I've already asked this question on radio but I'm not sure how many people look on that forum so I'm putting it on here too... can anyone tell me why none of the radio plays, books at bedtime etc. are available for download? I can listen to them if I've got time to sit at the computer and do it but I nothing like that is available for podcasting... is there another solution? Someone suggested wiretap but I don't really understand it... help?

I've already asked this question on radio but I'm not sure how many people look on that forum so I'm putting it on here too...

Please don't do that. Thanks. ;)



Can anyone tell me why none of the radio plays, books at bedtime etc. are available for download? I can listen to them if I've got time to sit at the computer and do it but I nothing like that is available for podcasting... is there another solution? Someone suggested wiretap but I don't really understand it... help?

Yes, there are multiple ways to do it.

First off, you need to read whatever legal documents pertain to the audio in question and make sure you're "allowed" to do what you want to do.
You didn't mention the site you wanted to download from, so I'm going to assume you've already checked this out. ;)

One way is to simply have a program "record" whatever the soundcard is currently playing, but that's difficult and inefficient.

The better way is something like this:
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

I know that works for shoutcast radio streams, but I'm not sure about others.



If streamripper doesn't work for you, you can always go this route:
http://grimthing.com/archives/2004/05/20/recording-streaming-audio-with-mplayer/
That page is unix-oriented, but it should be pretty easy to adapt to any OS where mplayer runs as the method is the same.

You'll need the correct version of mplayer for your operating system.
http://mplayerhq.hu

I know mplayer is supposed to be "hard" but it makes things like this easy because a lot of thought was put into its design.