Listening to a Radio Show

[ma3zi1]

So there's this radio show in L.A. that I really like to listen to called 尖峰時刻 ("Rush Hour"). It's basically a topics show with a moderator, and in the second half of the show guests can call in. Here's a link to the description:

http://am1300.com/program/programdetail.aspx?id=3

「最具爭議性的政治焦點，最勁爆的新聞話題，邀請不同黨派立場的特別來賓，進行現場的主題辯論。節目當中並同時開放空中熱線，讓聽眾朋友參與辯論話題，發表個人的言論看法，加入脣槍舌劍的熱門話題。每星期一到星期五，每天下午六點到七點鐘播出，趙廣瑜主持。」

("The most controversial political topics, the hottest news stories, we invite guests from all parties and positions to engage in discussion and debate on these issues. We even have an on-air hot-line for our show through which we invite our listeners to join in, share their opinions, and engage in a war of words over the latest issues. Every weekday, from 6 to 7 pm, with your host 趙廣瑜")

Now, at that link, you are supposed to be able to click on and listen to a weeks worth of old shows, but it has never worked for me (on PC or Mac). So what I have been doing is recording the internet radio stream using the application Fstream.

The problem with recording the stream is that I have to remember to hit record at 6:00 pm when the show comes on, and then remember to stop recording at 7:00 pm.

Really I just want to download audio files from the links at the website above, but I can't figure out how to do it. Also, if I have the audio files, I can just put them on my iPod. So, anyone out there have any ideas?

[c_redman]

VLC works quite well for this, and works on Windows, Mac and Linux. It also has a command line option, which would make it easy to schedule a timed recording. On Windows, for example, you could set up a scheduled task, set to start at 6pm, canceling itself if it runs past 1 hour.

Straight to a file

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" mms://38.96.148.89/kazn --sout "#transcode{acodec=wma,ab=64,channels=1}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=asf,dst=C:\Temp\saved-audio.wma}}"

Straight to a file, but also play while recording:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" mms://38.96.148.89/kazn --sout "#transcode{acodec=wma,ab=64,channels=1}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,mux=asf,dst=C:\Temp\saved-audio.wma}}"

There are plenty of other option, such as changing the bitrate or channels, plus transcoding the saved file as mp3 or mp4, depending on what works best for your music player.

For regular use, though, setting up a script to kick off this command would be better, at least because it could generate unique filenames based on timestamps. I could whip up a vbscript or Linux shell script, but maybe this information is enough.

[ma3zi1]

Wow, that's great advice! Thank you so much!

I primarily use a Mac (Linux/Unix) system, and scripting is not much of a problem for me. I will definitely look further into that command line option for VLC.

[ma3zi1]

If anyone is interested, here is the applescript I wrote to handle this:

set the_app to "VLC"

--open the application
activate application the_app
tell application "System Events"
   tell process the_app
       --get into the Streaming/Transcoding Wizard
       delay 0.5
       keystroke "w" using {shift down, command down}
       delay 1
       click radio button "Transcode/Save to file" of radio group 1 of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click button "Next" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"

       --set up the recording stream
       delay 0.5
       set value of text field 1 of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard" to "mms://38.96.148.89/kazn"
       delay 0.5
       click button "Next" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"

       --enter settings for audio output
       delay 0.5
       click checkbox "Transcode audio" of group 2 of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click pop up button 1 of group 2 of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click menu item "Uncompressed, integer" of menu 1 of pop up button 1 of group 2 of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click button "Next" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click button "Next" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"

       --prepare a date stamp   
       set {year:y, month:m, day:d, time string:t} to (current date)
       set date_stamp to (y * 10000 + m * 100 + d) as string

       --select a file name
       delay 0.5
       click UI element "Choose..." of group 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       keystroke "Rush"
       keystroke "Hour"
       keystroke date_stamp
       delay 0.5
       click checkbox "Hide extension" of sheet 1 of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.2
       keystroke return

       --start recording
       delay 0.5
       click button "Next" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
       delay 0.5
       click button "Finish" of window "Streaming/Transcoding Wizard"
   end tell
end tell

--wait an hour to record the show
delay 3600

tell application the_app
   quit
end tell

Good luck to anyone else who wants to try it, it really is a good show ;)

Thanks again to c_redman!!