It is not exactly one of the greatest developments in the history of the net, but it does it for me. The original BBC radio soap, The Archers, which legend has it started over 50 years as a way of educating the townies on the realities of country life is now a podcast. And I have been a fan for thirty years.There you go. I've outed myself. The relief - it is so good to come clean. Say it loud - say it proud. I am an Ambridge fan! There was a major interruption when I first came to Auckland 17 years ago, but I have been happily back in the Archers club for yonks courtesy of the streaming [real audio] feed on the totally excellent Radio 4 web site.
Because it was a streaming option, I had developed my own way of doing this - listening at 1pm in the afternoon here in the office, if and when I could, and then indulging in big catch ups if and when I was away from the office. But it was always the streaming version.
Now, in a recent swathe of other new podcasts, the BBC have finally taken pity on me. I can now get each episode ow listen as a proper download, and if needs be as a podcast. Brilliant.
2 comments:
Must check this out...
Radio 4's streaming podcasts have been a frustration to me.
Recently, in their 'archives' series, there was an excellent doco on the history of the British wine trade and I had to stay at work several evenings in a row to listen to the whole thing (my internet connection at home is complete rubbish.)
Gents
I've been downloading from the BBC Radio player for a few years now - even the streaming service.
On a Windows machine, I use the Firefox FlashGet plugin to get the ram stream behind the .ra streaming link. Once downloaded, you can there use any media transcoder, eg SUPER, to convert to MP3.
On a Mac, I shelled out for WiretapPro. This integrates to iCal and allows you to shedule downloads when they occur. WireTapPro kicks in, records in MP3.
Voila. I daresay the Windows technique would also work in OSX. It is handy that the Beeb have set up lots more podcasts, but the copyright restrictions mean that annonyingly any music content is usually removed. The streamed services are not altered in this way.
Also, the great comedy streams are not available as podcasts - so pulling down the streams is the only way to get them.
Cheers - DC
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