Actually the second last idea is also a big step [record the radio].

The empeg can't do that - its a playback [only] device.

The other ideas are all worthy, but I don't need another alarm clock - I've got one,
all I want is a subtle but hard to confuse signal that its the top of the hour.

The time pips are a good and familiar [& not so intrusive] way to do this - I want it to stop by itself after a 5 seconds like the timepips do without needing any user interaction.

I agree however, for a generic count up/down timer, then yes turning off the beep manually is required.