Buzz
Radio show archives can be difficult to find; and when they are available, they’re often in outdated formats. (For example, I had to purchase one season of the radio sitcom Cabin Pressure as a music album and another as an audiobook.) Some shows can be found on the Internet Archive, but the listening experience isn’t ideal. The website Fourble makes this problem a thing of the past.
Fourble offers two main features: First, it’s a tool that allows you to take a collection of mp3s from the web and convert them into a podcast feed, which can be loaded into any podcast player. Second, it’s a directory of shows that have been turned into podcasts using this tool.
On Fourble, you'll find over 750 shows spanning a wide range of radio broadcasts, both modern and historical, primarily from the UK and U.S. Here are some top picks:
Star Wars: The Original Radio Dramas: NPR’s audio rendition of the original Star Wars trilogy
The Wheel of Time: Audiobook adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy saga, divided into over 700 chapters
Tumanbay: A grand radio drama inspired by the Egyptian Mamluk slave dynasty
Dragnet: 344 episodes of the 1950s crime drama based on real-life events
Abbott & Costello: Over 170 sketches, full episodes, and other comedic gems from the iconic “Who’s on First” duo
Gunsmoke: 1950s radio Western
Yes Minister: Radio version of the beloved British political sitcom
The Flight of the Conchords: The radio precursor to the band’s TV show
The Complete Mr Ripley: Audio adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley series
Earthsearch: James Follett’s 80s sci-fi saga about a generation ship trying to find its way back to Earth
Lights Out: 30s/40s American horror series
John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme: A contemporary British sketch comedy show
A Canticle for Liebowitz: Audio version of Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s post-apocalyptic novel
I Robot: Radio adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s iconic short stories
Bleak Expectations: A humorous parody of Charles Dickens’ works with episode titles like “A Life Sadly Smashed Then Happily Restored A Bit” and “A Horrible Life Un-ruined And Then Re-ruinated A Lot”
That Mitchell & Webb Sound: The radio predecessor to the TV sketch series That Mitchell & Webb Look
Angstrom: A spoof about a Scandinavian detective, created by writers from That Mitchell & Webb Look
I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue: Over 500 episodes of the British comedy panel show, spanning from the 70s to 2018
Howard Stern 1990s: A collection of classic Howard Stern episodes
The Ricky Gervais Show: The first 12 episodes of the series that catapulted Karl Pilkington to fame
Agatha Christie: 49 BBC adaptations of the renowned mystery writer’s novels
The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower: 1950s radio adaptation of the C. S. Forester nautical adventures
Blue Jam: 90s late-night show from Brass Eye creator Chris Morris, blending music with unsettling comedy sketches
On the Hour: A news parody program from Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci, which introduced Steve Coogan’s character Alan Partridge
You can customize the frequency at which new episodes appear in your podcast feed for each show. If you come across a set of mp3 files on the web, you can create a new podcast feed for them, regardless of their content. For example, you could transform a public music album into a podcast.
Fourble doesn’t host these shows itself; instead, it generates an RSS feed for them. Many of these mp3 lists exist in a legal gray zone, so they can be subject to removal. If the files are taken down from the original source before appearing in your player, you won’t be able to access them. Therefore, if you think a show might be at risk of being removed (but don’t consider the available files to be pirated), download it immediately.
The name Fourble comes from “The Thing on the Fourble Board,” a well-known episode of the 1940s radio horror series Quiet, Please! It’s a chilling tale about a creature living deep underground, unearthed and brought into the light—much like an old radio show resurrected from the Internet Archive. You can listen to 86 episodes of Quiet, Please! on Fourble.
