Automated Downloading of News MP3 Files

KJ6EO · October 14, 2019, 04:04:03 AM

Hello, and thanks for reading my post. I'd like to add some 5 minute Newscasts to my Station. I'd like to know the best way to accomplish this. Would I use Event Manager to call up a stand alone Download Manager program to accomplish this? I'd like to completely automate the process if possible. Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments.

Chip Douglas Mosley · October 14, 2019, 04:43:56 AM

Following this thread...so readers know that there is more than one person interested in the answer.

I'm currently using Feature News Service with Internet Download Manager but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it on a pre-scheduled basis. I have to download each newscast before it goes on the air delayed.

KJ6EO · October 14, 2019, 05:46:32 AM

Hi Chip - I see you're an LP like me. I'm KZNQ-LP here in Santa Clarita, CA. We cover the entire Santa Clarita Valley on 101.5 FM (Over 200K population). You can listen to us by visiting our Website (https://qcountryscv.com). There's an embedded player on the main page. Were also running the RDJ PHP Request Script that our Listeners really like. We've received emails on a regular basis requesting News. Our Listeners don't want to tune off to find out what's going on News wise. I like the VOA News:

https://www.voanews.com/episode/voa-newscasts-4044801

World News, well done, 5 Minutes and that's it.

Right now I have to manually download it. And that is really a pain in the neck.

Regards,

Bill - KJ6EO

Calypso · October 14, 2019, 08:24:36 AM

So you definitely want to download it? Because with the functionality in RDJ you can also stream it if you want (setup a radiostream to play and enter the URL).

If you want to download it, I'd go for a commandline solution like cURL - you can either do that from within RDJ or set it up as a scheduled task in Windows. Both has its pros and cons.

704djs · October 15, 2019, 03:29:02 AM

try set the link for podcast and it will play without Download it

KJ6EO · October 15, 2019, 05:34:05 AM

Here is the URL of the file:

https://www.voanews.com/episode/voa-newscasts-4045766

But it doesn't play unless the "Play Button" is pressed on the page. It doesn't auto play.

Chip Douglas Mosley · October 15, 2019, 05:35:38 AM

I'd like to download so I can place it into programming at variable times so it will fit into the flow of music. I want to "record" the news at :25 past the hour so I can insert it when the :35 break comes up in the programming, which could actually happen anytime between :33 and :39, depending on how long the song runs at the bottom of the hour. My scheduled breaks are at :05 and :35. The :35 break contains the news, Live365 stop set and weather before I return to music.

ignitenz · October 15, 2019, 07:37:25 AM

Quote from: KJ6EO on October 15, 2019, 05:34:05 AM

https://www.voanews.com/episode/voa-newscasts-4045766

You are aware this is the link to a singular bulletin? Meaning if you download from this link all you'll get is the same bulletin, hour after hour.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your intent, I'm sure this is not what you want.

There is a public stream which has in the past been updated every hour, but lately VOA have been playing a few games which has left us without news for a few weeks now.

They seem to record at different bitrates every other hour, and they name the files accordingly. So, you are left upto 6 hours before an update comes through. I think they're trying to stop broadcasters accessing the feed without permission. Sadly for those of us who have permission, the official way of accessing the hourly feed doesn't play nice (at all) using an automated RDJ.

You'll have better luck with FSN in this regard, but unless you have a spare US15 per month...

plauri · October 15, 2019, 08:58:25 AM

Absolutely agree with what ignitenz says

To get VOA legal access you need a written permission.

Chip Douglas Mosley · October 15, 2019, 03:21:25 PM

$15 a month is worth it to get regular news updates. It makes your station sound much better. Does anyone know if there is a video posting somewhere on how to set up Internet Download Manager for timed downloads?

TIA!

ignitenz · October 15, 2019, 08:40:41 PM

Quote from: Chip Douglas Mosley on October 15, 2019, 03:21:25 PM
$15 a month is worth it to get regular news updates. It makes your station sound much better. Does anyone know if there is a video posting somewhere on how to set up Internet Download Manager for timed downloads?

TIA!

The problem with IDM is that it merely checks the file, it doesn't re-download the same file regardless. This seems to be true of later versions of IDM as it used to re-download the file regardless, but doesn't seem to now.

Up until VOA started playing games, I was using a dutch produced software called (I think) RTV Download which is without the bells and whistles of IDM, but forced a re-download of the news bulletin at the times we needed it. The only catch with RTV Download is that it's GUI is all Dutch, but this is where I let the Google Translate app on my phone do it's thing.

FSN to me sounds weird in that they have English voices announcing what is a primarily American news service. It's also pretty biased politically speaking too.

What would work for us is a truly International, non-partisan news service that just gives the facts, not the opinion of who ever is reading the news. VOA was the closest out of the two aforementioned in my view. There is Radio NewsHub in the UK, but I haven't had time (or the finances) to seriously consider them at this point in time.

Maybe, one of the bigger operators here, who have the personnel resources could produce a regular, inexpensive hourly bulletin for those of us who would wish to subscribe?

KJ6EO · October 16, 2019, 07:00:57 AM

Thank you for your comments! Here in the US, most Commercial Radio Stations don't pay anything for Network News ... they barter for it. But being a Non Commercial Station, I have nothing to barter with because I can't air Commercials. Regarding VOA, no I don't try to download the same file. To the right of the player are the updated files, click on one of those and that file is loaded into the player where it can be downloaded. In the near future I'm going to be talking to our local Newspaper to see if they can supply me with some local news copy. That would resolve the Local News problem, but still the problem of National or International News remains. Unfortunately, the majority of the reasonably priced News that is available is Politically or Religiously biased. I'd rather remain "Newsless" than to air that stuff.

chrismadog · October 19, 2019, 01:50:12 PM

Try PtrobatchFTP to schedule downloads via FTP.

You may have to pay the registration for it to continue working past the eavluation period.
I've used this for several years now without any problems.

Regards,
Chris

davo1059 · May 10, 2020, 08:22:45 AM

Does anyone have any Australian News url's

Paul E · May 19, 2020, 11:52:35 AM

i'm a new user of radiodj and did the following test -

I got ahold of the Sky News (2 minutes hourly) at https://video.news.sky.com/snr/news/snrnews.mp3

I created a new Internet Stream using that URL

Using the event manager I get it to load and then play this track at 5 past the hour repeated throughout the day

It worked