Public TV stations and dual licensees in five states will receive funding and training to develop podcasts for young children and their parents and caregivers.
The Ready to Learn Podcast Accelerator provides each participating station with up to $12,000 and 16 weeks of virtual podcast training from PRX. The accelerator is a partnership between CPB, PBS Kids and PRX.
The training component of the program will cover “developing content, building audience profiles with intention, and sustainability,” according to a Tuesday press release. The podcasts in development aim for audiences of children ages 2 to 8 and adult caregivers.
Participating stations and the concepts they are developing are:
- Ball State PBS in Muncie, Ind. — a podcast “exploring the wide world of work.”
- East Tennessee PBS in Knoxville — a podcast for “caregivers to children with family members affected by incarceration or justice involvement.”
- KERA in Dallas — a bilingual game show podcast.
- KSPS PBS in Spokane, Wash. — a podcast “giving voice to the growing community of immigrant and refugee youth and families in Spokane.”
- The WNET Group in New York City — a fictional podcast “to celebrate the things that bring us together: valuable life lessons and food.”
“We are pleased to partner with PRX and PBS KIDS to bring stations the opportunity to explore innovative ways to help parents and children learn together,” said Debra Tica Sanchez, SVP of educational media and learning experiences at CPB. “We’re grateful for the Ready To Learn Initiative for making this possible.”
Ready To Learn is a federal grant program that supports development of educational television and digital media for preschoolers and children in early elementary grades. CPB and PBS manage the initiative under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education.
This is the second year of the podcast accelerator, which backed pilots of podcasts developed by six teams of audio creators in 2021.