I’ve found a site with hundreds of old radio programs, downloadable for free. No license required.
All of the files are in Realplayer format (.ram). I would love to be able to burn some of these to a CD, so that my parents can play them while driving in the car. The easiest way seems to be to convert them to .MP3 files and then burn them. I can find software to do this, but I’m rather leery of downloading and running random software.
Does anyone have experience doing this, and software that they like?
There’s a nice piece of software called TotalRecorder that basically lets you make an mp3 of the sound coming from whatever applications you’re using. This lets you hit “record” on TotalRecorder and then hit “play” on Some Other Program (e.g. RealPlayer) and out comes an mp3. Handy thing. Also, I love the fact that I bought it several years ago for something like 20 bucks and each time they come out with an upgrade, they send me a new registration key so I can get the upgrade for free. They seem like a good company.
Double-check that whatever software you’re using will actually convert .ram files to .mp3s. I’ve tried to do this with Adobe Audition (because you’d think a $300 program should do this), but it didn’t work and I had to scrap the project. Since RealAudio format is proprietary, Real Networks does everything they can to protect their files.