Talk:TMBG Clock Radio

Misc

Has anyone else heard "Particle Man Unplugged" on the AM dial? Is this the same as any other of the existing alternate versions on the Particle Man page, or is this a new one that needs to be added? - Duke33 6-24-2003

Well, it sounds like a recording from a radio show, but it also sounds similar to that one from the Flood promo, except I can't hear the metronome. There's nothing extremely different about it, so I don't think it needs a new page, but, we could always add one anyway. - Doctor Masonstein 6-24-2003

My computer has trouble downloading directly from flash sites, if someone could post a direct link to the download I would really appreciate it. 6-27-2003

In the interests of not ticking off john and john, i would hesitate to post the urls directly at this point. - Duke33 6-29-2003

Does anyone know anything about the different versions of "she's actual size" on the FM dial? There were parts 1 & 2, but they have been replaced. Now there is another version that indicates it was from a show in New Jersey..anyone know if this is the same as the old "part 1" track or if it is different? -- Duke33 6-30-2003

Duh! Silly me... obviously clicking on the FDR button brings up a picture of the famous president. --SR 9-jul-2003

Hey, now they've got some sort of a radio interview on the EBS... they should put radio shows in the EBS, I think. - Doctor Masonstein 7-18-2003

I got something simply called "ANNOUNCEMENT" on the AM band. It was just Flans talking, but I wasn't able to listen to most of it. Anyone know what it is? --Kfarnstein 10-06-2003

There are really like 12 or so of the announcements, but they all have the same title. I added links for each of the individual ones, if someone wants to take the time to fill them in. -- Duke33 10/7/2003

Anybody know who made the clock radio application? Seems like TMBG used to credit their web designer, and I think it is one of those virtual companies, but I don't see the link anymore. 11/15/03

That would be The Chopping Block. They did the designs for Mink Car, TMBG.com, No!, and giantkid.net among other things (including a bunch of ecards and stuff like that). --Nathew 11/13/03

Can anybody help me out with using Clock Radio under Linux? I seem to see that the underlying technology of Clock Radio is RealAudio, but I don't know how to "tune in" to a streaming show, only (an) individual song(s), if even that. --Crankysysadmin 12/01/03

There is currently no way to tune into a streaming show, as the software contains the locations of all the tracks I believe (which is updated when it first connects, and is not a streaming broadcast). The system runs on MP3s. I cannot divulge any more info, but if you contact tmbg.com, they may be able to do you a Linux version of the software (alternatively, use Wine). --MooseBlaster 12/01/03

Happy to report that Clock Radio works flawlessly under Wine on Debian Linux. Looks like just a Flash application, should be doable under Linux, I'll ask. Thanks for the tip! --Crankysysadmin 12/25/03

So, has anyone noticed the lack of attention to the clock radio lately? The EBS still has the Spinning on Air radio show, and it just seems rather ignored. I mean, updating it isn't a necessity, but lately it seems as if it is a ruined camp left by a band of wondering nomads. --Kfarnstein 1/29/04

Actually, that's not weird at all. Just look at Dial A Song, www.dailasong.com, and all the official websites. - Mr. Nuclear 1/30/04

Anyone know how accurate the track listing on this site is compared to the current selection? I've found stuff in the list that I have yet to hear, and I've heard some other songs that aren't listed... --RichardAshkenazi 6/21/04

I think the track listing is fairly accurate...remember, they have removed songs and replaced them with new ones (when they were still frequently updating the CR). So, the listing isn't meant to be current...it's supposed to be a listing of all the tracks that have appeared at one time or another. -- Duke33 6/22/04

This thing downloads the tracks to your hard drive? Or is this another joke I'm not getting? >_> -- Blitz 10-24-04

Yes, they are located somewhere on your hard drive. 10-24-04

I just encountered Spines and Pictures Of Pandas Painting. I'd say they've added songs to the Clock Radio! 4-29-05

Does Clock radio freeze for anyone else whenever "Dig My Grave" comes up on FM band? (Well not really freeze, but the song doesn't play or download and it doesn't go to another song) - extrafacelol 10-1-2005

Yep. Same here. I also had the same problem with Ondine this morning on the AM band, which stinks, because I'd never heard that song before and had been hoping to hear it for weeks. ~ MasterChivo 10-3-2005

It happens occasionally with other songs (25 O'Clock has frozen for me more than once.) but the live Dig My grave seems to be the only one I've found that always does it. - extrafacelol 10-5-2005

It will always freeze on "Dig My Grave". If there is actually an mp3 of "Dig My Grave" on the clock radio, it's named differently than the file the radio looks for. Other freezes are more likely temporary network hiccups. --buschap 4-20-2006

Whenever I put the band on EBS.. the only songs I ever get are the Welcome To EBS and Albany. It just alternates between the two. Is anyone else having this problem, or is it just me? -- INeedACrane 6/25/05

Anyone know how to hack the system and just grab the mp3 files? -DKT 12/4/05

In light of recent events, we here at tmbg.com want to remind everyone that They Might Be Giants offer the TMBG Clock Radio and free Mp3s to their audience out of respect and love for their support. Please do not take their stuff and disseminate it in ways that will only crush their spirit of generosity. Do not feel compelled to overthink this. Enjoy the music in the spirit and the form it was given. It's a gift to you-not content to be exploited. Sincerely-the staff of tmbg.com (http://www.tmbg.com).

-CapitalQ 12/4/05

A lot of Clock Radio tracks don't work right on my version of the player. At first I could tune in a new song by switching to another part of the radio dial, but now, perhaps because of a Macromedia update, when I switch, I get two songs at once. But when they both finish, it's back to one song again. --M. Fudd 19:41, 19 Dec 2005 (EST)

I've noticed that people have been adding the fact that they are on the Clock Radio to most of the song pages. Just because it would be a lot less work, why don't we just mention that, for instance, The Spine's songs are part of the Clock Radio instead of having each song page say it. Just a thought. 65.97.29.81 00:52, 20 Dec 2005 (EST)

Not all Clock Radio songs are also on an album, and I think having the link to Clock Radio is handy if a casual surfer wants to know where a song might be heard. Anyway, it keeps me busy and out of trouble - I turn on Clock Radio, and when an unlinked song comes on, if I can hear the song without garble, I link it.

Note: "Rest A While" is grammatical, but it's "Rest Awhile" on the Clock Radio dial, so I re-spelled it. --M. Fudd 11:46, 8 Jan 2006 (EST)

Does anyone else get a lot of garbled tracks? Lately it seems like every third song is unlistenable. Is there a cure? 9-24-2005

I think it's that the file messed up when they were putting in in, uploading it, whatever. I'd say they'd have to reupload them to work. Nothing you can really do. - Ecks

I've been getting a fair amount of garbled tracks as well, always the same ones. Some of them are garbled and sound a bit like a washing machine running. Others are just really, really slow, like a DJ Screw mix. - MasterChivo

Just curious, can anyone confirm that Announcement E and Announcement M have ever actually existed? - extrafacelol 12-1-2005

Has anyone heard Spinning On Air lately? - Whirrrlwind 07:59, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)

Countrecoup is the only song that works on Clock Radio for me, anyone else have this problem? - Tedadore2 1-7-08

Hypothetical Question

OK, I fully understand and agree with the notion that we shouldn't be posting any sort of instructions on how to hack the radio here, in fact, maybe this note is inappropriate, but suppose that you knew that while immensely generous, that the recent update offered nothing that completists didn't already have, so they should probably stop hitting next and wasting Their bandwidth. How would you go about putting this message out? 4/29/2005

All Songs

The intent of this page is to list all songs that have ever been on the clock radio. It seems that people keep deleting the ones that aren't in the current rotation. Perhaps we can find a way to delineate between those that used to be on Clock Radio, and those that are on now? --Duke33 08:21, 29 Dec 2005 (EST)

(I swear there was a whole different talk page we talked about this on, but I can't find it; but--) In respect to the active/inactive thing, it looks like a bunch of the absent EBS songs were later just moved to the AM or FM sections. Should we follow suit and delete them from the EBS list (since the AM and FM seem to contain them now on our list also), or leave them there because of our intent to "list all songs that have ever been on the clock radio"? I don't really care one way or another, but if we do leave them there, I'd suggest giving those songs a third category, something like "Moved" or "Now on FM", etc. ~ magbatz 22:21, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

No, they do not. Announcements E and M are the AM/FM announcements. E is #1, M is #2.

oh whoops I just realized who it is who answereed my question never mind :rolleyes - extrafacelol

Hey, I noticed something. The spoken intro to Mr. X was cut off, do they cut off the intros to a lot of songs or is this a random incident? - (Turnip) 18:41, 28 Feb 2006 (CST)

I think that version of Mr. X is just a radio edit version or something. The bridge and one of the choruses are missing too. Plus, most of the other Mink Car songs aren't on Clock Radio. - extrafacelol

on Macintosh

So I bought my new iMac which I love, but I can't get clock radio to work, I've downloaded the mac version, but it just isn't working, can anybody help me out here? (p.s. im using intel chips, i think thats the problem)

-Cody Schmidt

It doesn't work fantastically on my Intel Mac... it keeps jittering and every so often making the whole computer hang... not fun xD --༺𝄞𝄆Ⓠⓤⓔⓛ⎈Ⓓⓞⓜⓜⓐⓖⓔ𝄇༻ 00:10, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

^ I've downloaded clock radio to my iMac (It's an OS X and I don't think it has intel chips; it's an older one) and there has only been a few times where it hasn't been working. Try trashing clock radio and downloading it again. ;)

Yeah, it doesn't work on my macbook either. It just appears as a document that has all the coding in it. Or something like that. --Lemita 18:49, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

have you guys all expanded the hqx? it's an old mac file-transfer format, that may not be recognized unless you have software like stuffit. -- 18:53, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Look just tell me what I can do to make the clock radio work on my new Macbook, yeah?

you'll definitely have to supply more info than that. -- 19:31, 6 September 2011 (EDT)

Okay so I downloaded it and all right? But I try to run it, and it says i cant open the application because powerpc applications are no longer supported. what can i do to change this?

well it's flash-based, so it shouldn't matter, but if you're running 10.7 (lion), you may be screwed, since i don't think the program has been updated to be a universal binary. if that is the situation, you might be able to run the windows version with wine, but you'd be on your own with that. -- 01:50, 7 September 2011 (EDT)

So if i get a virtual pc going on my mac the windows version will work?

Numbering --> Bulleting

The tracklisting for each station is numbered currently, but seeing as it's random, and this list is only in alphabetical order, is it okay if I just go in and change the # symbol to a *? ~ magbatz

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd prefer that the numbers stay there, because it gives me an idea how many songs are actually on Clock Radio. Without the numbers, I'd have absolutely no idea how many songs there were without actually taking the time to count all two hundred-something songs. What does everyone else think? ~Drew

Yeah-- good point. I would say we could put the number somewhere or other along with album information and separate those numbers into their respective station... but really, it'd be simpler as it is. ~ magbatz

She's Actual Size versions

I know Duke33 asked about this earlier, but it was never answered. So, this page currently lists She's Actual Size (Live STD) and She's Actual Size (Part II) as being active on the FM band, while She's Actual Size (Part 1) and She's Actual Size (Live - NJ) aren't listed at all (whether active or inactive; in fact, they're only mentioned on the chronology page for She's Actual Size, and pages haven't been made for either of them). However, in reality, it's She's Actual Size (Live STD) and She's Actual Size (Live - NJ) that are currently on Clock Radio. So the listed info about She's Actual Size (Live STD) is correct, but shouldn't we list She's Actual Size (Part II) as inactive and add She's Actual Size (Part 1) (inactive) and She's Actual Size (Live - NJ) (active) to the list (in addition to making pages for them)? Or was it ever determined if any of these songs were identical? Let me know what everyone thinks. ~Drew

Standalone SWF?

Does anyone maybe have just a copy of the .swf file this runs on? I'm on Ubuntu, and don't want to restart in Windows - I can't run .exes without emulation.

They've never released it separately, so nope. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 03:19, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu/Debian Instructions

Just run it in Wine (Windows compatibility layer).

sudo apt-get install wine

Then, download the PC version of the Clock Radio, right click, choose "Open With" and enter "wine" in the custom command text box. - Helpful Anon

Yeah, I ended up doing that. It crashed more than ever, but it worked. Thanks, though. -J2

Back Stabbing Liar

Has anyone noticed that Back Stabbing Liar is credited to "Momo Puff" [sic]] on the Radio? Stalefries 07:31, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it actually mentions that on the page for Backstabbing Liar.--Duke33 12:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

June 27th, 2007

Some of the Here Come The ABCs songs, like Flying V and E Eats Everything are slowed down drastically. I'm wondering if this is normal or some kind of error. Also I'm getting kind of tired of restarting the program every 5 minutes. Has it always been this unstable? -- A Ninja

It seems that the Flying V article mentions the slowdown problem as being 'normal' but not intentional. -- The very same Ninja

List of Garbled/Slowed-down songs

Here's a list of all the messed-up song files on the TMBG Clock Radio, in case anyone here was wondering.

• Songs that are completely garbled beyond any recognition:

Wearing a Raincoat

Memo to Human Resources

I Can't Hide From My Mind

Now Is Strange

Alphabet Lost And Found

Gloria Says "This Guy's A Nut"

• Songs that are heavily slowed-down:

The Spine Surfs Alone - 1/4 its normal speed

C Is For Conifers - 1/4 its normal speed

Flying V - 1/4 its normal speed

Skullivan - 1/4 its normal speed

E Eats Everything - half its normal speed

Pennsylvania - half its normal speed

The Other Side Of The World - half its normal speed (I have seen two versions of the song on the clock radio. One is played at normal speed; the other at half speed.) --McBob 23:35, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Hey McBob, I know you haven't edited in a long time, was just wondering if you had downloaded these mp3s TitanicFog (talk) 15:51, 26 July 2022 (EDT)

Newer Clock Radio?

I opened up the clock radio today, and it's telling me that there's a new one out. It just redirects me to TMBG's front page when I click on the link. Anyone know what the new one is like? --ZippZapp 23:57, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure it's not just a new version of Flash? The Clock Radio on tmbg.com isn't a new one. --badqueso 00:07, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Weird, now it's not saying it anymore. Either a glitch, or a side effect of fixing a glitch. --ZippZapp 23:09, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

This is what it looks like, by the way.

Sweet Photoshop skillz! lolo -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:16, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you messing with us, or are you serious? Either way, I'm not sure how that would happen, especially for just some people, and not others. The only thing that i could think is that there is a field called "currentBuild" in the xml file...But, how it would happen to some and not others doesn't make sense. --Duke33 18:13, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Did They Forget About This?

It looks as if clock radio hasn't changed since 2005, have they forgetten they have this? Or do they figure that it's done? --Tedadore2 20:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

exclusives

wondering if it wouldn't be entirely silly to mark the songs in the list there that are 100% exclusive to the service... idk if it would serve a whole lot of purpose, but why not? -- 17:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm all for the idea. perhaps in the form of a category called 'Songs exclusive to clock radio' or the like? the same could also be done for podcast exclusives. –※ Limabeans ※ 13:10, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

It sounds to me like this is something which could be automated, say by checking whether the list of releases contains Clock Radio / Podcast X and nothing else. Would this actually be possible? I think it would be neat. ~ blitzente (talk) 16:56, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

We have a Podcast Exclusives page, but I can't think of the benefit of a Clock Radio exclusives page. Are there even more than a handful of songs that are exclusive to Clock Radio? Are there any songs that originated on Clock Radio? I can barely think of any, aside from the announcements. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:36, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

the Snail Dust demos spring to my mind, as well as the demos of They Might Be Giants. there are some more. -- 19:39, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Isn't Uke Down Clock Radio only? The original Contrecoup was in a podcast, but I figure that doesn't fully count towards what media a song was "cleanly" released on. After a skim through the list: That 08/1999 Brooklyn show's tracks, the PAW! tracks (not unreleased, but CR's the only source that has them still "in print"), Courage The Cowardly Dog & Dee Dee And Dexter, WNYC Spinning On Air. Possibly a couple others. A category may be going to far, however. Why not a subsection right here for the interested parties? ~ magbatz 20:11, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

---

What do you guys think about moving inactive tracks to the bottom of each list? Alphabetical might be nice for reference, but to stay current it makes sense (especially in the EBS section) to see what's actually there. ~ magbatz 15:52, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Any sort of archive?

Sure the Clock Radio has been dead and gone for a good few (already) six years now, but I am curious. Is there any sort of archive out there that has recordings of the Clock Radio tracks? Specifically the ones that were exclusive to the service, like the Announcements or small things like Uke Down, or even the bizarre red link that is She's Actual Size (Part I) (and to an extent, the missing lyric page for its second part). It just seems strange that there's still been quite a bit of missing information regarding this piece of TMBG miscellany for quite some time now. Or maybe there's an archive somewhere and I just haven't looked elsewhere close enough, but I mean, it's worth asking here I guess. Snagwhag (talk) 14:29, 21 August 2019 (EDT)