A system for decoding data, such as travel and traffic information, configured in data blocks embedded in an electromagnetic signal, such as a broadcasted radio signal, has been developed. The system includes a method and receiver for decoding the data with a background tuner in a manner that does not impair the ability of the background tuner to demodulate other signals. While a main tuner is tuned to demodulate a first electromagnetic signal to produce a data stream, the background tuner is switched to decode the data blocks only when the data blocks are expected to be received. In the remaining time, the background tuner is free to demodulate other signals to support a diversity or other function. If a data block is not received, or not received when expected, the background tuner returns to demodulating one or more other frequencies after a predetermined time interval has elapsed.