Quick Takes
Friday roundup: PRX enlists Jacapps for station apps; FCC divulges data on interference
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Plus: an interview with the creator of Vicious, and a boost for Reading Rainbow from Seth MacFarlane.
Current (https://current.org/tag/public-radio-exchange/page/2/)
Plus: an interview with the creator of Vicious, and a boost for Reading Rainbow from Seth MacFarlane.
The producers of public radio’s This American Life will take over distribution of their show starting July 1, using Public Radio Exchange to deliver the program to stations. TAL and Public Radio International, its distributor of 17 years, announced in March that they would part ways effective July 1. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass will handle distribution and underwriting, while Marge Ostroushko will be responsible for marketing and station relations. Ostroushko handled those duties before PRI picked up the show in 1997. “We’re excited and proud to be partners now with PRX,” Glass said in a statement.
The WFMT Radio Network is preparing to release the complete digitized radio archives of Pulitzer Prize–winning oral historian Studs Terkel online by early 2015.
After This American Life parts with longtime distributor Public Radio International July 1, it could become public radio’s most widely carried show without a major distributor representing it. That’s if the show pursues that option. Program host and creator Ira Glass has hinted in interviews with the New York Times and Chicago media reporter Robert Feder that he’s considering self-distribution. But there may be good reasons that few shows have gone that route. Self-distribution poses challenges that few resource-strapped program creators are willing to take on, including handling their own billing, marketing and station relations.
As the Public Media Platform prepares for its phased rollout across the system in January, Executive Director Kristen Calhoun is seeking opportunities and partners willing to experiment with its still-unknown potential.
… There’s a lot of hype about crowdfunding — raising production money through a website. So far, the technique hasn’t been able to support full-time journalists, much less a beat, a substantial weekly program or a newsroom. But independent journalists, public media stations, newspapers and web startups all have had successes…
Creators of the Public Radio Exchange plan to launch their service
this fall, opening a new channel for independent producers to sell work
to stations. PRX operates somewhat like an Amazon.com of the indie world. A subscribing
station gets an account and uses a web-based interface to browse and
search for pieces uploaded by producers. They can consult background
information provided by producers and reviews written by other users. Independent producer Jay Allison hatched the PRX idea in late 2001,
hoping to ease indies’ ordeal of getting their work aired.