Here’s a tantilizing development: a free TiVo for radio. That’s the promise of DAR.fm (for Digital Audio Recorder), a Web site that lists every single radio show on 1,800 AM and FM stations across the country. The New York Times reports that listeners can “search, sort, slice and dice those listings” by genre, radio station or search phrase, then request the program and “shortly thereafter, an e-mail message lets you know that your freshly baked show is ready for listening.”
“It lets you time shift, of course, but also presents the entire universe of radio broadcasting in one tidy menu,” it adds. “No longer must you gripe about the creeping commercialism that shut down, say, your town’s NPR affiliate or ’70s reggae station. Suddenly there are 1,800 radio stations in your town — and they program their shows according to your schedule, not theirs.”
May I also recommend http://www.publicradiofan.com for a comprehensive listing of public and noncommercial radio streaming both foreign and domestic.
I’ve been time shifting programs for years — all it takes is Linux and a little scripting knowledge. I suspect that you can do the same from Windows or a Mac but I never touch the stuff, myself.