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General discussion

Scheduled FM radio recordings?

May 31, 2009 11:34AM PDT

Do you know of any reasonably recent model mp3 player with the capability of scheduling to record more than one FM radio weekly programs and saving them for later listening?

Thank you.

Discussion is locked

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Use your current mp3 player.
May 31, 2009 12:05PM PDT
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Thanks, but that records radio on a PC.
May 31, 2009 12:15PM PDT

Thanks for the tip but I'm looking for an mp3 player that records radio on a weekly schedule, not a way to record radio on a PC.

I have Radio Shark by the way.

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From memory there ware the Pogo.
May 31, 2009 12:19PM PDT

But no one every showed interest at the 500+ buck price tag. Eventually I found everyone gravitated to the sub 50 buck shark solution.

I doubt the Pogo is to found any more.
Bob

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durn spillcheck.
May 31, 2009 12:19PM PDT

I meant "there was the Pogo."

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With so much interest for Tivo for video...
May 31, 2009 12:41PM PDT

... it would not be unreasonable to expect mp3 players could do the same for radio shows.

It's trivial to add this functionality to mp3 players but I have no idea why none of them do this. The closest I've seen is a player that combined an alarm function with FM recording to record only one show. It did not have a recording schedule capability.

Maybe the ipod touch can do this with the add-on for radio and an app that records radio shows. I'll look into it.

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I can imagine some would feel that way but consider.
May 31, 2009 9:50PM PDT

Many shows have mp3 downloads which obliterate the market for such a recorder.

Yes there are 2 people I've found looking for such a thing but will they pay for it? (that is, some thousand bucks?)

Bob

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How about this option?
Jun 1, 2009 7:23AM PDT

I record radio shows to my Mac, then I transfer them into iTunes then into my iPod. Regardless of the mp3 player, could you do this too? For software, I use either iTunes or I use Audio HiJack or WireTap Pro, which records any streaming audio. It saves in mp3, but I still place the file into iTunes so my iPod will accept if for later listening. If your radio show shows up as a Podcast, then you can program iTunes to download it automatically when it's available. I do this with Car Talk and Face the Nation.

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I can do this...
Jun 1, 2009 2:50PM PDT

... with the radio shark gizmo but I'm looking for an mp3 player that does this so I can take the PC out of the process altogether.

Recording FM radio on mp3 players would be trivial and very inexpensive and much more practical and effective than having to be chained to a PC and having to do all types of transfers and downloads to the player.

Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.

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I'm going with "no."
Jun 1, 2009 10:50PM PDT

Here's why. The market space (the number of people who would buy this) is not very high. Yes, there is no reason such a device can't be made.

As an example look at The Slacker. That device is almost what you want (I said ALMOST) and would do that if they allowed you to schedule your shows. However there are legal issues about recording and you may or may not know how Creative Lab units would mysteriously lose FM recording with firmware updates. NO MYSTERY TO ME!

Those that disregard the legal issues will write "why can't this be done?" at long posts and they are right.

Let's sum it up:
- Market space.
- Legal.
- The money.
Bob