PRX Launches Remix Radio App!

PRX RemixThe digital vault over at PRX is brimming with audio stories.  A few years ago, using Backbone Radio technology, they launched an XM satellite radio channel (XM 123) to showcase the best short pieces from PRX.org plus select podcasts. The channel quickly went from satellite to internet to broadcast. The PRX Remix channel listed in the Public Radio Player app, too.  A channel this great deserves its own App.

Enter the PRX Remix App, an app that brings listeners a curated mix of the most compelling radio stories, fascinating interviews, audio documentaries, and intriguing sounds from popular shows like Radiolab and This American Life to podcast gems like The Moth, StoryCorps, 99% Invisible, The Kitchen Sisters, and WTF with Marc Maron.

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Aiming to be the greatest radio station of all time in your pocket, PRX Remix for iPhone and Android showcases a virtually endless stream of ear candy handpicked from all corners of the audio universe by PRX program director Roman Mars, who was recently named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People,” and the respected editorial team at PRX, the award-winning public media company. Creating a completely new listening experience that is fresh, thoughtful, and highly addictive, PRX Remix confirms that the digital era has sparked a new golden age of storytelling.

Drawing from PRX’s growing catalog of over 40,000 audio works by independent producers as well as local stations, PRX Remix offers over 2,400 short audio pieces, with new selections added on a weekly basis. At any given moment, listeners might journey seamlessly from Texas, where the Kitchen Sisters chronicle the history of the Frito, to the sounds of a Los Angeles intersection captured by Random Tape, a radio show dedicated to “the finest auditory ephemera.” In between, listeners will meet raconteurs from The Moth, be dazzled by the world’s brightest minds from TEDTalks, and be moved to tears and laughter by StoryCorps.

To mark the launch of the PRX Remix app, Mars selected his list of must-listen audio stories, all of which are in regular rotation on PRX Remix.

Roman Mars’ Top Ten Must-Listen Stories on PRX Remix

  • Ben Franklin death ray – The Memory Palace
  • Birth of the Frito- Kitchen Sisters
  • Red, White and Blue Bus – Third Coast
  • NIKKO- Concrete Commando – 99% Invisible
  • The Ground We Lived On – Sound Portraits
  • Beep, Beep – David Weinberg
  • Talk to Me About Love – Jill Dorothy Summers
  • Thao Nguyen Grandma – Stagedive
  • Nick: Home School to High School – Radio Diaries

With PRX Remix, listeners can hit play, lean back, and enjoy a steady stream of audio delights or skip through the selections to discover new favorites. The app keeps an archive of all listened-to stories so users can enjoy again, easily share with friends and post to social media. And for people on the go, in the subway, or on a remote stretch of highway, the app preloads up to one hour of audio without a network connection.

“We are all story-driven by nature, so we designed PRX Remix to be the single best source for your awesome audio fix,” said Jake Shapiro, CEO of PRX. “This isn’t yet another aggregator app – there are stories in PRX Remix you won’t find anywhere else.”

In addition to the iOS and Android apps, PRX Remix streams 24/7 on satellite radio (XM Channel 123), online at www.prxremix.org, and on a growing number of public radio stations across the United States, including Boston, Seattle, Cincinnati, and Charlotte. The PRX Remix app was developed by PRX with funding support from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is among the first mobile projects to receive a grant from the NEA’s Arts on Radio and Television fund.

Kickstart The American Radio Revolution!

I want to tell you a little bit about a project we are supporting as they near the end of their fund-raising effort.  It is “The American Revolution”, how a radio station, politics and rock and roll changed everything.  It is about the start of WBCN and free form radio in the greater Boston area in the late 1960s.

Bill Lichtenstein - Boston HeraldFor the past five years, as hundreds of supporters have shared their personal collections of rare tapes, photos, and memorabilia, Lichtenstein Creative Media has been producing a feature-length documentary film, The American Revolution.  This innovative Kickstarter fund raising campaign will provide the support needed to complete the documentary, which is being produced for theatrical and PBS release in 2012 by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media, in conjunction with the non-profit Filmmakers Collaborative.

The effort has mobilized the public and press in an extraordinary way.  See the WCVB Chronicle story at www.KickstartWBCN.com and the amazing story in the Herald. Support on-line has also been unbelievable.  You can get a flavor if you look at the comments on the Kickstarter site. I hope you can help and we look forward to helping to delivering streaming audio for this project shortly!!

Spokane Public Radio gets REMIXed

Spokane Public RadioIt is with great pleasure that we announce that KPBZ, 90.3 FM, Spokane Public Radio is on the air!  Our partners at PRX and their Remix Radio service are providing the programming.

REMIX is an experimental radio stream hosted by PRX to showcase pieces from PRX.org and develop new approaches to public radio formats and sounds.  They are a 24-hour semi-formatless remix of amazing public radio stories, cool podcasts, fascinating interviews, and anything else that makes a sound that we find interesting.

Join Remix on the satellite airwaves all over the world on XM 136 or locally in Spokane at 90.3 FM, serving Central Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia or online at remixradio.org

That guy you keep hearing is Roman Mars.  He is the host and content curator of the Public Radio Exchange radio stream. His reported and documentary work has most recently aired on Morning Edition, Weekend America, KALW’s Crosscurrents and WBEZ’s Re:sound. Before going rogue, Mars spent over three years at WBEZ’s Third Coast International Audio Festival as the project senior producer and sound designer, developing their weekly documentary radio program and producing the TCF national broadcast specials for Public Radio International. Mars started his radio career at KALW in San Francisco and was best known as host and executive producer of Invisible Ink, an independent literary audio zine. The show received numerous recognitions from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and was named “Best of the Bay” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.