Getting Your News as MP3s?

GreenKiwi asks: "I've been really interested in finding a news source that has MP3s of their brodcasts. I have an iPod and download the news in text form most mornings to it so that I can find out what's going on. However, I would love to download (preferably automatically) news in the form of an MP3 that I could download to my iPod in the morning so that I could listen to the news on my way to work. The BBC has Real Audio output, but no MP3s that I can find. NPR has them for Real and WMP. I guess I could download and then convert the files. If that's possible. I'd love to hear whether anyone is doing this and how."

Comments

DIY :)

[joebp]

lynx -dump ${URL} | ${YOUR_FAVOURITE_TEXT_TO_SPEECH_PROGRAM} | ${YOUR FAVOURITE_MP3_ENCODER} > outfile.mp3

You'll probably need to tweak the voice the TTS program produces to avoid involuntarily wetting yourself laughing when it makes hilarious speak-o's.

Also, you'll need to find a decent news site with few extraneous words and crap.

Re:DIY :)

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Hey this isn't a bad idea! Wish I would have thought about that! Although I have a PDA for Avantgo and I ride a bus so I have time to read, but I can see how this would be a cool idea! Only problem....does the lynx dump dump html too? You'd probably have to parse the tags and javascript out as most all news sites use this stuff.

bFM

[Stillman]

Hard News, broadcast by bFM in Auckland, New Zealand. Russell Brown is very love/hate, but it's quite an intellectual take on current events.

Re:bFM

[barnaclebarnes]

I vote for love him. One of the best news jounalists in NZ. Hard News is one of the few things that keeps me informed about NZ politics while living abroad. I don't always agree with him but he does give time to anyone who is willing to put up a compelling augument, even if it isn't exactly what he thinks.

Americans would do well to listen to him as well. He gives a good take on what the rest of the world may think about George and co.

Whoops - wrong link...

[Stillman]

Damn these domain name tussles...

It's now at http://www.95bfm.co.bz.

Listening to tractors as mp3s probably isn't very enlightening! :)

textmode realplayer for unix

[nesthigh]

Since Real Audio is (apparently) the most common format

The Text-Mode RealMedia Player (TRPlayer) is a RealMedia player for Unix which has a command-line interface. It can play RealAudio, RealVideo, MP3, and all other media types supported by RealPlayer under Unix. TRPlayer was designed especially for blind Unix users, who don't yet have access to the graphical user interface. However, it is also useful to others; it is a good tool for background audio playback and for use on low-end hardware, such as Intel 486-based PC's.

Simply pipe this thru your favorite mp3/ogg encoder. You may need to use a cheap x86 Linux box, as OS X isn't supported by Real (yet).

next

Try listening to your local radio station

[duffbeer703]

Most AM stations have news every half hour.

Re:Try listening to your local radio station

[bje2]

well, the author didn't specify, where he works, or how he commutes, which is a problem when answering this question...obviously your answer is easy, if a radio is readily available...i'm going to assume that the author must not drive to work, because if he did, he could just listen to the news on his radio as you stated, and not bother asking this question...however, i'm guessing he probably lives or works in a major city, where he takes a subway, etc, making a radio/walkman useless (if he's going to the trouble to ask this)...if this *is* actually the case, then the author does need an alternative to the radio...of course, he could just throw a casette tape in his stereo while he's showering/getting ready for work/eating breakfast in the morning...tape a half hour or hour of the news...and then listen to it with a walkman on the way to work...i dunno, it's just hard to answer without having all the pertinent information....

Streambox

[Kris_J]

Streambox VCR can save any realaudio stream to a file. Streambox Ripper can convert any realaudio file into an MP3. Unfortunately Streambox VCR was sued into oblivion by Real. (At least as far as they know.)

old school: why waste memory?

[kris_lang]

This may seem out of style, but why waste energy converting text to MP3 speech if you can have a system that will read it. I honestly used to have the text news read to me by my PowerBook G3 (Wallstreet) from a simpletext file. I'd download a mass of text files in the a.m., saved as plain text, trimmed of everything above the lede and after the copyright, and la voila , plain text ready to be read by my powerbook.

That is what Apple ought to add to the next redo of the iPod: a text to speech reader to read your ebooks or news or email for you. And just consider that instead of wasting 1 MB per minute of MP3 audio news reading, you could have less than 32k of plain text for 5 to 10 minutes of news reading. That would be a kicker.

I first did the Powerbook "read me my news" trick in January of 1999, when it was only a month old for me. I learned quickly to put all of the stories I wanted in either one big text file or in multiple cascaded text files so that I wouldn't have to use the touchpad. Just hitting the Apple-A to select all the text and Apple-H to have it "speak the selection".

Re:maybe not

[diesel_jackass]

hmmm... Apple has legacy support for those of us who still use older technologies?
hahahaha, NOT!
you must be thinking of some other company (like EVERY other company).

Audible.com does this

[lkk17]

Have you looked at audible.com? They offer downloadable audio books, magazines, and newspapers. You can burn CD's of the downloaded audio. As of a couple weeks ago, they support iPod on Mac (with firmware 1.2), as well as several portable players for Windows.

Unfortunately, they don't support Linux (only Windows and Mac). Their files are not straight mp3's, they are something proprietary with copy protection.

Check it out, this may be what you are looking for!

Re:Audible.com does this

[dhovis]

Mod parent up.

I'm a little disappointed that Audible.com doesn't carry Morning Edition, only ATC. They are equally good programs at different times of the day.

The original asker should probably look at the New York Times Audio Digest which they promise to have available by 6:00 AM EST Monday-Friday. At $13/month or $70/year it is not a bad deal. Heck, for $15/month you can get one audiobook each month plus the NYT audio.

As a bonus, it is probably possible to write an AppleScript to download it to iTunes every day. Plus, if you are a Mac user, they have a special deal going on right now if you sign up for the $15/month service.

Re:Audible.com does this

[adolf]

AppleScript? What is this?

I've got some shell script which handily and reliably spits out VBR-encoded MP3 episodes of whatever NPR time slots I elect to record.

The hardest part was setting up the parameters for LAME to both not sound horrible, consume up little space, and take advantage of the fact that FM radio is already mid-side stereo encoded.

It was free, too. Though it did take a $20 sound card and an old Kenwood tuner to make it work, the expense of hardware is quickly overshadowed by the lack of a monthly bill and the ability to archive things easily and automatically.

I have -years- of Car Talk on CD-R, for instance.

How far back does audible.com's archive go?

I do something like this

[Jerky McNaughty]

I have a crontab entry which just records what I want to hear each day. It uses rawrec, sox, and bladeenc to do the job.

Here is an example crontab entry:

0 18 * * 1-5 FILENAME=foo-`date +\%Y\%m\%d`_1 ; cd /archive/radio && /usr/local/bin/rawrec -c 1 -s 32000 -f u8 -t 3600 | sox -b -r 32000 -u -t raw -c 1 - -t wav - 2>/dev/null | /usr/local/bin/bladeenc -128 -quiet STDIN $FILENAME.mp3

Yes, that's a bit of a convoluted command line, but it does the job. I'm sure there's a better way of doing it, but the above has worked for me for quite a while. All you'd have to do is download it to your iPod.

Also, a lot of radio stations and programs have pre-determined times when they cut to commercials. If you're adventurous, you could have those automatically cut out. I've looked into doing it, but never got around to it.

For real to mp3

[ManDude]

Follow this link. (I am way too lazy to do anything else but link today)

Air Force Radio News

[pmsyyz]

http://www.af.mil/news/radio/latest.mp3
updated five days a week.
Perhaps not the general news that submitter is looking for, but it is news in mp3. I would certainly prefer Ogg Vorbis though.

WAMU.ORG...

[jea6]

WAMU, one of DC's "public radio" stations streams in MP3 format. http://www.wamu.org

kcrw.org

[crisco]

I've just discovered KCRW, the NPR affiliate in Los Angeles. They provide a MP3 simulcast stream which includes the NPR news broadcasts. Even better, it is at 128 kbps, to my ears much more listenable than a lower bit rate Real stream.

Unfortunately, they don't archive these shows so you'd have to use something appropriate to save the stream.

A further consideration is the timezone. If you're on the west coast you might be better off ripping an east coast stream overnight, that way your entire morning news program is ready to upload by 6 am, some scheduled recordings could grab the hourly news bites to keep you on top of late breaking events.

Preview is my friend

[crisco]

although the button is difficult to hit before the coffee hits my bloodstream...

Thats KCRW....

I've had better luck . . .

[acceleriter]

. . . getting my MP3s as news.

Re:I agree with this post.

[gaudior]

Wheelchair ramps are easy on the knees

This is true, but ramps and especially, curb cuts are often an annoyance and even dangerous to the blind. If you do not use a helper dog, and most blind people do not have one, your only recourse is the cane, and curb cuts are very difficult to detect. Chirping croswalks are fine, where they exist, but many intersections, even in fairly busy areas do not have signals.

Command line overload.

[willis]

For the sake of example, your crontab is pretty illustrative. If I were you, though, I'd stick that thing in a shell script, and call it from the cron entry -- a lot easier to test, debug, and maintain.

Storing streaming audio as mp3

[randylea]

I use a program called Total Recorder, available at http://www.highcriteria.com/ for $11.95 (US). It records the output of Real player, M$ Media Player, or even Winamp digitally, and allows you to save the file as wav or mp3 (using Lame or Blade mp3 libraries). Even includes a timer, so you can leave the audio player running all day, with set start and stop times. Best $12 I've ever spent on software.

DemocracyNow.org - mp3 broadcast

[Sean Clifford]

Every day by around 2PM Eastern (US), DemocracyNow.Org - a progressive news show - posts their hour-long broadcast in mp3 format and keeps several days of shows. WebActive.com - a venture funded in part by Real.com - has a lot of progressive shows but they're all in Real format. Check out these progressive news sources; you'll be suprised to hear "the other side" of the story and a well balanced news broadcast unlike the goverment warhawk mouthpiece drivel you hear on Fox News and CNN.

audible.com

[doublem]

Audible.com has their own format for audio, but you can burn the Daily New York Times or Washington Post to CD, and Windows users can burn the audio to CD. Goldwave can convert the Audible.com files to WAV, MP3 or other formats. Trying the site and content is free.

I'm a customer, not an employee.

Windows only though. :(