A radio that can record programmes (like sky+)?

[Mammonite]

In the old days you could record a programme from the radio onto a cassette tape (in our family, normally the top 40) and play it later.

Now nearly all the radio programmes I like listening to, clash with work or bedtime or something like that. I would really like to be able to set them to record so I could listen later on or at the weekend.

I don't really want to listen to them on my PC on listen again (which appears and disappears), or download a podcast of only a quarter of the programme, I just want to listen on my DAB radio or something similar, to the whole programme, at a convenient time.

All I can find is a Pure radio with a "Listen later" feature for 45 minutes of programming, which it laughably advertises as being suitable for Woman's Hour! I'm not convinced an internet radio is the answer but different models seem to have different features.

I can't see why, when you can easily record infinite amounts of TV on Sky+ type of things, have limitless audio on an MP3 player the size of a matchbox, but can't just record a few radio programmes without messing about with PCs and podcasts. Why is there technology for TV but not radio?

Is there something out there I'm missing? I would love to have this mystery gadget on my Christmas list? Has anybody discovered a Better Way?

[NetworkGuy]

Yes, at first glance radio is hardly provided on an equal footing alongside TV, but have you tried checking whether the Sky+ box will handle recording of radio?


Think that radio has been playing "second fiddle" for years. It was hardly mentioned as an option when Sky brought out their digital boxes (I had the BSB 'squariel' satellite system over 20 years ago before Sky bought them out, then had a Pace receiver with an 80cm dish from about 18 years ago). Back then, the BBC radio services and later WRN (wrn.org) services were mostly 'experimental'.

Nowadays, the websites do at least give more prominence to there being radio as well as TV channels (perhaps to add to the 'numbers' game, even if 80% of the TV channels would be ones you or I might never watch, they're in the 'numbers' as if it makes them all worth having!)

While helping my sister with her Freeview boxes for her holiday home, I saw that some boxes now show only the TV channels or the radio channels. I don't think that has been the case with Sky or FreeSat boxes.

There's a Freeview recorder for about 80 quid in Tesco (Dion is the make, I think) which again handles radio and TV separately, but if you have an old aerial cable and a TV is may do what you want, if Sky doesn't off this.

Of course it may not be the most convenient state where the box is not portable like a small DAB radio, and needs the TV to set recordings up.

I record off a DAB radio for 20+ hours a day and archive each month, but that's with a PC on all the time, to record the audio and make MP3s in listenable 'chunks', which isn't the sort of thing you want, really :)

[nannynick]

Pure Digital The Bug / Bug Too
It's been discontinued. You will find reviews online dating from 2005/2006.
Second hand units may come up on ebay/gumtree
It had 9 timers, and saves to an SD card (not included) in MP3 format.

I wonder why it was discontinued. Maybe people didn't like the design. Maybe it didn't sell well. Shows though that Pure did try a radio with record feature, so maybe they will try again with something not so strange looking.

[mranchovy]

There are radios that can record (usually to SD card) like this, this or this although they are not cheap. The technolgy certainly exists in a cheap package but I believe that broadcast copyright (probably mainly in the US) is the reason that cheap MP3 players which can record from a microphone and have an (FM) radio are not able to record directly from the radio.

You can record with Sky+, but you have to use your television to set it up and play back.

[mranchovy]

Lets try the broken links again:
this and cheap technology.

[ASuitableGirl]

I know my mum has recorded the Archers through the television. There are also (very annoying) adverts about digital television on the radio going on about recording radio but they are so annoying (they deliberately start and stop) that I turn the radio off or change channel if they are on so haven't heard the point of it!

[NetworkGuy]

I meant to mention there are some Freeview recorders which are built around a SCART plug, and use (your) USB memory stick to record programmes. It would still need a TV and aerial but at 20 quid or so (on Ebay) might be worth a go.

If the format of the recording can be 'decoded' for playing on a PC, it would perhaps meet your needs (though again is not as attractive as a device which can be set to record).

I have none of the DAB/FM MP3 players that include a record off radio facility, but looking at some players, which include a record facility, it seems to me there are likely to be 'record from microphone' and perhaps 'record live' (off the radio) but not exactly what you want - record station XYZ from 15:00 to 16:00.

The 'record live' is what I describe for the player needing the use to decide 'I want to record this' and selecting a record option at the time they are listening.

I'd be interested to know if any spec for any of these more versatile MP3 players actually has a 'timed' record feature.

[NetworkGuy]

Off to hunt around DigitalSpy to see if there's someone with a sub-100 pound unit that is designed to record future programmes off radio.

[NetworkGuy]

I did go to the SanDisk site to try to chat live but their opening hours (being based in California) are 4pm to 3am UK time...

[Mammonite]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I will have a look through the options. I think the Pure Evoke was what I was looking for.

We don't have Sky or Freeview+ in this house at the moment. But I do have the Sansa clip - I'm not sure whether it's the same one but I quite often plug that into my Pure Mini DAB radio to listen to audio books.

I feel like the only person in the world who wants to listen to spoken audio / radio rather than music.

[NetworkGuy]

Certainly not the only one... I download the NPR show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" (a news quiz) to listen to when walking to the shops...