R J Carpenter wrote:
One partial solution is the "RDS Manager" sold by the German electronics
(etc) retailer Conrad. They also are mail-order - but refuse to sell in the
...
I suspect that a dozen or more units were privately imported into the USA. I
personally know of two, and have heard of a third.

I have one.

You didn't say whether you are in North America or Europe. RDS is
widespread in Europe, but rare in the USA. There is, however, renewed
interest in R(B)DS on the part of US broadcasters.

This is an important point. Of 30 stations strong enough to deliver RDS
at my location, only six actually have the encoder.

====

You're going to have to go with a communications receiver for the radio;
I don't know of any consumer FM radios that are PC-controllable.

If you're comfortable with hardware modification you could provide
external contact closures to tune a consumer radio up & down the band
one step at a time.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com