How can I add delay to a radio broadcast?

September 6, 2005 9:22 AM

How can I add a short delay to a radio sports broadcast?

When watching sports I like to listen to the wonderfully biased radio announcers, instead of the lame TV ones, but the broadcast delay on TV makes them out of sync, so the radio announcers sound like they are 3 or 4 seconds from the future. Any idea for any cheap way to sync them up?

posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo to Technology (9 answers total)

Radio Shark.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:34 AM on September 6, 2005

If you have Tivo or a DVR, you can pause the TV until it syncs up.
posted by SashaPT at 11:43 AM on September 6, 2005

Response by poster: the radio is ahead of the TV, so a DVR won't help, i've known about the radio shark, but getting a computer involved might be a little overkill.

i dont know if there would be a way to get a guitar delay pedal to do what i want.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 12:56 PM on September 6, 2005

As I understand delay pedals to work, I don't think you can do that. Delay pedals work by recording for a very short time and then playing it back, either once or multiple times. They aren't intended to be used on a continuous stream of audio. They can't simultaneously record and play, so you would lose a lot of the broadcast in the process.

Getting a computer involved not only isn't overkill, it's necessary. You need something that will record an incoming stream of data and play it back delayed by a few seconds. This requires some kind of storage medium and software to manage the delay. PVRs (such as TiVo) are package deals including a dedicated computer. Radio Shark allows you to use your existing computer to do the same thing for radio.
posted by cerebus19 at 1:09 PM on September 6, 2005

Most guitar pedals can and do record and play at the same time. You'll want one that will allow you to turn the original signal all the way down, though. I have an old digitech effect that does it. All the old tape-based ones could do it, I'm sure.
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:36 PM on September 6, 2005

The problem you'll have with most guitar effects is that they have strict upper limits. 1 or 2 seconds at most I think, for many of them. I use mostly software-based effects these days and there are no real upper limits with those.
posted by RustyBrooks at 2:37 PM on September 6, 2005

It may be more trouble than it's worth, but if you can scrounge up a couple old reel-to-reel tape recorders, you can route the tape between them in such a fashion that one records the broadcast and the other plays it back a few seconds later.
posted by Vidiot at 10:05 PM on September 6, 2005

Driving me crazy too; listening to the cricket on the radio and watching it on TV. Try these: (1) Terrestrial TV signals seem closer to the radio than satellite TV (one less trip to the satellite and back?...),(2) listening to the radio on the PC sometimes is closer (the sound takes time to go round the ether?...) (3) listening on DAB* is closer and posh DAB sets have a interrupt button so that you can line it up perfectly. But, the best solution is (4) get on with your life listening to the radio and doing stuff and then when something happens run to the TV to watch it "live".

*DIgital Audio Broadcast. A way for the UK govt to take simple radio off you, replace with a crap sound (and sets that eat batteries) so that they can sell the spectrum to a phone company that builds masts on the top of beautiful but impoverished churches enabling them to sell us clips of football matches. Don't get me started on the evil that is DAB. Rant over.
posted by priorpark17 at 10:14 PM on September 6, 2005

Maybe you won't see this since it has been a few days, but this DelayPlayRadio gadget was on Engadget tonight.

It appears to do exactly what you want, and it has a 16 second limit.
posted by bcwinters at 7:52 PM on September 13, 2005