Black Boxes:
Applian Technologies Replay Radio
$30
Applian Technologies, Inc.
13 Jordan Ave.
San Anselmo, CA 94960
www.replay-radio.com
Replay Radio by Applian Technologies is software that bills itself as "a TiVo for Internet Radio," and that's exactly what it does. With streaming radio stations growing in popularity and more people using the medium as a way to get their favorite radio stations and programs on demand, Replay Radio offers a simple and powerful way to manage online radio content. And don't think you have to be tied to your computer to enjoy it. One of the most useful applications of Replay Radio is recording your favorite radio programs and burning them to CD or taking them along on your portable MP3 player.
Content is King
The selection of content, along with the actual time-shifting technology, is what makes Replay Radio unique. After you download and install the program, you have the option to select from over 750 various radio shows and over 1,100 different radio stations. The folks at Replay Radio frequently update the list of shows and stations and updating your lists is an easy one-button selection. From standards such as the BBC, Bloomberg or NPR to the rare and eclectic such as "Anime in the Limelight" from Honolulu or "Flying Funk" from, well, Funkytown (probably), Replay Radio offers an impressive catalog of programs and stations you are unlikely to find at a single place anywhere else, including audio reads of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and magazines.
Alas, even with hundreds of selections available for legal download and recording, not everything is available. A couple of favorites that I never get a chance to hear locally, such as the Grateful Dead Hour or KPIG radio, aren't available. Fortunately, Radio Paradise (my very favorite), streams through in its full 128 Kbps glory, and finding other gems from around the globe has greatly expanded my Internet radio horizons.
Easy to Use
Once you have downloaded and installed the application the way it works is this: browse the selection of programs and stations and decide what you want to hear. Select it for recording and you'll find it displayed in your recording list. A dialog box asks that you check the station's URL, as some stations require a one time registration and set-up. Once you've completed that step, just leave your computer connected to the Internet with the application running and when you return, violà, your program will have been recorded and the file stored in the place you designate during set-up. Selecting a station to record is the same. Decide what time you want to record (like during Australian prime time, which is our middle of the night) and Replay Radio streams, records and stores the station during that timeframe.
For streaming radio aficionados who tend to listen to radio programs and stations while sitting at their computers, Replay Radio also functions as an excellent Internet radio tuner, allowing you to select and play from the program and station lists in real time, which you can choose to record or not.
Once you have your recording stored you are ready to transfer it to your portable media of choice: either a CD or a portable player. You can configure the output file formats from Replay Radio to various levels of audio quality, depending on what you like. If you burn CDs, you can configure Replay Radio to automatically burn your disc for you. If you use an iPod, you can download automatically to your player.
All About the Bitrate
Not everything you record will be worth burning, however. Since Replay Radio records at the original streaming bit rate, some of the programs out there are of pretty poor audio quality. My NPR streamed at 22kbps, for example. As someone who regularly listens to 48kbps and higher Internet radio streams, the lower bit rate has a strong compression echo and is more distracting to listen to than enjoyable. For talk programming, this isn't as much of an issue. For music, though, you need something that's at least passable. Fortunately, many of the programs stream at rates of 30kbps or higher.
One of the necessary quirks of the application is you need to have the most recent versions of RealPlayer and Windows Media Player (at least version 9) installed for the application to work correctly. It's not a big deal to have both of these installed on your computer, but you'll need to deal with setting your favorite one as the default player for all your other stuff.
Media Management Tool
This raises the other issue of having an Internet radio recorder: content management. With so many selections to choose from, and then the need to store, catalog and burn or transfer for it to be portable, you've got to have a real desire to spend time managing your Internet radio media for Replay Radio to make the most sense. But this application is designed for just that purpose and for a low price, it works as promised and brings the full power of streaming radio to bear.
Jim Mikles is a freelance technology writer and a digital culture enthusiast.
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