostic mode, though I can't locate the thread now. Thanks for any assistance.

 

Doubtful that the diagnostic mode would help as it does not on 07-09 cars with this type of problem.

Why do you not want to disconnect the battery? the only thing that is lost is the date/time and station presets. all other info is save in the key fob.

Now also have you checked that stations RDS on an other vehicle. I know some of the stations around me (Central Mass) have been having a real problem with their equipment and when i see some of what you are describing i check my BMW and a friends Ford and they both have the same problem and then a few days later after calling the station and complaining the problem goes away.

EDIT: if you do disconnect the battery leave it disconnected for at least 15 minutes as otherwise the systems will not reset.

 

My '08 does this, but only on one station. I've had some fun with it by storing odd words like "whatever" and "nothing" from time to time. Finally, after over a year, they finally had their call letters broadcast and I captured them. Now I miss the odd words...

BTW the "new" capture works with both keys even though they are set to different preset order, so I guess this info is stored internally somewhere.

Not much help offered here, but I don't think this is a MINI issue.

 

I have the exact same problem as the OP. When I set the station, it captured whatever was in the RDS at the time as the station name. It's so annoying to have one station listed as "LISTENIN" and another one that says "TEMPERAT". In the post above it says that you store various odd words, and I can see the fun in that, only HOW do you change that? My attempt to re-store the station does not change anything at all! I've tried storing a different station in that slot, then going back to the original station and re-saving that. It goes right back to "LISTENIN". I've even turned off RDS, saved a different station, then go back to the original station, and saved that. But as soon as I turn RDS back on, the same retarded label returns!! Grrrrr! We should be able to just name the damn station ourselves! Why is this so stupid??

2010 MCS with nav

 

What a funny coincidence for this to get dredged up today, since I'm the original poster and I just wrestled with this again today for the first time since posting this months ago. Weird!

I had a loaner for a while today while my USB port was being replaced. When I got my car back, I was using the second key, which I'd never used before, and started playing around with RDS. I figured out how to change the funky listings - just save the same station again, scroll over to the preset # you want to save it in (presumably the same one as before), and wait for the station name to roll by, and whammo, capture it. I didn't play too long but I'm sure I can fix 'em all with some patience. Best bet may be to grab new data while stations are in a commercial break.

 

I finally figured out what my problem was. The reason the re-storing wasn't changing the label was because I was in a parking garage where the radio signal was weak, so the RDS was not updating. Once I was driving around, the RDS display updated, and I was able to change the label by using that timing trick. One station never broadcasted its callsign, only the song playing. Even during commercials it would display something stupid like the name of the radio show or something, so I ended up setting it to BENATAR, which is a million times better than LOCAL-16. WTF does Local-16 even mean?