Here are download links for all the "Origins" podcasts I have. They are from a variety of sources - some online via WFKU (and Mixcloud) and some are my own recordings (hosted on Dropbox and OneDrive). In general, my recordings aren't great, so whenever I had the choice between a WFKU version and my own, as long as they're both the same length, I've always gone with the WFKU version because they're bound to be better.

Occasionally I'll post 2 or 3 links to the same show - that means no single source is acceptable enough - they all have some problem or other - see the "Notes"...

Important Note: Many of the shows suffered from what I can euphemistically call "Technical Difficulties" - late starts, dead air, glitches etc. I can't do anything to change that or make them any better - that's how they were broadcast. Again, see the "Notes"...

You generally have two options to hear the podcasts: "play" and/or "download". To play the WFKU or Mixcloud files, just click the "play" link and a new browser window will open where you can play the file.

To download them to your hard drive, simply right-click (PC) or control-click (Mac) the "download" links. WFKU sources give you an "mp3" file, the Mixcloud ones give you an "m4a". These are easily to convert to "mp3" if you prefer - details below.

I don't seem to be able to post direct downloads links for my onedrive and dropbox files - you have to click on the "play" links to launch their respective pages and manually download them from there - sorry about that.

PS: Do you have a better or more complete copy of any of these shows to contribute to the archives. If so, please let me know and I'll update these lists....

Date
Description
Source
Play
Download
Status
Length
KHz
Rate
Notes
Playlist

NB:
Complete: Indicates it's the full show - maybe the opening second or two might be missing
Partial: means just that: part of the show - as broadcast - is missing...
All: refers to one of the shows with technical problems - it means there are bits missing but those bits weren't heard, so the file contains all that was broadcast of that particular show...

P: The "Playlist" links at the end of each line connect to the Hot Rails playlist for each show - it might be worth keeping that page open in the background for reference as you browse the above lists

Specific Episode Notes:
008: WFKU uploaded this podcast in two parts - no reason given, but nothing appears to be missing
058: WFKU's version contained only the last hour of the show - mine is complete but, as usual, of poorer quality
066: Both versions have the opening seconds missing, mine has a tad more but is not as good quality as the WFKU one..
067: 4 hour special - mine's complete, but the 1st hour is plagued by intermittent connection problems (ie gaps!), whereas WFKU only uploaded hours 3 and 4...

Converting m4as into mp3s
The "Mixcloud" pages do not offer a direct facility to download the podcasts, but a number of other online sites offer you the free facility to do so.

The "download" links I've listed above use the "Savelink.info" site, the first one I came across, but they all seem much of a muchness... Anyway, the sourced files are "m4a" format.

If you require "mp3" for whatever reason, they're easy to convert. This is just my own method - using VLC - you may have your own ways and means of doing the same thing.

  1. Open up the "m4a" file in VLC.
  2. Go to the File Menu and choose "Convert/Stream". In the resulting Dialog Box:
  3. Choose "Open Media" and pick the file to convert.
  4. Choose Profile - select "Audio - MP3" and then "Customize".

    Choose your own options, eg
    Select "Audio Codec"
    Codec: MP3
    Bitrate: 128 or 192 etc
    Channels: 2
    Sample Rate: 44100 KHz

  5. Choose "Destination" for saved file.
  6. Click "Save" - and in the dialog box, type in the name of the file - it won't put it in automatically. Then watch it slowly play in the VLC playlist as it converts.