Says Me?

October 6, 2007 12:20 PM

Where can I find old episodes of the radio program Says You?

I've checked the website and had some correspondence with people the people who make the show. They sell old programs through Audible, but they are DRMed and thus can't be played on my plain old MP3 player. Does anyone know of an alternative repository of old shows?

posted by iconjack to media & arts (4 comments total)

Audible is the only place I've been able to find them.

(without getting into a whole discussion/debate on DRM, you can download MP3 format files from Audible to use on non-ipod players)
posted by schnee at 1:19 PM on October 6, 2007

Sorry. That came out cranky.

Downloading the MP3 version of things on the site seems to work on the non-branded cheap MP3 player I got for free. It's also played on players not listed as being compatible.
posted by schnee at 1:24 PM on October 6, 2007

I have to say, as a former public radio and still a producer of national programming that I recommend that you take the honest route and go through Audible for these shows. Says You is an independently produced program on public radio, which means it receives no funding from National Public Radio to do its job and probably relies on a small mailing list and grants to continue its day-to-day operations. Says You has just three employees according to its website. That's lucky. I did a weekly public radio show with national syndication and we had a host, a producer (me), and an unpaid intern. Its panelists likely do not receive any compensation beyond recognition and its producer probably make what is average for public radio producers in Boston rather than the national average. That means that people who are looking for a free source are not doing them a favor. If you do find a free source, I really recommend that you reach out the to the producers of Says You with generous monthly or annual pledge of support. So many people listen to great public radio and do not realize the costs involved and the great personal and professional costs that are associated with the love of doing great radio. On average a weekly show costs $5,500 to produce. That includes overhead, studio time, ISDN bookings for out of town guests, production editing and sending the completed show to the satellite for distribution. How would you like it if you created a product costing around $270,000 a year and someone asked if they could get the archives for nothing?
posted by parmanparman at 2:10 PM on October 6, 2007

I love public radio and I support it both with my money and time (answering the phones). I don't mind paying something in addition to that for specific episodes of specific shows. I signed up for Audible and bought some programs from them. After I bought them, I discovered that you have to download their software (aaargh) to hear the audio files or copy them to a DRM-capable device. I really hate DRM and I don't have a DRM device. I contacted the show and they told me they are trying hard to get out of their contract with Audible. They didn't elaborate as to why, but I can guess.

Schnee, if you wouldn't mind telling me how I can pay Audible and download MP3 files, that would be great.
posted by iconjack at 6:57 PM on October 6, 2007