The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet use.[1]
On February 28, 2007, PRX and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced the Public Radio Talent Quest.[2] It was an open search for new public radio talent, allowing producers to produce a pilot show for public radio. Finalists were to be chosen after a five-round competition voted on by fans, public radio professionals and celebrity judges. On May 14, the first round of submissions ended with 1,452 entries. As of May 22, 2007, the Public Radio Talent Quest site had over 14,600 registered users.
On April 9, 2008, the MacArthur Foundation selected PRX as one of its 2008 recipients of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. In late November of that year, PRX soft-launched PRX 3.0. The launch included their Remix Radio project, which provides a sampling of the content available for licensing on the site.
On January 1, 2009, PRX, Inc became a Massachusetts 501c3 non-profit corporation. Previously PRX had been a project area of the Station Resource Group, a Maryland non-profit. On January 28, PRX Remix was added to XM Satellite Radio on channel 136. Later that year, on July 19, PRX launched the Public Radio Player 2.0, an iPhone app for public radio developed by PRX, NPR, and other public radio partners, and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. On August 11, PRX was included in CPB's agreement with SoundExchange through 2015 as a covered public radio entity for music webcasting royalties.
In 2010 PRX launched two iPhone apps: the This American Life app on February 1 and the WBUR Boston app on July 7. That same year, PRX won a Peabody Award for The Moth Radio Hour.[3] PRX was also announced as a winner of the 2010 Knight News Challenge for Story Exchange, a crowdfunding journalism project, on June 16. On September 8, 2010, PRX announced $2.7M in new funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
On December 8, 2011, PRX announced $2.5M in funding from Knight Foundation to create the Public Media Accelerator. In May 2014, PRX received a Peabody Award for the Reveal show "The VA's Opiate Overload".[4]
On August 15, 2018, PRX and Public Radio International announced they would merge, though both networks would maintain separate identities and programming.[5][6] The PRI brand was retired the following year.
Formerly known as Public Radio Remix. As of 2011, two radio stations, KPBZinSpokane, Washington and WREMinCanton, New York, air a full-time schedule of programming from PRX, branded as Public Radio Remix.[7] Both stations are owned by the same organizations as their markets' primary National Public Radio affiliates. PRX Remix also airs on Sirius XM Channel 123.
Several other public radio stations air some, but not all, Public Radio Exchange programming in their schedules.
^Falk, Tyler (August 15, 2018). "PRI, PRX merge to form new organization". current.org. Current. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020. Public Radio International and PRX will merge under an unusual arrangement that allows both to maintain separate identities and program portfolios.
^Beard, David (August 20, 2018). "Merger of 2 public radio outsiders has something for both". poynter.org. Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020. Last week, the two public radio experimenters announced they would merge.
