In many cases, though not all, this is likely to involve logging onto or listening to a programme from the BBC.
The BBC like many other radio organizations has got two kinds of broadcast. Though nowadays with podcasts you might say there are three.
The first kind is what is often called streaming radio.
This simply means just as in the old days, you turn the radio on and the programme comes according to the schedule of the station. If you want to listen to that live, you have to be there and available when the programme is played which is not always convenient.
The second kind of broadcast is known as radio on demand.
The BBC and other stations have sites where the programmes are stored for, perhaps, let’s say seven days. And then, you can listen to them whenever you wish to.
A new technology is podcasting, which is a slightly different sort of thing, and we’ll look at it later.
We’ll think about all these things but I’m going to begin by looking at a few of the sites where you can find free audio book material.
Just before continuing with that, it’s worth saying that sometimes the books are read simply as texts. Sometimes, quite often, they are dramatised, and quite often, of course, they are recordings of dramatic works.
For example, in the last few weeks, I’ve listened to a complete recording of “A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, by Tennessee Williams, I’ve listened to an adaptation of “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, This of course is all with radio recordings.
There are other companies and organizations which are in the business of providing free audio book recordings which you can download and I’ll be coming to them later.
Sometimes they are commercial organizations which like to give out some freebies. But more often they’re organizations which exist to publish various types of audio book material.
So that’s something to think about.
And for our next post we’ll have a look at what we need to listen to free books on the internet radio.
If you’re already set up for listening on line these are some of my favourite sites to check:
Drama on Three: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/dramaon3/
The Classic Serial: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/classic_serial.shtml
The Friday Play: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/friday_play.shtml
The Saturday Play: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/saturday_play.shtml
The Afternoon Play: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_play.shtml
Listen Again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/
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