I really need to purchase a PC some time soon, and I just want to make
sure that with whatever I purchase, I can at least do the following:

(a) Record onto a hard drive, in real time, a lengthy (4 hours or so)
radio broadcast, unattended.

(b) Use appropriate software to play back and edit the recorded radio
broadcast (especially, to extract desired audio segments, and store
them as mp3 files).

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QUESTION 1:
For (a) above, is it necessary that I install a radio tuner card in
the PC? If not, what are the alternatives? (Would feeding the output
signal from an external tuner deck into the PC's sound card be a
plausible way of proceeding?)

QUESTION 2:
For (a) above to be performed efficiently, and for the resultant
recording to be of a reasonably high quality, is it necessary that I
install an appropriate capture/compression card in the PC? If not,
what are the alternatives? (Are present day PCs powerful enough to be
able to compress and store on the fly, a continuous and lengthy audio
input signal from the sound card, without any additional hardware/card
needing to be installed, and with the resultant recording being of a
reasonably high quality?)

QUESTION 3:
I'd like to purchase a notebook PC rather than a desktop unit. If (a)
above does require hardware assistance (a PCI card for example), are
there corresponding USB/Firewire alternatives that I could make use
of?

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I'd greatly appreciate your help with these questions, as well as any
tips and hardware/software brand/product names you can suggest.

Thank you in advance,
Anne.

P.S.
I'm pretty much a complete novice when it comes to audio/hi-fi
matters. As I'm unfamiliar with the terminology involved, I simply
hope this post of mine makes some sort of sense, and that I can in
turn make sense of your replies!