this invention pertains to a method for operating a radiotelephone for receiving digitally encoded broadcast messages from a radio channel , and also to a radiotelephone that operates in accordance with the method . the method includes a first step of operating a user interface for inputting information to a controller of the radiotelephone , the information specifying at least one category of broadcast message to be received . in response to the inputted information , a second step receives a broadcast message that belongs to the at least one category . a third step stores all or a portion of the received message in a memory of the radiotelephone . a fourth step selectively displays all or a portion of the stored message . in a presently preferred embodiment of this invention the message is received from a short message service broadcast channel .