Problem: I want to be able to listen to the latest headlines when my alarm goes off in the morning. I usually get up at 6:40, when most stations are doing ads or human-interest stuff.
Idea: Build in a short (~10 minute) voice recorder to the clock radio. Then it could be programmed to record the first ten minutes of every hour. When the alarm goes off, you can get the headlines instead of useless banter. And you could push a button any time during the day and get what was broadcast at the top of that hour.
As an added function, you could program it to record a station when traffic and weather updates are broadcast (i.e., :25 and :55 past the hour). Then you could push a button at any time and get the most recent updates.
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Why stop there? There's great radio on public and student stations, and I want to listen to it on MY schedule, not the radio station's.
I want the full programmability of a VCR: enter programming mode, pick a radio station, specify the start and stop times, and it's recorded for your listening pleasure whenever you care to. Specify "every day" or "every week" as with a VCR, for recurring programs. While we're at it, have it deal with internet radio as well as broadcast radio: pick a URL, start and stop time, and the recurrence rule, and it appears on the device's hard-drive at the prescribed time.
Tivo goes one step further by providing search capabilities. Record all Katherine Hepburn movies, for example. For me, the equivalent on the radio might be record it whenever Al Franken is on, or Ralph Nader, or Garrison Keeler. Unfortunately, we don't have the infrastructure for this, the radio version of TV Guide for broadcast radio. That should be surmountable for internet radio, however.
Perhaps there could be an internet-based clearing house where broadcast stations could enter "Monty Python Marathon" (for example) and those subscribing would have their Rivo(tm) [Radio Tivo] programmed because the Rivo(tm) has directions to record all the Python it can. The www.rivocast.com website could make money be charging a fee to stations who grow listenership because of a Rivo(tm) link.
Hoyster's added functionality would be fine as the gold standard of alarm-clocks, but the simple 10 minute recording capability of the original idea would just work fine for me. This is a wonderful idea, and should be real inexpensive to implement!
In a slightly different application - i want the same feature so i can REWIND my radio for 1 or 2 or 5 or 10 minutes.
Sometimes you miss something and want to go back. I've got so used to rewinding TV with a TIVO-style device I also want the same for radio.
Great idea. and all existing technology.