Claims
- 1. A method to identify radio or television broadcasts through the combination of a geographic identification code and a broadcast identifier, comprising the steps of:
digitally storing in a database, geographic identification codes associated with an area or location of a radio or television broadcast signal, said database further storing data representing said at least one broadcast identifier associated with said radio or television broadcast signal; receiving user related information, said user related information comprising a geographic identification code and a broadcast identifier; communicating said user related geographic identification code into said database to create a subset of data, said subset of data comprising data representing at least one broadcast identifier; and identifying said radio or television broadcast from said subset of data upon receipt of said broadcast identifier.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said broadcast identifier is input through a touchtone telephone keypad using DTMF tones.
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said database further includes digital data representing telephone keypad numbers for said at least one broadcast identifier, wherein said at least one broadcast identifier comprises or contains alphabetic characters.
- 4. The method of claim 1, further including the step of generating a second subset of data from first said subset of data, wherein said radio or television broadcast is identified from said second subset of data.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein broadcaster information of at least one of said radio or television broadcast signals is indexed by category or group listing.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said database further includes program schedule information for said radio or television broadcasts, wherein said program schedule is accessed responsive to said identification of said radio or television broadcast.
- 7. The method of claim 1, further including the step of transmitting program descriptions related to said radio or television broadcasts.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said program descriptions are transmitted in the order corresponding to a program schedule or list.
- 9. The method of claim 7, wherein said program descriptions are located remotely and users are linked to said remotely located program descriptions.
- 10. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of said program descriptions is determined by said geographic identification code.
- 11. The method of claim 8, whereby said transmission of said program descriptions is synchronized with said program schedule or list.
- 12. The method of claim 1, wherein said broadcast identifier comprises one of the following, station call letters, a station tuning frequency, a television channel allocation, a cable subscriber identification, a music genre, a telephone number, a network address, an identification number or a predetermined identifier.
- 13. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographic identification codes include or comprise telephone area and exchange codes.
- 14. The method of claim 1, wherein said geographic identification codes include or comprise a cable converter addresses or a cable company description.
- 15. The method of claim 1, wherein program description information or program schedule information is contained within said radio or television broadcast signal.
- 16. The method of claim 1, wherein said user related geographic identification code determines an area or region.
- 17. The method of claim 1 wherein said geographic identification codes comprise or include identification codes relating to telephone switch, telephone cell or transmitter information.
- 18. The method of claim 1 wherein said geographic identification code comprises or includes a network address.
- 19. A method for identifying a broadcast over a network comprising the steps of:
receiving a network address associated with a user inquiry; querying a database of stored network addresses wherein each stored address or part thereof is indexed to a group of broadcast identifiers; determining whether said received network address matches one of said stored network addresses; if one of said stored network addresses matches the received network address, retrieving said indexed group of broadcast identifiers corresponding to said network address; and receiving an input signal associated with said user inquiry, selecting one of said broadcast identifiers.
- 20. A computer-implemented information system to identify a radio or television broadcast comprising:
a database storing geographic identification codes associated with a range or location of at least one radio or television broadcast, said database further storing broadcast identifiers indexed to said geographic identification codes; an input receiving a geographic identification code and a broadcast identifier, said geographic identification code and said broadcast identifier related to a user inquiry; and a processor which a) is coupled to said database and retrieves a subset of broadcast identifiers associated with said range or location of at least one radio or television broadcast upon input of said user inquiry related geographic identification code and b) includes an interface to communicate said subset of broadcast identifiers, and c) further includes a second input identifying a radio or television broadcast from said subset of broadcast identifiers.
- 21. The information system of claim 20, wherein said user related geographic identification code and said broadcast identifier are input separately.
- 22. The information system of claim 20, wherein said geographic identification code comprises or includes a user related network address or part thereof.
- 23. The information system of claim 20, wherein said database further includes program description information related to said radio or television broadcasts.
- 24. The information system of claim 23, wherein said program description information is communicated to a user by said interface upon identification of said radio or television broadcast.
- 25. The information system of claim 23, wherein said program descriptions comprises or includes a program schedule or list.
- 26. The information system of claim 23, wherein said program description comprises or includes information relating to an item in a program schedule or list.
- 26. The information system of claim 23, wherein said program description information is stored remotely from said system.
- 27. The information system of claim 20, wherein said broadcast identifier comprises or includes one of the following, station call letters, a station tuning frequency, a television channel allocation, a cable subscriber identification, a music genre, a telephone number, a cable converter address, a network address, an identification number or a predetermined identifier.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/916,099 filed on Aug. 21, 1997, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD TO GENERATE AND ACCESS BROADCAST INFORMATION, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/329,837, filed on Oct. 27, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,787 entitled SYSTEM FOR ON-DEMAND REMOTE ACCESS TO A SELF-GENERATING AUDIO RECORDING, STORAGE, INDEXING AND TRANSACTION SYSTEM. This continuation and the two related applications are incorporated herein by reference as though set out in full.
Continuations (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08916099 |
Aug 1997 |
US |
Child |
09965808 |
Oct 2001 |
US |
Parent |
08329837 |
Oct 1994 |
US |
Child |
08916099 |
Aug 1997 |
US |