I've Just Discovered Radio 4 Extra!

[BeeKeeper]

I have found radio a useful source of free material for either recording onto a CD and playing in the car or squirting the file into a gizmo such as a mobile 'phone and listening on headphones, which can be useful for something to listen to when camping or heaven forbid, while cycling. Up to now my main sources have been Radio 2 for things like Mike Harding's folk programme (RIP) and Radio 4 for classic serials (Patrick O'Brian's Desolation Island is currently available) and comedy such as the News Quiz.

However, I had not looked at Radio 4 Extra until about a week ago. This is an internet only station so you won't find it on your wireless but it majors in a lot of spoken word stuff and has some good programmes for recording such as ghost stories and at the moment a Terry Pratchett serial called Nation which I hadn't come across, perhaps because it is a non-discworld story. If you want Episode 1 of this programme you will need to move fast as it runs out today.

The programmes are not available to download directly but I use the free programme Audacity to record the programme as it plays on my PC. You can then export the programme in an appropriate format, such as mp3 or cda for CDs. The help files are useful and I have found they were enough to get me up and running. Audacity can be downloaded here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ In my experience it won't download any unwanted extras which take over your browser etc., but to be sure read everything carefully before clicking away merrily.

I only bring this up in case anyone else interested in radio had not looked at Radio 4 Extra.

[cycleruk]

Thanks for the "Audacity" link.

Concur with the "R4 Extra" but it is not only internet. It's a digital program that can heard on Freeview TV etc.

For info'
Mike Harding = http://www.mikehardingfolkshow.com/

[hubgearfreak]

i'm surprised that you'd be interested in radio and not yet have a DAB set. i've been enjoying 4 extra and bbc7 as it was earlier called for around a decade

[al_yrpal]

i'm surprised that you'd be interested in radio and not yet have a DAB set. i've been enjoying 4 extra and bbc7 as it was earlier called for around a decade

+1. Where have you been? The Goons, Hancock, Round the Horn etc etc I used Radio Downloader but the BBC have stamped it out. Great stuff on there a wonderful relief from awful radio 4.


Al

[Mick F]

i'm surprised that you'd be interested in radio and not yet have a DAB set.

We're no strangers to 4extra on line, but DAB radio?

Don't make me laugh.
Have you tried to get DAB reception here?
We can get some, but not much.

[rjb]

The programmes are not available to download directly but I use the free programme Audacity to record the programme as it plays on my PC. You can then export the programme in an appropriate format, such as mp3 or cda for CDs. The help files are useful and I have found they were enough to get me up and running. Audacity can be downloaded here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ In my experience it won't download any unwanted extras which take over your browser etc., but to be sure read everything carefully before clicking away merrily.

I only bring this up in case anyone else interested in radio had not looked at Radio 4 Extra.

I tried this in the past using a programme called audiograbber but could never get it to record from the internet. I used a workaround which involved recording from my pc onto a tape and then used audiograbber to digitise it on playback. It could have been my settings but no amount of changing settings could rectify it. Anyone any suggestions?

DAB radio - as far as I can see its a no go for serious music listening, the bit rate is too low to capture quality information and most of Europe have now gone with DAB+ which is not compatible with dab as broadcast in the uk and if the beeb upgrade will render millions of existing sets to the scrapheap as they are not capable of being upgraded to receive these broadcasts.

[mr mchenry]

I'm bemused by the concept of loading a recording onto a mobile phone to play it back.. Ok, so you need to have a smartphone with a reasonable data allowance, but cut the middle-man and use the BBC iPlayer radio app! It's free and you can play any BBC station either live or on demand up to a week (or more?) later.

TuneIn Radio does much the same, but not quite as neat for BBC content, though it does give access to thousands of stations around the world.

[cycleruk]

I'm bemused by the concept of loading a recording onto a mobile phone to play it back.. Ok, so you need to have a smartphone with a reasonable data allowance, but cut the middle-man and use the BBC iPlayer radio app! It's free and you can play any BBC station either live or on demand up to a week (or more?) later.

TuneIn Radio does much the same, but not quite as neat for BBC content, though it does give access to thousands of stations around the world.

The BBC iPlayer will only work when you have internet connection.
Recording and loading a program onto a phone will allow you to listen any time without the internet.

[thirdcrank]

I think there's a political element to this.

The govt has been keen to to end public use of the FM frequencies so they can be flogged to the mobile phone companies. At onestage, 2015 had been designated for the digital radio switchover, in much the same way as the telly a few years ago. That's now been kicked into the long grass. For all sorts of technical reasons, DAB hasn't really taken off. I bought a new car in 2010 and digital radio was an optional extra for about a zillion squids. As I tend to keep cars for a long time, I thought about the radio but the sales "consultant" correctly forecast that it would be a waste of money.

Back to the politics, to stay sweet with the govt, the BBC has been floating various extras to tempt an unwilling listening public to change to digital radio eg Archers digital-only episodes (Archers listeners being thought of as being slow to adopt new technology.) I think that the ability to receive digital radio on a telly means that the domestic, mains-powered listener has good access to digital radio, but the problems remain for anybody using a car radio or a battery-powered portable. Together, these represent a big chunk of the BBC's radio audience.

They've even been flogging DAB radios through special offers to Radio Times readers.

[hubgearfreak]

the problems remain for anybody using.. .. ..a battery-powered portable.

quite, also FM/LW recievers use next to no battery compared with DAB. there must be millions of campers, fishermen, allotment holders, decorators and others all with very cheap but adequate for their needs transister sets.

[byegad]

i'm surprised that you'd be interested in radio and not yet have a DAB set. i've been enjoying 4 extra and bbc7 as it was earlier called for around a decade

Yup! +1 too.

[kwackers]

the problems remain for anybody using.. .. ..a battery-powered portable.

quite, also FM/LW recievers use next to no battery compared with DAB.

I doubt that's quite quite as true as it used to be. The digital side of most modern DAB radios is pretty good these days, the biggest user of power is the amp and speaker(s). Most DAB radios have fairly decent speakers and amplifiers and these tend to be fairly power hungry compared to the tiny tinny speakers of yesteryear.

I can remember some of my early transistor radios, most of them played for a couple of hours tops! I've seen at least one DAB radio in a shop claiming 100 hours (probably with headphones - I didn't examine the details).

(edit - this one claims to last 150 hours. http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/Products/DAB_radios/Ecologic_7/index.htm)

[thirdcrank]

With the widespread change to digital everything, there was a time when it appeared (at least to somebody like me) that digital radio would soon make everything else obsolete. That hasn't happened and it doesn't look as though it will anytime soon. When I first looked at DAB, one of the features which interested me was the possibility of recording programmes to a memory card to listen to them later. Before I got around to doing anything about it, we had a hard drive recorder for one of our tellies so we can listen to the radio on any of our three TV's or record it. It seems that nobody has been sufficiently confident in the future of DAB to develop the system to allow a car radio to remain constantly tuned in.

Digital telly brought significant improvements in programme quality to the trend setting people who appreciate that sort of thing but the same has hardly been true of DAB.

[hubgearfreak]

I can remember some of my early transistor radios, most of them played for a couple of hours tops!

without being rude, that might be to do with olden day's batteries rather than the radios.

Most DAB radios have fairly decent speakers and amplifiers

you're quite right, my pureDAB would happily do for a party with a houseful on a new years eve. but it's overkill in the polytunnel or at a campsite listening to TMS or GQT.
maybe DABs have got a lot better, i don't really know. but the fact is that if they close down the FM/LW transmitters, then millions of little wirelesses will be useless even if each one's still got a few decades of life left in it, and i personally consider that both a great shame and a crime against the environment. parhaps i'm just oldfashioned, i haven't got a smartphone or indeed any mobile, a GPS, a tablet or any such thing. but i do have a number of transistor radios that i'm loathe to have to replace.

[kwackers]

without being rude, that might be to do with olden day's batteries rather than the radios.

Rude to whom? I didn't invent them...
They were pretty crap though. I can remember stripping a few zinc carbon batteries to re-purpose the carbon rods.
And olde torches too - what where they about? 30 minute battery life and almost no light! I've got a 3W LED torch I bought from Tesco some years ago. I use it for lots of things including camping (as a 'light' for my tent) and I'm still waiting for the batteries I bought with it to run out (which no doubt they will as soon as I'm unprepared!)

but the fact is that if they close down the FM/LW transmitters, then millions of little wirelesses will be useless even if each one's still got a few decades of life left in it, and i personally consider that both a great shame and a crime against the environment.

Such is life I guess. I've an attic full of redundant technology...
One day we'll 'mine' the old council dumps to recover metals and other stuff of value from there. They're already talking about processing sweepings from the streets to recover platinum from car exhausts.
Compared to the amount of crap we throw away I suspect old FM radio's don't amount to very much though.