American internet radio stations for Radio plays and documentaries

[mikegtar]

I've just bought dad a Pure Sensia 200D Connect with F1 Chargepak and 16GB Cruzer Fit USC stick for his 70th birthday next week. He's computer literate and has laptop and desktop computers and Wifi, so the technical side of things should be interesting for him.

As for the internet radio content, I've searched briefly using my PC and there seems to be thousands of channels and very few with content worth listening to (regardless of audio quality). Can anyone suggest any good American radio stations that dad could tune in to for listening to radio plays and documentaries ?

 

[chebby]

I don't know about the availbility of American radio drama. But if it doesn't absolutely have to be American, then check out BBC Radio 4 and 3 and 4 extra on iPlayer. Or just search 'Drama' in the iPlayer 'categories'...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/categories/drama

And 'factual' of course...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/categories/factual

 

[mikegtar]

Thanks Chebby, yes I've used the iPlayer but not for searching categories in that way so thanks for the pointer.

American stations would also be good to listen to because I think they could offer access to different cultural views whilst still speaking the same language. I've heard a few programs on the World Service and R4 which report on goings on over the pond and having seen some of the quality TV programs on the PBS channel on satellite television which made me think that there could be some American based radio stations which offer a similar quality of broadcast content. Unfortunately, a lot of the internet radio stations I've found so far seem to concetrate on religious nuttery rather than normal cultural things.

 

[chebby]

There is some USA radio drama here...

http://tunein.com/radio/Drama-g201/

 

[mikegtar]

Thanks, I'll check through them to find some good ones and then try to see if the Pure Sensia will "tune in" to them next week when dad opens his gift (I was tempted to open it and try it out but I resisted).

 

[Andrew Everard]

Try any of the US public radio stations carrying content from NPR – National Public Radio – or APM – American Public Media.

The likes of NHPR in New Hampshire and WGBH in Boston are a good start, and being East Coast the time difference is less than with the West Coast stations.

I'm a fairly regular listener to A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, This American Life and the like, either recorded from the streams using Radioshift or via podcasts.

The Monday morning drive into work wouldn't be the same without Car Talk...

 

[mikegtar]

Thanks for the tips Andrew. Just found the Car talk podcast on Pure's 'The Lounge' website. It's very funny, I think I'll be listening to this myself. WGBH brought us This Old House with Bob Vila / Steve & Norm on the TV channel which was a nice program in a pipe and slippers kind of way so I'll give the radio stations a try too.

 

[chebby]

Just tried Car Talk also. (iPhone + Airplay to Marantz*). Very funny. I'm going to subscribe to the podcasts.

*It automatically jumps to a QuickTime session with the AirPlay symbol.

 

[chebby]

Very funny. I'm going to subscribe to the podcasts.

Ok, maybe not.

99c for 15 minutes is a bit steep.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Ok, maybe not.

99c for 15 minutes is a bit steep.

It's a free weekly download.

 

[chebby]

Ok, maybe not.

99c for 15 minutes is a bit steep.

It's a free weekly download.

Thanks.

Now I can have something to listen to on Sunday mornings while she listens to The Archers omnibus.

UPDATE... yes it seems I must have gone to the wrong page originally. I clicked 'Listen to full show' on the 'Bernoulli This!' programme and it was only 3 bits lasting about 15 minutes. (So I assumed that was the usual programme length.)

Then I drilled down to 'podcast' on the 'Our show' dropdown menu and only found 99c podcasts (plus one free one).

 

[mikegtar]

Great success! Dad really liked his present and got the Radio connected, updated and working in no time at all. Sound is very good for it's size, although not on a par with my Bose or Pure Evoke 1XT (with extra speaker). But on the other hand it can do much more than they can. I would certainly recommend it as a gift to someone on a special occasion.

 

[mikegtar]

Have now set up the Sensia to play a slideshow of photos whilst listening to radio WYNC. Couldn't do THAT on the Grundig Yacht Boy !!