Calling all UK radio listeners

January 30, 2014 7:41 AM

Is there some predictable way to find out several weeks ahead of time when Radio 4's News Quiz is scheduled?

I subscribe to the BBC's Friday Night Comedy podcast, which is mostly split between the News Quiz and the Now Show (the lukewarm Sanka to the News Quiz's double macchiato). But then sometime there will be an entirely different show for six weeks. And sometimes there will be nothing for weeks. IOS7 has become rather capricious when it comes to downloading podcasts, so lately I'm never quite sure if I'm missing episodes or not. (Did they not actually do a Christmas /year-end special this year?) I'm a Yank, so I can't access Iplayer --- at least I don't think I can, on my phone for radio anyway, although if there's some way to fix that let me know.

Bonus question: anybody know if there's a way to access old episodes anywhere? I miss Linda Smith.

posted by Diablevert to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

You should be able to access the radio section of iplayer from the States! In general, though, tunnelbear solves all country-related ills.

I've not found a way to predict when News Quiz airs - hopefully someone will know, as I share your feelings about The Now Show. Does it have a Twitter feed? That might give you a short-term heads-up.
posted by kalimac at 8:03 AM on January 30, 2014

well, the audience booking for feb-april closed on the 26th of Jan, so I think that they'll be starting recording in the next few weeks. (based on previous experience as an audience member).
posted by halcyonday at 8:05 AM on January 30, 2014

I always play it directly from this page by clicking the download button, I don't subscribe to the podcast. This approach works fine in iOS 7.

I agree that the Now Show is no substitute. I hate how they over explain and telegraph all the jokes in the news section, although the show's stand-up comedy segments can be great.
posted by w0mbat at 8:44 AM on January 30, 2014

I subscribe to the RSS feed instead of subscribing directly to the podcast in iTunes. When an episode I want to hear comes up in the feed, I download it from my feed reader which is set to add attachments automatically to an iTunes playlist.

I do the same for Wait Wait Don't Tell Me here in the states, since I only like to grab the mp3 if I've missed the show on the radio or if one of the guests was particularly good.

Not a perfect solution by any means but at least I feel like it gives me some measure of control. But then again I still sync my podcasts via USB cable like it's the mid-oughties which I guess makes me a luddite in this regard.
posted by bcwinters at 8:45 AM on January 30, 2014

The British Comedy Guide says it's returning on 14th Feb.

Edit: Radio 4 iplayer streams are available globally, AFAIK.

Edit 2: Typically, although the pattern's broken for series 82 and now series 83, NQ airs in Jun, Sep and Dec.
posted by Gyan at 8:48 AM on January 30, 2014

You should be able to stream archived BBC radio programs directly from Safari on IOS now. It used to be that if you tried to play the audio directly from a program page on IOS you would get a "missing plugin” message (Flash related), but nowadays audio seems to play fine on IOS directly from the BBC program specific page’s “listen now” link.

Radio has always been available on a PC/Mac via the iPlayer in the US, though until relatively recently IOS could only get the live stream (there were workarounds such as using FStream and the wma links to iPlayer content).
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 12:17 PM on January 30, 2014