February 14, 2002

Hurray NPR!

Hurray NPR! I'm finally able to listen to the daily NPR programs that I often don't get to hear, like Morning Edition and All Things Considered - and the folks at NPR have made available via realaudio stream the shows right after they've finished their US broadcast. In other words, I can listen to today's Morning Edition at 9:00AM PST, right after it finishes playing on KQED, my local radio station. And through the magic of a linux box connected to my stereo and a great little program called trplayer, I can listen to realaudio streams without having to put up with those annoying take-over of your computer pop-ups that the current Real client imposes on people. And, since it is playing over my stereo, it sounds just like the real thing - I can't notice a difference. Now all I have to do is create a little cron script to auto play my favorite NPR programs on demand, and attach it to my MP3 web server. Thankfully, the NPR folks have created a logical URL system that I can put into a script. One more step towards having a RiVo - a TiVo-like device for Radio. I was wondering how I would do this with such a limited number of radio stations out there, but now I know - I can do it by recording streaming media onto a hard disk so that you can take it with you wherever you go and listen, just like an MP3 player. Imagine... Posted by dsifry at February 14, 2002 9:36 AM | View blog reactions
Comments

I have long wished for a "RiVo" too, and there's actually a company out there that makes the guts for just such a device, and I have seen their technology in depth a while back. Check 'em out at http://www.portalplayer.com/

It would be great is someone would take their parts and turn it into a car radio, portable radio, and a stereo cabinet device.

Hmmm...maybe iPod could get a radio tuner and...

--Brian

Posted by: Brian Yoder at March 19, 2003 4:52 PM