Problems With NPR Podcasts

April 3, 2008 9:11 AM

Lately NPR podcasts such as Fresh Air, Wait, Wait..., and All Songs Considered have been acting wonky with multiple files of the same podcast, often incomplete, showing up in my podcatcher. I subscribe via Google Reader and dL files manually to my player, and have tried un- and then resubscribing to the feeds, but to no avail. Is it NPR's problem or an RSS issue on my end? I haven't been able to find any notices regarding service issues on the NPR sites.
posted by Alvy Ampersand to computers & internet (14 comments total)

I've had the same problem. I've been using iTunes. It seems to have gotten better since I've started checking less frequently. My theory is that the files are mid-upload when mine starts downloading.
posted by rbs at 9:23 AM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm having the same problem with This American Life. Sometimes I'll only get 10-15 minutes of the show.
posted by HotPatatta at 9:33 AM on April 3, 2008

I've been having the same problem. As I recall, one of those podcasts (could have been All Songs Considered) recently ran a mini-podcast explaining what the problem was. Their only solution was to unsubscribe and resubscribe, otherwise you have to wait until they get it fixed on their end.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:37 AM on April 3, 2008

And by recently, I mean yesterday.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:38 AM on April 3, 2008

Thank the gods it's not just me. I subscribe to a ton of NPR podcasts through iTunes and have been having this problem with several of them.
posted by Science! at 10:20 AM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is a known bug with NPR's software. They have some custom bits that gather feeds/audio from a whole host of producers. When a producer submits a new episode, it shows up automatically. Then every night, NPR sweeps through and adds new episodes. This is when the duplicates happen. They're manually fixed within a day or two. That's why you see it less when you check it less frequently.

It's not you. It's them.
posted by ochenk at 10:21 AM on April 3, 2008

I was going to post the same question. It's been happening for the last week with Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Car Talk, This American Life, and Fresh Air. Nothing I do corrects it. I have used the "report a problem" link in iTunes for each show. I would suggest that everyone else do the same.

Any Googling I have done has returned only people with the problem, but none with the answer. Apple does have a convoluted "contact us" form on thier support pages, but it steps you through so many options before allowing you to send a message I got impatient and gave up on it.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 10:30 AM on April 3, 2008

By the way: I tried every suggestion I could find (unsubscribe and resubscribe, reboot, repair permissions, delete old podcasts, etc etc) and none have worked.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 10:31 AM on April 3, 2008

By the way: I tried every suggestion I could find (unsubscribe and resubscribe, reboot, repair permissions, delete old podcasts, etc etc) and none have worked.

There's no way you can fix it, since it's the feed from NPR that has the problem. Just delete the duplicate file. And maybe drop a nice note to NPR encouraging them to fix it.
posted by ochenk at 10:43 AM on April 3, 2008

I also heard the message from All Songs saying that they were aware of the problem and 'working on it'. So you're definitely not alone, but it may be another week or two before it gets straightened out. I share your frustration!
posted by mattholomew at 11:35 AM on April 3, 2008

I think the solution is to donate money so they have the resources to fix the problem.
posted by easy_being_green at 3:37 PM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Not to derail, but NPR already has wildly generous funding, thanks to Mrs. Kroc and other sources not to mention the quality of their journalism. Better to donate your money to other places that really need it (e.g. other public radio operations).

FYI, this thread is linked from a "From The Blogs" block in the footer of some CNN stories today.
posted by intermod at 7:28 AM on April 4, 2008

easy_being_green: I do donate, thanks.

Well, at least I'm not going crazy, thanks for the responses, folks!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 PM on April 4, 2008

They're working on it.
posted by melodykramer at 9:12 PM on April 4, 2008