It’s a wonderful time of year for radio! Today, the 2013 Third Coast Festival / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition opened-up shop for submissions.

Radio makers from far and wide will submit their very best audio to the competition by July 10, with an early (discounted price!) deadline of June 19. The highly experienced panel of judges will base their selections on story choice, technical quality, editorial integrity, creativity, writing and use of sound.

From the competition website:

The Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition seeks the best audio work produced worldwide in the following categories:

Best Documentary (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Directors’ Choice, Honorable Mention), Best New Artist, Radio Impact, and Best News Feature

Winners will celebrated at Third Coast Awards Ceremony on October 20 in Chicago. Their winning stories will be featured in Best of the Best: The 2013 Third Coast Festival Broadcast, distributed to public radio stations nationwide by the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) this Fall.

Need some inspiration? Curious about what wins? Check out this playlist of past winners on PRX.

Or, listen to the last year’s Best of the Best: The 2012 Third Coast Festival Broadcast:

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May 15, 2013 PRX: Clear as a Bell Hi friend of PRX, You guys. Lots of less-than-transparent stuff going on in the ol’ Beltway…this week especially. At PRX, we think openness is better: You can see every piece every station has licensed for all of PRX history. We have open comments and ratings, yup — add your voice. How well did PRX, producers and stations do last year? No hiding: here’s the skinny from Zeitfunk! -John Memorable May Picks for this month’s holidays Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Peabody-winning series from Dmae Roberts: Crossing East is eight one-hour documentaries plus shorter pieces on the history of Asian immigration into the US. More for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month It’s Bike Month! We’re celebrating Pedal Power with a list of cycling picks. For Memorial Day, we have music specials, travel stories, and reverent remembrances. Full list of picks. Roman-esque Curator/producer/revolutionary Roman Mars was just named one of Fast Company‘s most creative people of 2013. Last year, his series 99% Invisible had the most successful journalism project in Kickstarter history. The show is available in 4:30 episodes for stations or the full director’s cut. Roman also curates PRX’s Remix stream — the best of pubradio on shuffle — available online and stations around the country. Is your station next? And, while we have you… a radio time machine to 2003: Roman’s older series Invisible Ink is archived on PRX. Pride Month Picks for June The Boy Scouts will vote May 20 on whether to partially lift a ban on gay scouts. Westchester Public Radio discusses what that would mean. Gay in the Eyes of God explores how Christians, Jews, and Muslims grapple with the LGBT community. Surprising and fascinating. Listen as a producer sneakily records her brother’s coming out to his parents. FYI: UNBLEEPED. More for Pride Month Other Good Stuff Got an amazing radio piece? Of course you do — it’s time to enter the Third Coast Competition! Early deadline is noon PT on June 19. Follow Us for the Latest Timely Picks Spring Memorial Day Pride Month: June Exclusive Series The Moth Radio Hour True stories told weekly. State of the Re:Union Communities, experiences… life. New season is here. Sound Opinions This week: Legendary bassist Peter Hook remembers Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Snap Judgment Fate, fights, gratitude, Snap. American Routes The iconic program on the music of America. Here’s The Thing New episodes with Alec Baldwin coming this fall. WTF with Marc Maron The popular comedy podcast goes radio. New episodes in May. LA Theatre Works Contemporary radio drama. Public Radio Remix Are you listening yet? PRX Podcasts 99% Invisible: A show about design with Roman Mars. HowSound: What’s behind great radio? Blank on Blank finds lost interviews. You listen. Latitude News: Mexican, undocumented, and Mormon. Forward to a friend Got questions about PRX? Talk to a friendly human! This newsletter is a weekly communication to provide programming suggestions and other relevant information to the staff of stations that use PRX. PRX Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe PRX, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. PRX was created through a collaboration of the Station Resource Group and Atlantic Public Media, and continues to receive support from public radio stations and producers, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation and Google Grants. Bike Month image from Shutterstock. Memorial Day image by Tony. Pride Month image by seeminglee.

So when we first heard of the remarkable efforts of Anne Wootton and Bailey Smith – the dynamic duo behind Pop Up Archive (winner of the 2012 Knight News Challenge) – we knew we should join forces.

An awesome partnership was born, and for the last several months PRX’s development team has been working with Anne and Bailey to create an easy-to-use web application that archives audio and a lot more.

Today the official announcement of the Pop Up Archive beta site is out (see below), and interested producers can request an invite to take it for a spin.

Among other things, the Pop Up Archive:

• Generates automatic transcripts and keywords so that audio is both searchable and easy to organize.
• Provides access to an archive of sound from around the world.
• Has options for both private and public storage.
• Saves time and money for producers, creators, radio stations, media organizations, and archives of all stripes.

Pop Up Archive is integrated with PRX so members of both can use their existing accounts, and will have the option of publishing their audio to PRX for distribution.

The beta site is open to testers for a limited time! Request an invite here.

The official press release is below.

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Anne Wootton, 510-463-4066, edison@popuparchive.org

Pop Up Archive to create open search and access for audio

Web platform stores, transcribes, and organizes digital media

We gather sound to tell stories. Memories fade and material can easily get lost or degrade. But when it’s easy to archive, it’s easy to find the threads that create stories when you need them.

OAKLAND, Calif. – (May 13, 2013) – Pop Up Archive and PRX are elated to announce the launch of Pop Up Archive, a web-­based system that brings audio to life. The service is a lightweight web application that allows users to search and access audio files from anywhere, opening a door for content creators and journalists to strengthen their work. It is currently being developed as an invitation ­only pilot, but will open to the public in summer 2013.

Pop Up Archive allows media creators to save, organize and find audio without installing any software or managing a server. The system is capable of ingesting large amounts of digital sound and providing automated transcripts with subject tags, timestamps and robust indexing for powerful search. Visitors to Pop Up Archive can also access a quickly growing database of international sound from oral history archives, universities, media organizations and individual collectors. With this audio comes the potential to liberate undiscovered histories, bring new voices into media, and make archiving an integral and painless part of production workflows.

“Most small and independent multimedia publishers have not developed good systems for archiving and sharing their work,” said Michael Maness, vice president for journalism and media innovation at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “Pop Up Archive opens a real opportunity for these content creators to increase the value of their work by allowing them to organize and access audio content and preserve it for future generations.”

Pop Up Archive is a winner of Knight Foundation’s 2012 News Challenge.

Voices from archives around the world are waiting to be discovered in previously
unsearchable audio.

Interested producers can request an invite at popuparchive.org to join the beta test. Pop Up Archive provides unlimited free public storage through the Internet Archive, a San Francisco nonprofit founded to build an Internet library with permanent access to historical collections that exist in digital format. For more sensitive material, private storage options are also available.

The entire Pop Up Archive system will be free for a limited time, with tiered service plans in the future. Planned future improvements to the service include editable transcripts and keywords, additional options for handling rights and access to audio, group memberships and enterprise services for digital audio collections.

For larger media organizations, Pop Up Archive acts as a layer on top of existing content management systems and production workflows. Its simple web interface integrates with reporter habits to strengthen newsrooms — no clunky software. A simple drag-­and-­drop functionality allows users to add audio that becomes immediately searchable with context beyond the typical YouTube search result. Pop Up Archive is building a dynamic archival body of content that can be easily searched and accessed via API, informed by related efforts such as the American Archive Content Inventory Project and the Public Media Platform.

Request an invite today at popuparchive.org for a free account to start making your audio searchable. Archive entire collections of raw audio and completed work — save time and rediscover amazing material by revolutionizing how you organize it.

About PRX
PRX is an award-­winning public media company, harnessing innovative technology to bring significant stories to millions of people. PRX operates public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, offering thousands of audio stories for broadcast and digital use, including signature programs like The Moth Radio Hour. PRX mobile apps include This American Life, KCRW Music Mine, Radiolab, and Public Radio Player. Contact: Jason Gordon, 212­627­8098; jason [at] pkpr [dot] com.

About Pop Up Archive
Pop Up Archive is building a collection of sound from around the world with partners and clients from a growing body of media organizations, oral history archives, and journalists. Born at the UC­ Berkeley School of Information and supported by the Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the system is a lightweight web application that makes audio searchable without requiring technical expertise from users. Contact: Anne Wootton, 510­463­4066; edison [at] popuparchive [dot] org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org. Contact: Andrew Sherry, 305­908­2677; media [at] knightfoundation [dot] org.

Slowly but surely, our team is moving along in the judging process for the STEM Story Project! The next round of judges will be going through proposals this week. (We know that waiting isn’t fun, so thank you for your patience!)

We’ve spent the past couple of weeks parsing through proposals about practically everything–from nanoparticles to redwood trees, hacker space to outer space, the physics of rhythm to algorithms, evolution to technological revolution, drone music to prime number symphonies, neurons and brains to zombies and calculus. Without a doubt, we’ve received quite a spectrum of story proposals! Trust us when we say that we’re just as eager as you are to hear them.

For now, hang tight. Back to you soon!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the #PRXSTEM hashtag on Twitter to see tweets about the proposals we’ve received!

Seriously though, PRX.org will have a scheduled outage and will be down during that time as our hosting provider migrates our servers from one datacenter to another.

We’ll be monitoring our Help Desk during that time and will have a maintenance page in place at PRX.org where we will provide a status update if the work extends beyond the maintenance window. However, we’re expecting this to be a smooth move.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you!

-The PRX Team

Now, relax and listen to Bruce Springsteen.

The lifecycle of a PRX piece is long and well-lived.

Let’s take a look at one:

Birth by Thin Air Media was added to PRX five years ago and has been licensed a few times each year since, some of those licenses being from major market stations like WGBH in Boston and KCRW in Santa Monica.

A piece on PRX has value over the long-term. The piece you made last year may be relevant to a station next year, which is why you should always pay attention to time elements that might date your piece.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to use social media and station contacts to remind programmers about the value of your works, especially if they might apply to a holiday or a recent news item. The piece you made about veterans would most likely be relevant to stations around Veteran’s Day, or a story like Birth, might be relevant to stations leading up to Mother’s Day, perhaps. Always consider these programming Date Pegs, and remember to remind us at PRX about your work too.

Consider your editing process. Remove any information that might date your piece and you will help ensure it can be listened-to and licensed year-in and year-out and see a happy lifetime on PRX.

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May 7, 2013 PRX Reduces Hi friend of PRX, Kudos to a trimmer, lighter Gov. Chris Christie — obesity is a serious problem. KUT and Latino USA took a look at the issue in the Latino community. How a Massachusetts town and the state of New Hampshire are fighting obesity. Being overweight can lead to diabetes; Capital Public Radio examined how three families are coping with the disease. Think healthy, John Memorial Day State of the Re:Union profiles the community of returning war veterans and the struggle of adjusting to home. Veterans remember their fallen comrades on Hearing Voices. A travel-weekend story of a different kind: This American Life aired an excerpt — hear the whole thing. A young man on a 4,000-mile listening journey: Walking Across America. Taking inspiration from the book The Things They Carried, Jake Warga traveled to Afghanistan to ask soldiers what they carry, from the physical to the emotional. A popular two-hour special from the PRX archives: World War One Living History Project interviews the last surviving veterans of World War I. More for Memorial Day Breaking the Cycle of Poverty From Michigan Radio State of Opportunity is a seven-installment series — perfect for a weeklong slot — on breaking the cycle of poverty. Military kids; stress, trauma and potential Life on public assistance, a personal story A teen mom, twice Full series Blank on Blank Cool found interviews Blank on Blank asks reporters to submit tape that they have just laying around, resulting in gems like these reaching your ears: The Beastie Boys talk about nearly getting arrested for swearing during the Virgin Tour with Madonna. Jim Morrison tells us why he thinks fat is beautiful. Larry King on getting seduced over the phone at his first radio job. Really cool companion animations are on Youtube — embed them on your station’s site! Other Good Stuff Teenage diarists from Radio Diaries/Joe Richman — 16 years later. Where are they now? Catch the stories this week on All Things Considered. (Full series on PRX.) Don’t miss the chance to air our American Graduate special Left Behind, Dropping Out before the schoolyear is up. Plus: many more AmGrad pieces. Follow Us for the Latest Timely Picks Mother’s Day: May 12 Spring Memorial Day Pride Month: June Exclusive Series The Moth Radio Hour True stories told weekly. State of the Re:Union Communities, experiences… life. New season is here. Sound Opinions This week: Australian psych-rockers Tame Impala perform live. Snap Judgment Fate, fights, gratitude, Snap. American Routes The iconic program on the music of America. Here’s The Thing New episodes with Alec Baldwin coming this fall. WTF with Marc Maron The popular comedy podcast goes radio. New episodes in May. LA Theatre Works Contemporary radio drama. Public Radio Remix Are you listening yet? PRX Podcasts 99% Invisible: A show about design with Roman Mars. HowSound: What’s behind great radio? Blank on Blank finds lost interviews. You listen. Latitude News: Mexican, undocumented, and Mormon. Forward to a friend Got questions about PRX? Talk to a friendly human! This newsletter is a weekly communication to provide programming suggestions and other relevant information to the staff of stations that use PRX. PRX Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe PRX, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. PRX was created through a collaboration of the Station Resource Group and Atlantic Public Media, and continues to receive support from public radio stations and producers, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation and Google Grants. Memorial Day image from Shutterstock.

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April 30, 2013 PRX Considers Beer Hi friend of PRX, The old optimist/pessimist test about a half-filled glass fails when it comes to beer. Less-than-full mug = bummer. We’re sad beer is less popular in the UK, Germany, and the US of A. One man finds the ‘best beer in the world‘, a DC brewmeister really feared fire, and the brew that you can do…DIY style. Air these, bud! -John Memorial Day It’s almost May Unforgettable: found recordings a soldier made in Vietnam before he was killed. From StoryCorps, a World War II veteran remembers a German soldier he killed in combat. Taking inspiration from the book The Things They Carried, Jake Warga traveled to Afghanistan to ask soldiers what they carry, from the physical to the emotional. State of the Re:Union profiles the community of returning war veterans and the struggle of adjusting to home. More for Memorial Day Timely Potpourri Something for everyone New hour special: Hear amazing teen poets from Chicago’s Louder Than a Bomb competition and learn how it has changed their lives. In honor of the Kentucky Derby: a love letter to a horse; where retired horses go; and the scandal of horsemeat. May 1 is the 50th anniversary of the first American summiting Everest. A dramatic retelling and interview with the man himself. Looking for more? Spring specials galore. The Best of Texas Much music Happy birthday, Willie! 80 and still going strong. Some of our favorite Willie Nelson shows. And: The award-winning weekly music journalism program Texas Music Matters is on PRX! Produced at Austin’s KUT, this series features brand new songs, unreleased rarities, interviews, reviews, music news, artist profiles, and tons more. Other Good Stuff A new Blank on Blank comes this week: In a 1985 interview with Rocci Fisch of ABC News, The Beastie Boys talk about nearly getting arrested for swearing during the Virgin Tour with Madonna. Don’t miss the chance to air our American Graduate special Left Behind, Dropping Out before the schoolyear is up. Plus: many more AmGrad pieces. Follow Us for the Latest Timely Picks Mother’s Day: May 12 Spring Memorial Day Exclusive Series The Moth Radio Hour True stories told weekly. State of the Re:Union Communities, experiences… life. New season is here. Sound Opinions This week: Jim and Greg get an education in J-pop. Snap Judgment Fate, fights, gratitude, Snap. American Routes The iconic program on the music of America. Here’s The Thing New episodes with Alec Baldwin coming this fall. WTF with Marc Maron The popular comedy podcast goes radio. New episodes in May. LA Theatre Works Contemporary radio drama. Public Radio Remix Are you listening yet? PRX Podcasts 99% Invisible: A show about design with Roman Mars. HowSound: What’s behind great radio? Blank on Blank finds lost interviews. You listen. Latitude News: Mexican, undocumented, and Mormon. Forward to a friend Got questions about PRX? Talk to a friendly human! This newsletter is a weekly communication to provide programming suggestions and other relevant information to the staff of stations that use PRX. PRX Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe PRX, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. PRX was created through a collaboration of the Station Resource Group and Atlantic Public Media, and continues to receive support from public radio stations and producers, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation and Google Grants. Beer image from Shutterstock. Memorial Day image from Shutterstock. Texas Music Matters image by Sean C Murphy.

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April 24, 2013 PRX Declares the World’s Most… Hi friend of PRX, Okay, Gwyneth takes Most Beautiful, thank you People. But PRX’s Zeitfunk Awards salute real work by producers and stations. Check their acceptances. And Lu Olkowski’s story in one of Al Letson’s State of the Re:Union shows from this season took a national SPJ…on top of a Gracie. Todd Melby won an SPJ for his Localore project about the North Dakota oil boom, too! Lots of winners on PRX, John PRX Spring Upfronts Sneak peak of programs Did you miss yesterday’s Upfronts? Producers pitched stations on upcoming seasons and specials available now. We made a video! Here it is: Alec Baldwin is coming back with more Here’s The Thing from WNYC. 10 new episodes will be ready for air after Sept 9. The air window on the old episodes will open again in Aug. so you can get a head start. Guests so far: Lena Dunham, Debbie Reynolds, Fred Armisen, and more. The next season of WTF with Marc Maron is coming in May with new guests such as Mel Brooks, John Hamm, Molly Shannon, and more. You’re welcome to air past seasons with the new show for 20 total. Air window for the new season of State of the Re:Union with Al Letson opens April 26. Three specials for American Graduate, one on veterans, and one that just won a Gracie. Get ‘em here. Mapping Eliza lets you follow along as one woman gets her genome sequenced, and faces what the results mean. From IEEE Spectrum Magazine. Hidden Kitchens: The Raw and the Cooked from the Kitchen Sisters. Journey into the world of clandestine cooking, kitchen rituals and traditions; hosted by Frances McDormand. Global Story Project New and off the beaten path The latest submissions in our open call for global stories are here: Benjamen Walker of Too Much Information heads to China for a gonzo journey into mines where 95% of the world’s rare earth minerals come from. In 1923, a Soviet composer conducted a symphony made of the sounds of the city itself. Charles Maynes ponders the composer and his opus. In Permission to Speak, producer Anna Sussman of Snap Judgment heads to Burma to meet recently freed political prisoners and get their stories. Many more Global Stories from all over Mother’s Day May 12 Rick Steves remembers his first travel partner, his mom. Playing On Air features two contemporary plays on mothers plus interviews with the playwrights. We dare you to listen without smiling: Moms, kid voices, and gleeful noise. Many more for Mom Follow Us for the Latest PRX News Timely Picks Mother’s Day: May 12 Spring Memorial Day Exclusive Series The Moth Radio Hour True stories told weekly. State of the Re:Union Communities, experiences… life. New season coming soon. Sound Opinions This week: guitar wizard Kurt Vile performs live. Snap Judgment Fate, fights, gratitude, Snap. American Routes The iconic program on the music of America. LA Theatre Works Contemporary radio drama. Public Radio Remix Are you listening yet? PRX Podcasts 99% Invisible: A show about design with Roman Mars. HowSound: What’s behind great radio? Blank on Blank finds lost interviews. You listen. Latitude News: Mexican, undocumented, and Mormon. Forward to a friend Got questions about PRX? Talk to a friendly human! This newsletter is a weekly communication to provide programming suggestions and other relevant information to the staff of stations that use PRX. PRX Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe PRX, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. PRX was created through a collaboration of the Station Resource Group and Atlantic Public Media, and continues to receive support from public radio stations and producers, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation and Google Grants. Mother’s Day image by Patrick Q.

This post is part of our series highlighting productions from our Global Story Project.

Have you ever thought of your home town as having its own sound? What about how different your city probably sounded 90 years ago?

Moscow-based producer Charles Maynes introduces us to composer Arseny Avraamov, whose 1923 Symphony of Sirens, with no existing recordings, makes it the stuff of legend… and perfect for a creative, experimental audio piece. Take a listen to The Symphony of Sirens, Revisited:

Charles filled us in on what attracted him to Avraamov and his symphony:

“You know, this is a story I first became fixated on several years ago but had no idea how to make. How do you produce a radio story about a music performance from nearly a hundred years ago that no one had recorded? I didn’t know. And so after doing a bit of research, I decided there wasn’t enough ‘there’ to carry a story. So I did what I thought was the smart thing — I dropped it.

“I guess in that way, the title of the story — ‘Symphony of Sirens, Revisited’ — is truer than you might think. With a gentle nudge from PRX (my way of saying thanks!), this is literally me taking another swing at the Avraamov legend. I still don’t know if it ‘works’, but I do find it interesting to think, production-wise, about the little things I do now vs. what I would have done then. The conceit of the piece was to do it as a (kind of) detective story, but the mechanics of the production involved attention to transitions, pacing, and the occasional hint of audio pyrotechnics. Production tricks, in other words. They may not be good tricks, but they’re my tricks — except, of course, for the ones I stole!”