"Traf" Button

Well, it's been almost three weeks, and I really like my car. I especially enjoyed it earlier this week, when the weather was much less icky and I wasn't terrified of ice and whatnot every time I went out.

That first weekend, I got to show it off to my parents. While poking around the radio, Dad asked, "What's this 'Traf' button do?" Being the smart-alek that I am, I replied, "It's for Traf. Obviously."

Humor (such as it is) couldn't hide my ignorance, though. I opened up the owner's manual and started investigating. Turns out, the "Traf" button on my radio is designed to seek through the available radio stations, and stop when it finds one that gives local Traffic Updates.

You know how some radio stations broadcast the name of the song being played, but some don't? That same text signal can also tell the radio that, "Hey, we do traffic reports, too."

I decided to play with this feature a bit. I hit the "Traf" button. The radio started scanning. About a 20-30 seconds later, I heard...

"... ciento uno punto cinco... aquí in Tulsa..."

One hundred and one point five... here in Tulsa... I'd found the Spanish radio station. I pushed the dial up to 101.7 and pressed "Traf" again. It scanned all the way back around to the same place.

Apparently, the only FM station in Tulsa who actively advertises that they do traffic reports is the Spanish language station.

I don't know the Spanish phrase for "3-car pile-up", but apparently I need to.