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Public Radio Exchange Site Launches

Posted by simoniker on Mon Jun 14, 2004 01:42 PM
from the punk-in-drublic dept.
Media Music
TheSync writes "The Public Radio Exchange web site has opened its doors. Radio show producers can sign up to upload programming for peer-review and electronic distribution to public radio stations that like the content. Avid listeners can sign up (for free) to listen and review potential programming. PRX just received a $1.5 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and they are looking for a summer intern in Boston."
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Public Radio Exchange Site Launches 50 Comments More /

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  • I wonder . . . (Score:3, Insightful)

    by base3 (539820) on Monday June 14 2004, @01:43PM (#9422373)
    . . . if this will use a DRM laden, proprietary format like NPR does. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with donation and tax-subsidized radio being locked up in these sorts of formats?

    • Re:I wonder . . . (Score:4, Interesting)

      by the_2nd_coming (444906) on Monday June 14 2004, @01:48PM (#9422446) Homepage
      I'm sad that they do not use Quicktime. but I am sure you want Ogg or something like that.

    • Re:I wonder . . . (Score:5, Funny)

      by garcia (6573) * on Monday June 14 2004, @01:50PM (#9422459) Homepage
      Am I the only one that sees something wrong with donation and tax-subsidized radio being locked up in these sorts of formats?

      No! For God's sake boy! What are you thinking?! Just because you pay for it either directly or indirectly doesn't mean you should have free access to the content.

      Remember, that would be communist.
      • the current & archived content of is freely available. you just need to live with the use of their freely-provided client. Don't like the client? well, that might suck. But they're hardly abusing you.

    • Re:I wonder . . . (Score:4, Funny)

      by Mikkeles (698461) on Monday June 14 2004, @01:56PM (#9422522)
      'Avid listeners can sign up (for free) to listen and review potential programming.'

      So: with mods this is /Radio?

    • Re:I wonder . . . (Score:5, Interesting)

      by riptide_dot (759229) * on Monday June 14 2004, @02:05PM (#9422608)
      What timing. Wired just had an article [wired.com] on Friday about the RIAA warning that digital radio needs to have DRM built in or it "could lead to unfettered song copying".

      I know it's not exactly the same thing, but what would happen if a garage band uploaded their song to the PRX website and then later signed a contract with the RIAA? What would happen to that song? Would it still be allowed to be played on PRX type sites?

      I imagine that the contract would spell stuff like this out for the band and the RIAA, but what about the PRX that already had a copy of it? How would the contract apply to them?
    • Whoopie! I'd love to listen to a stream, but it's in .ram format. I wouldn't install RealPlayer if you held my bare feat to hot coals.

      Please, sir, may we have our freely-available and donation/tax-funded audio in format that doesn't cotton to a giant media corporation, THANKS SO MUCH?

      Dammit.

      • You don't need to install realplayer if you use windows. Media player classic [sourceforge.net] with real alternative works with this site, I just tried it.

        Sites hosting real alternative seem to come and go. This link [free-codecs.com] looks legit though I havn't tried it. I'm really cautious about exe's from the web these days.

        Quicktime alternative is also worth getting. On one computer I had to
        experiment with the directx settings to get it to play video properly.
    • Real audio was a mature technology when they (NPR) first signed on for their service. It has served them well. If you want them to consider free alternatives, make a presentation to them.

      Only a small fraction of the total revenues of NPR comes from the government. I bet we spend more tax dollars for bush's monthly campaigning on Air Force One than the NPR annual budget.
  • Clear Channel dropped Howard Stern from my local radio stations. I used to listen every morning while getting ready at home. Maybe we can do live streams of radio from all over the country via this protocol, and I can get through Clear Channel's "indecency measures."

    GroupShares.com [groupshares.com]
    • Unfortunately Howard isn't about to allow his show to be given out free... but I know how you feel. Q107 in Toronto yanked him off the air a few years back. Sometimes I can pick it up off a buffalo station..

      BTW If you're in Florida... another station picked him up there.

    • Re:Clear Channel Dropped Stern.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by garcia (6573) * on Monday June 14 2004, @01:52PM (#9422488) Homepage
      and I can get through ClearChannel's "indecency measures."

      Please don't be confused. As much as I despise ClearChannel and what they have done to radio it isn't ALL good 'ol Red's fault.

      Remember what government agency that shouldn't have power over "decency" does and what they made CC do.

  • Huh. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 14 2004, @01:46PM (#9422419)
    This post seems a little too late. I work at a public radio station in ohio and have been using PRX for about 5 months or so now. I wonder why it took so long for this to be posted.
    • good point... it should have been posted at least 3 or 4 times now

    • Re:Huh. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Cpyder (57655) on Monday June 14 2004, @01:52PM (#9422492) Journal
      I wonder why it took so long for this to be posted.

      You must be new here.

      PS: don't worry about the lack of attention, now that you're in the collective mind of the /. audience, expect a duplicate of this story in a few days. That should make up for it

    • Have you noticed if this has caused some programming not to be aired? In a way, this reviewing could end up censoring some programming if too many people think it shouldn't be aired for whatever reason. Some may think a particular program would be too edgy for their area and vote it as being "bad".
    • Well, it's better to mention it late than not mention it at all.

      I don't know. I think the Internet has real potential for opening up the airwaves, or will do once we have reasonable, open, unmetered wireless systems so someone can be in the middle of nowhere, flick a switch, and listen to anything, be it the excellent All Things Considered NPR news program, or just someone in their basement mixing music they love that you can't hear anywhere else. It's a matter though of building the infrastructure. We ne

  • intern application requirements (Score:3, Funny)

    by Doomie (696580) on Monday June 14 2004, @01:47PM (#9422432) Homepage
    The application should contain

    "3) A suggestion on where Site Editor Brendan Greeley should live in Boston. He just moved here and needs an apartment."

    Funny ;-)

  • Why Did it Take So Long? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 14 2004, @02:04PM (#9422604)
    I have been working for the company for past half a year and you finally notice us? Damn...!

  • Online Radio Content? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fastdecade (179638) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:07PM (#9422628)
    A bit OT, but are there any indexes or search engines for online radio content?

    Seems to me online radio once had a lot of potential, maybe still does, but has gone nowhere in the past few years. I thought it would pick up with every man and his dog carrying an MP3 player, but apparently not.

    • Re:Online Radio Content? (Score:5, Informative)

      by schmaltz (70977) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:38PM (#9422911)
      Several sites come to mind:

      http://webjay.org [webjay.org] - Calls itself "Listener Created Radio", and it aggregates quite a bit of radio and non-radio MP3, Real and windows content. You can create playlists of audio/video content already hosted someplace. When you click "play" on a playlist, it generates a playlist for your player. Worth checking out.

      http://www.radio-locator.com/ [radio-locator.com] - They track radio stations and list their stream links too

      http://www.radio4all.net/ [radio4all.net] - Anybody can submit radio content to them, it's sort of a precursor to PRX but a lot less middle-of-the-road.

    • Public Radio Fan [publicradiofan.com] is a great site that I've been using for a while. Highly recommended, as it's very versatile and lets you select which format you want to stream for each show/station.

  • Summer Intern position (Score:4, Funny)

    by AgentPhunk (571249) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:25PM (#9422794)
    From their site:

    Will introduce you to the high-powered, creatively satisfying, poorly compensated world of public radio. May compensate you. May also not compensate you. Will provide you with an immediate list of marginally interesting things to do, a list that will grow exponentially more interesting as we discover how competent you are. Will offer exposure to people who are famous, or at least as famous as you can be if you got famous by being on public radio.

    Subsitute /public radio/ with /your job here/

    Hey, at least they're honest.

  • Nothing quite new (Score:4, Informative)

    by Platinum Dragon (34829) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:26PM (#9422801) Journal
    Hard-left radio stations have been using the A-Infos Radio Project [radio4all.net] and the IMC Radio Project [indymedia.org] for some time to distribute content. The quality of the productions range from excellent to useless, much like anything else. The productions are almost all politically-oriented, so not having read the article (a grand Slashdot tradition), I don't know if PRX also carries a larger proportion of music and PSAs.
  • Avid listeners can sign up (for free) to listen and review potential programming.

    I've seen a lot of comparisons to NPR, but from the description in the news bit (I can't load the prx.com website for some reason), it seems to run with a philosophy a bit more comparable to Pacifica [pacifica.org] - a public radio foundation that is run with active participation from listeners. With the level of listener involvement apparently available, I can't really see the NPR comparison.

  • bout time (Score:5, Informative)

    by akb (39826) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:31PM (#9422856)
    Radio4all [radio4all.net] and Indymedia [indymedia.org] have been providing space to upload radio programs for years. And they don't even charge stations to download the shows.

    I would estimate the yearly expenses of those projects to be an order of magnititude less than $1.5m. Oneworld Radio [oneworld.net] also offers upload space for programs and is networked internationally. I would guess their costs are a bit less than $1.5m but in a similar ballpark.
  • i'm having trouble finding information on whether they allow mostly-music pieces or if the site is geared mostly towards talk.

    i guess they're not going for the mixtape-trading aspect.
  • Finally we have an outlet by which we can mod those crap bands down into the center of the earth, where they will melt and contribute to plate tectonics. I am assuming that anyone who listens will have some kinda e-mail access to the various groups beaming music around, surely they'll want to collect some consumer data.

  • I want... (Score:4)

    by Niles_Stonne (105949) on Monday June 14 2004, @02:47PM (#9422986) Homepage

    Slashdot Radio!

    (Geeks in Space)

  • Coupla responses from PRX site editor (Score:4, Informative)

    by brendangreeley (788149) on Monday June 14 2004, @03:44PM (#9423443)
    While our tech guys are desperately trying to deal with a spike in slashdot-driven traffic, I'm going to try to answer some questions and dispel some rumors.

    1. PRX does not distribute music. As you all know, this is a sticky subject and thus conveniently outside of our brief.

    2. As befits a publicly-funded site, anyone [prx.org] can listen to pieces and offer a review. We encourage it. Like the great Soviet enterprise we are, we demand it. Submit.

    3. It is possible to believe strongly in both public radio and the free market. They are not mutually exclusive, nor is public broadcasting the sole province of liberals [wnyc.org].

    4. PRX is not Internet radio. We use a web platform to allow nonprofit radio stations to browse for content that they can license, download and broadcast.

    5. We're in the midst of rethinking how parts of the site work, particularly the search function and reviews/moderation. We welcome comments. The relationship between the popular vote and the judiciary may or may not be germane to this discussion but hey, it's your Constitution too.

    • I'll admit that it was kind of funny but I don't see any real insight, unless the mods love his sig so much.
    • Wait, is this the application for internship or the Official NPR Affiliate Peer Review checklist?
    • k. i'll bite. Please check those that apply to you:

      [] i like loud, obnoxious shock-jocks that aren't qualified to make any social commentary beyond the fact that they have a mouth...a loud one.

      [] i like crappy, teenybopper-14-yr-old songs.

      [] i like to hear the 400000 times a day....

      [] i LOVE shitty radio commercials that run all day long...

      the list goes on from there.....shut up and don't listen, don't give and get lost.
    • heh, pretty funny, except that NPR isn't exactly a leftist organization anymore...

      http://www.tompaine.com/articles/nprs_liberal_m y th .php

      Also, I'd much rather pay for something up-front than borrow and pay interest on it for years and years, which seems to be the conservative approach: borrow and spend. That comes back as taxes, interest and principal - much more costly than tax and spend.

      We'll all get the privilege of paying back the Bush II tax cut for many years.
    • [] Slavery is good - it employs people and increases profit.

      [] Human life is a cheap and necessary cost of doing business.

      [] Global resources exist to benefit the few, the wealthy.

      [] First come, first serve.

      [] Winner takes all.

      [] Those folks are lucky to be working at Megamart.

      [] Government exists to serve the wealthy.

      [] Property is a god-given right.

      [] Rich people need more tax breaks.

      [] If we can't win with advertising, win with intimidation and violence.

      [] We need to spend more money on weapons
    • Just so you guys know I'm libertarian, because I think you guys thought I was a conservative.

      So, from now on, reply accordingly. Because assuming makes an ass out of u and ming.

    • [ ] The NEA is a good thing.

      [ ] They're pretty successful in taking other people's money and floating it towards stuff we call art.

      Ummmm ... yeah, but I don't worry too much about it. Those NEA stormtroopers aren't nearly as well armed as me and Maude are, so when they show up on our porch trying to steal our Similac so they can sell it to third world countries to fund the next guy who wants to submerge a crucifix in a bucket of piss, I can just open up on 'em with my .50 cal and blow those art-lovin

      • Re:Part of Application for Internship (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Fortunately, the US does not practice rule-by-uneducated-mobs.

      • Re:Part of Application for Internship (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Pledge of Allegiance (removing "under God")

        In other words, putting it back the way it was originally. Except that "under God" isn't removed yet, so your argument there holds no water.

      • Yes, and if voting by the populace were the way that we made all decisions, women wouldn't be able to vote and southern schools would still be segregated.

      • Fortunately, the founders of the nation were smarter than its members, and made something called the Constitution. Liberals have this whacky idea that the consitution should be followed (although some of them have funny ideas about the 2nd amendment) and as such, tend to go up against the majority of Americans who seem to think the consitution is more convenient as a piece of toilet paper.
        • Yes, because as we all know, late term abortions are constituionally established rights.

          And besides, the consitution is too crisp and brittle to be used as toilet paper. (this is a joke - so relax)
        • You know, it's not just liberals or Democrats who think the Consstitution gets in the way. Back around 1860, a prominent Republican thought the Constitution got in the way of a lot of his reforms too (central state bank, government subsisidies for railroads, income taxes, that kind of thing). So when he had the chance, he cast it aside and remolded this country from a republic of independant states into a European-style mercantilist system where the federal government reigned supreme. To make his point,
      • That's why they use judges and lawyers and lawsuits to push their agenda.

        2nd amendment would be long gone too.

        Judges and lawsuits are not used exclusively by liberals. The simple fact is that when we have so many laws, they are going to contradict each other on many occasions. We need judges to decide those situations; lawsuits are the means for these resolutions.

        We acknowledge that the state shall not establish religion (as stated by the constitution), a law requiring the daily recitation of "under g
        • Sorry for getting offtopic...

          I happen to agree with you about the abortion thing, but that is not because I against a woman's right to choose, it is because I am for the right of the fetus to choose.

          That's an interesting argument, but what about this: wouldn't a fetus be considered a minor, and therefore incapable of making decisions like that? If that's the case, then responsibility for the decision transfers back to the legal guardian (which, in the case of a fetus, could only be the mother - it doesn

      • I love it when prefectly fine technology sites slide in to useless politics.
    • So, just because it's on, or sponsored by NPR, means that it's liberal? Is that your take?

      Have you ever listened to NPR? Or do you [oreilly-sucks.com] just [thelantern.com] regurgitate [cybercollege.com] what [workingforchange.com] FOX News tells you? Because that's really a source of non-biased coverage. You know, just because people keep saying the media is liberal doesn't make it true [whatliberalmedia.com].

      NPR is probably one of the more interesting news agencies out there. You'll here stories there that you won't hear anywhere else. Not because of a political stance, but because they are not trying to get ratings to get advertisers. There stories are much more interesting for those with half a brain.

      Besides, the current administration deserves as much heat as can be brought on them. They've gotten a very easy ride from this supposed liberal media.

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