Have you checked whether your tv package can get radio 4? Where we used to live in Baselland, the bog standard tv supplied by the Gemeinde had only a few English language tv channels but bizarely all radios 1 to 6. I had a small aerial in the tv aerial plug with a crocodile clip on the other end which was clipped on the small aerial from an alarm clock radio and hey presto, bbc radio.
Now we are in Delémont it is all Cablecom and no such sneaky set up.
Sorry to sound so dumb, but the alarm clock /radio is for the bedroom, nowhere near the one and only TV in the house. I bought the small radio suggested on the link further up, but I am getting no success. Any advice?
It probably would be high tech compared to my old mobile. No smart phone in our home and don't want any either. So back to old fashion ways. Anyone with more traditional technologies suggestions?
Or my solution if he/she has a tv plug in the bedroom (and a tv package that offers bbc radio). I still use the radio alarm clock that I bought when I was a student some 20 ahem something years ago .. So it is hardly a high tec solution.
Or buy an internet radio (i have a pure evoke flow) which connects to wifi. But you need wifi for that. Pure seem to cater to the old fogey market very well and my wireless set from them looks and works entirely like a Nice oldfashioned wireless set - except that it connects to the internet and picks up radio 4 that way. It even has a rechargeable battery so I take it into the garden or the bathroom with me. And obviously it has an alarm setting too ...
I had a Pure Evoke Flow which died on me. Twice. Second time was out of warrenty so it ended up in the electronic graveyard. I also have a Logitech Squeezebox internet radio that I find a gazillion time more user friendly compared to the Pure one...
I love my internet radio. And then when all else fails, I listen via my iPad. I think if the OP has to have radio 4 to wake up to and isn't willing to spring for new technology, I am afraid there is only one solution. The OP must move back to the UK. Problem solved
Do you have wi-fi at home? If so I would say that the simplest solution is a one-box internet radio. As an example I have this one which has worked fine for me for the last few years (we switch between Radio 4 in the morning and either Couleur 3 or Radio Paradise in the evenings).
And yes, not totally from the Jurassic Era, I do have a PC and WI-FI, so a wireless Internet radio would work. I am comparing right now the pros and cons of Pure vs Logitech Squeezebox radio. Any more thought from established users of either, bearing in mind the 2 essential requirements:
My experience of Pure is similar to Dr Mom's - my radio died twice - once in warranty (when it was replaced with a brand new radio) and then again out of the original warranty (but only 6 months after the brand new replacement radio had been given to me). I rang Pure in the UK and they posted a new one out to me. I also had problems wirelessy streaming my own music onto the radio (from my pc) and again rang Pure and had several calls/emails with different versions of software where they eventually managed to sort it out.
So in short not a terribly reliable product but a totally brilliant customer services department. Whenever I rang, I got the feeling it was quite a small set up .. don't know if that's right.
So probably I'd steer you towards logitech even though I have no experience of that product. DrMom is also right that the controls on the pure are not especially intuitive but then since the advent of the touch screen, nothing that works by twisting dials and pushing buttons feels really very sensible. It is easier to manage from your PC - set up Radio 4 and all the various favourite programmes you like to catch on listenagain in your favourites folder and then they automatically appear in your menu on the radio itself.
Incidentally I rather like the pure connect app for Ipad and often end up listening like that.
But my new toy, as of just yesterday, is a Sonos system throughout the house. Sublime in all but one thing - you need a phone/tablet to control it. Both young sons have had speakers placed in their rooms but I don't want to give them an internet browsing gadget to enable them to use it .. as they'd just spend hours on the internet/games instead. Sonos used to produce a dedicated controler but no more