[linux-audio-user] Speeding up Speech

[Phillip Blevins]

Hi,
I've got a lot of speeches on cassette tape that I have converted to
.wav and cleaned up a bit. I remember reading somewhere that in  radio
broadcast they will record talk show hosts and then somehow shorten
the space between words to that there is more room for commercials. 
Has anyone done this or heard of a tool that does this?    I would
also like to split the speeches up into about 1 minute sections
breaking between words.

Also, I've got about 4,000 cassette tapes I would like to digitize. I
can do about  1.5 a day with it playing at regular speeds.  If I do it
about 200 days out of the year I figure it will take me about 13
years!!  Do anyone know of a handy way to digitize at high speeds.

I apologize in advance if someone has already asked these questions
but I was unable to use the search utility on the list serve.

Thanks,
Phillip