Public Radio Exchange

PRX at iMA and SXSWi 2013

Audrey posted on Monday, March 4th, 2013 | PRX | 2 Comments

iMA and SXSW are right around the corner. Here is what PRXers will be up to during their glorious days in Austin, Texas — besides drinking cold cervesas!

iMA:

Breaking Down Barriers: The Public Media Platform with Kerri Hoffman
Wednesday, March 6 at 8:15 AM

An in-depth discussion about why this effort, happening now, will create new possibilities for innovation and collaboration for all of us.

Public Media and the Cloud: Whose infrastructure are we using in the future? with Andrew Kuklewicz
Wednesday, March 6 at 3:45 PM

Come hear from this experienced bunch on their successes and the failures. This session will provide an understanding of what “the cloud” is, the diversity of options, what problems cloud hosting helps address, and what challenges it creates.

Understanding and Navigating the Aggregator Space with Rekha Murthy
Thursday, March 7 at 1:30 PM

With millions of public media “listeners” now engaging in content through aggregators apps on their computers, mobile devices, in their cars, and even on their home entertainment systems, this new space provides interesting partnership opportunities for public media content creators and distributors.

SXSWi:

Pop Up Archive: Build an Archive & Make It Count a workshop including Andrew Kuklewicz
Monday, March 11 at 9:30 AM
AT&T Conference Center, Classroom 102

In this workshop we invite media creators to join us as we take archives from the shelf (or hard drive) to the web. We encourage workshoppers to consider archiving not only produced work, but also raw footage and ancillary media to make the most of their collections. We’ll teach you how to install free software for archives, create or import records, organize collections, and seamlessly upload files to services like the Internet Archive and SoundCloud. We’ll also teach you how to use the simple web-based Pop Up Archive system to find hidden gems and archive without your own server.

Zeitfunk Awards: 2012

Audrey posted on Friday, March 1st, 2013 | PRX, Zeitfunk | No Comments

Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Zeitfunk Awards!

We’ve finally combed through our statistics. Who is the coveted Most Licensed Producer? What about the Station that Licensed the Most in 2012? For our newcomers, check out our “top new artists” categories like Most Licensed Debut Group. Find out all that and more!

Make sure to peruse our useful stats and interesting facts about PRX, as well as the Staff Yearbook.

Thank you for making 2012 such an impressive and record-breaking year at PRX. We would give you ALL an award if we had that many trophies.

Did you make the list? Tweet it, Facebook it, let the world know: use #Zeitfunk2012 on Twitter.

Infinity and Beyond

Lily posted on Friday, February 15th, 2013 | PRX | 1 Comment

This is a blogpost series by our intern Lily Bui. She writes about radio, technology, and more.

This week, both the unexpected meteor shower over Russia and the passing of asteroid 2012 DA14 have the world looking skyward. While most people are busy associating asteroids and meteorites with impending doom, radio is here to remind you of a more mystical, wondrous side to space. (Well, Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast might be a valid exception.)

Behold, PRX’s space playlist. (Cue the celestial music.)

Here, you’ll find musings about manned missions to Mars, stories about shuttles, and accounts of apes in space. The infinite possibility of what lays in the great unknown has stirred the imagination for eons. Space has inspired poets, puzzled philosophers, challenged mathematicians, fueled the work of engineers, and elicited quiet gasps from incidental stargazers.

If you think about it, radio has a unique relationship with space as well. Radio satellites orbiting earth continuously receive and send signals to earth so that you and I can listen to our favorite programs. Traces of the first-ever radio broadcast are still traveling deep into space. This video illustrates it beautifully:

The vastness of space serves as a constant reminder of how small we are in the grand scheme of things. Whether you interpret that as a notion to lament, ponder, or celebrate is up to you. For now, here’s hoping that these radio stories can provide solace from the apocalyptic headlines.

Zeitfunk 2012…coming soon!

Audrey posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 | Blog, PRX | No Comments

Who was 2012′s Most Licensed Producer?

What station aired the most work from PRX?

Find out soon!

To curb your Zeitfunk craving, check out last year’s Virtual Awards Ceremony and get geared up for the winners of 2012!

PRX Wary of Cats

John posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 | PRX | 2 Comments

A fantastic new series of drop-ins on immigration is available now. Take a look below.

Merry PRXmas!

Audrey posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 | PRX | No Comments

PRXers Matt, Jake, John, Audrey, Kerri

The eggnog was flowing, the pulled pork was delicious, and PRX friends from far and wide gathered at the Signet Society for PRXmas 2012. There was laughter and joy and giant gold scissors for the “Two Little Girls”.

In PRXmas tradition, Managing Director John Barth recited his poem to summarize the year. Enjoy the poem and happy holidays from PRX!

Welcome to all the elfs and elfettes
You look great in this holiday season
Kerri’s egg nog will help you forget
Honestly, we’re all here to drink beyond reason

Before you get snockered, a brief precis
Of the good and things we’d like to avoid
This year PRX developers almost went crazy
Trying to make Radiolab work on a Droid

But miracles were made, downloads they came
Thanks to station apps like ‘QXR and more
With pixels and clicks we don’t mean to maim
But we do make listeners’ thumbs sore

Hey! The Moth goes weekly next year
Balancing the sweet and profane
Can we say balls, breast and pap smear?
Debating that can make you insane.

We’re lucky to work with the smart and the handsome
Look at all these talented stars
From stations, to Berkman, to AIR and Transom
Latitude News…even NPR

Have all of you heard Public Radio Remix?
Roman Mars shuffles stories all night
BOTH ‘BUR and ‘GBH keep listeners transfixed
Thanks guys for saying yes and avoiding a fight

This year was not all glory of course
There was a moment where PRX almost flipped
One simple story unleashed so much force
All that traffic about sank the ship

You know the tale of two girls with their scissors
I’m not going to spoil all the fun
These two innocently caused technical fissures
And PRX’s servers were nearly undone

We’re going beyond the Cambridgian clatter
Silicon Valley might goose public radio’s corpus
Watch our new Venture powerhouse Matter
Be like Viagra for an old cranky tortoise

None of this would be possible without a vision
And the grit of our own superhero
Can we toast the guy who makes the hardest decisions
Our great friend, Jacob Shapiro

Some here might curse PRX under their breaths
We’re a demanding band, so they say
A personal thanks to those we worked nearly to death
Mr. Allison, John, Catie and designer Jay

Thank you for, tonight, slowing down the fast pace
Being here, working with us, and caring
No matter the pressures, our friends we embrace
We’re building a new world with our daring.

Matter launches: new name, new space, new partner, applications open

Jake posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2012 | Blog, Press Releases, PRX, PRX in the News | 1 Comment

We are super excited to announce the launch of Matter Ventures, the new name for the Public Media Accelerator. Not only does it have a new name, but also a new space in San Francisco, and a new investor and partner in KQED, who is joining PRX and Knight to launch the new company.

The New York Times covers the debut in the Monday December 3 2012 paper:

Partnership Offers Support For Media Entrepreneurs

Can the nascent entrepreneurial ideas bouncing around Silicon Valley help reinvent public media?

Matter Ventures, a start-up accelerator that will provide four months of financial and logistical support for budding media entrepreneurs, will be unveiled Monday by its partners: KQED, a public television and radio station operator; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; and the Public Radio Exchange, known as PRX.

We are also sending out an official press release on behalf of Matter Ventures and the three founding partners – PRX, Knight, and KQED:

Fusing Public Media Values with Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship, KQED, Knight Foundation, and PRX Launch Matter Ventures, An Accelerator for Media Start-ups

The intensive, four-month acceleration program is designed for media startups with multi-disciplinary teams who have early-stage prototypes, such as participatory platforms, mobile applications, B2B media services, and content production engines. Matter will invest in entrepreneurs who show high potential to create media ventures that make a meaningful, positive impact on society while pursuing a sustainable, scalable, profitable business model. Over the course of two years, the fund will run four class cycles, each consisting of five startups. Applications for the inaugural class, which will begin in late February 2013, will be accepted starting today through January 6th, 2013. An online application and guidelines can be found at www.matter.vc.

Applications are now open for teams interested in joining the first Matter class.   We’ve got a great space on Bryant Street in San Francisco, right in the thick of things in Internet land.

We’ll be posting more information soon about information sessions and other ways to participate.

In the meantime, you can follow Matter. on Twitter, tumblr and Facebook.

And check out the growing coverage of Matter. in GigaOm, VentureBeat, Xconomy and others on the press page.

Letters of Intent

Lily posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 | PRX | 1 Comment

This is weekly blogpost series by our intern Lily Bui. She writes about radio, technology and more.

It’s easy to assume that technology only moves in one direction: forward. Not quite! While the advent of new applications for digital technology in today’s age would suggest that people are ready to do away with old forms (e.g. printed press, newspapers, calendars, etc.), there’s a counterrevolution amiss.

In Letters of Intent, Kimberly Haas expounds on the inner workings of Red Wheel Press, a Philadelphia print shop that recognizes the stronghold that people still have on tangible media.

“I think there’s a specific thing going on in our culture right now. A strong interest in some kind of classic craftsmanship and hands-on skills. There’s a lot of value to working with your hands, making things on your own and being able to repair things…”

“I’m fascinated with older equipment, especially using processes where I can understand every part of it […] I don’t understand what’s happening when I’m using computer software as far as the technical details. But I can really understand how a machine works, the adjustments I have to make to get something to come out in a precise way.” —Will Stichter, Red Wheel Press

 These days, you can tweet a message to millions of people around the world in an instant. You can look up the definition of a word you don’t know within seconds. You can pull up a clip from a movie you saw once while you’re telling your friends about it. Life moves fast these days. Yet, there’s something about the scenic route that still appeals to the masses. Red Wheel Press is onto something.

This type of marriage between old and new poses a Janusian question for the future of media: how can older technology inspire, evolve, and foment the growth of new technology? What if the old didn’t have to be forsaken in order to make room for the new? If you think about it, radio as a medium could have reached its expiration date decades ago. Yet, somehow video hasn’t killed the radio star. Neither has the internet. In fact, the willingness of producers, stations, and audiences to hold onto radio probably plays a huge part in how we were able to shape the changing media landscape around its existence. 

“It is important to promote the smaller local companies and strike a balance between the age of manufacturing that we have had more than a hundred years ago and the age of technology that we are now in […].”

Who knows? Perhaps we haven’t quite seen the end of print media just yet. With places like Red Hill Press stolidly keeping the art form alive, perhaps the media landscape will do for print what it did for radio, providing even more exciting ways to explore the medium.

Toons and Tunes

Lily posted on Friday, October 26th, 2012 | PRX | No Comments

If you happen to live in Massachusetts, don’t miss the WGBH Cartoon Festival this weekend on October 27^th! The Boston Symphony Orchestra will be doing an all-day performance of classical music, which will be synced with classic cartoons.

You can never be too old for cartoons—at least, that’s what I tell myself. I’ll admit, I probably spend way too much of my adult life looking up old favorites from Disney, Nickelodeon, and the WB (before it became the CW). However, I also know that I’m not alone. I’ve known professors who incorporate cartoon clips into their lectures, parents who watch cartoons with their kids, and friends who forgo a whole night’s sleep just to catch up on Spongebob Squarepants. What is it about these images and characters that still stay with us in spite of life changes, full-time jobs, and—gasp—adulthood? Granted, we may not have the leisure to plop down pronate next to our backpacks after school (with every intention of getting around to homework) and delve into our favorite cartoons anymore. Still, there’s no denying that they retain the ability to transport us to that feeling of simple, childlike joy in an instant.

While cartoons are a predominantly visual medium, the music behind the animation often drives the story. For those more aurally oriented, here’s a piece from NPR Music about Russian cartoon music and the composers who create it. There’s even a segment about Vinny Pookh, the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh.

  “[Cartoon and film music] conveys a sense of mood and atmosphere and scene that has an immediate impact on people. And yet the harmonic and tonal language of the music is really complicated and sophisticated.” –Alan Pierson, Brooklyn Philharmonic Music Director

Vinny Pookh, the Russian Winnie the Pooh

Also, in this WFIU interview, cartoonist Gary Trudeau of Pulitzer Prize-winning strip Doonesbury, talks about character development, political caricatures, and how he turned cartooning into a sustainable career for himself.

Incidentally, this year also happens to be Cartoon Network’s 20^th anniversary. At twenty years old, the network itself is practically an adult (in human years)—further proof that cartoons are not just for children. They’re airing an omnibus of their best cartoons from the network’s lifetime. 

Maybe there’s no concrete answer to the timelessness of cartoons. It’s a medium that allows us to revisit some of the best parts of being a kid as well as redefine for ourselves what it means to be an adult. Treat yourself to a healthy dose of cartoons this week. Cheers, to the kids in all of us.

Visualized Radio That Inspires

Rekha posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2012 | Blog, PRX | No Comments

Hillary Frank and I recently announced the launch of “The Emperor’s New Onesie,” a gorgeous animation set to an episode of Hillary’s The Longest Shortest Time podcast.

Let’s watch it again, shall we?

The idea to visualize radio didn’t come out of thin air. It’s been done before with great success. So make a hot beverage and put your feet up for some great watching and listening below.

“Creature Comforts” by Aardman Productions is based on interviews with nursing home residents.

“Dock Ellis & The LSD No No” is based on a 2008 interview with the baseball great on Weekend America.

Several beautiful videos have been produced by or inspired by Radiolab. The approach was to create something entirely new, rather than track literally against a specific interview or episode. Moments is a favorite, and I also love this:

Snap Judgment has animated some of their episodes, like this one about hypnosis. (Watching it shouldn’t make you a mind slave, but would I know if it did?)

I first encountered the radio-video concept in a series of powerful animations from StoryCorps. This is one of my favorites, based on an interview with Studs Terkel.

Other ideas came from:

• Mike Birbiglia and his encounter with a bear,
• the story of when Werner Herzog rescued Joaquin Phoenix,
• “Man and Beast,” based on this story from The Moth,
• Blank on Blank’s YouTube channel,
• and the less beautiful but just as intriguing automated animation using the Xtranormal movie maker tool.