Recordings of broadcast audio content often contain errors (e.g., noise,
signal loss, interference, talkover). A method and apparatus are provided
for improving the quality of such a recording. Multiple recordings of a
broadcast audio program are identified, and are aligned according to some
time index of the program, such as the beginning, midpoint or end of one
of the recordings. Samples of each recording are taken and compared. If a
majority (or plurality) of the samples agree (e.g., they match within an
allowable threshold of variance), one of them is used to generate or
populate a new recording. If there is no majority (or plurality), one of
the samples may be chosen at random, on the basis of which recording has
most often been in the majority (or plurality), or on some other basis.
Or, the method may be repeated or extended to obtain samples of other
recordings.