Welcome, Listeners!

As you may have noticed, there's some pretty good stuff to listen to on this site, and it's our goal to get as many ears on it as possible. So sign up (it's free!). Browse the site. Check out the features on the home page; we update it weekly with great new stuff. Or search for the sorts of things you'd think you'd like - by topic, length, peer recommendation, and even "tone." Be picky! Be undiscriminating! Find new stuff your friends have never heard, and tell them about it in a review!

But first things first. What is PRX? How does it work?

What is PRX?

The Public Radio Exchange is an online marketplace for public radio pieces. Producers - station-based or independent - upload their work to the site, and station programmers browse, download, and license these pieces for air.

As a listener and reviewer, you can use PRX to see behind the velvet curtains of public radio. What material is out there? What do you think should be on the radio? When you write a review, you're telling stations and other listeners what you want to hear.

PRX is also a community of folks who just love public radio. Every user has a profile and contact information on the site, so you can enter into a dialogue with your favorite producers or local station. See the face behind the voice, read their profile, and send them an email.

Sign up

Your account is free. Just go here. We just want to know a few things about you; you'll receive a confirmation email after registering, and once you click the link you'll be all set to log in.

Look Around

Not sure what to listen to? The home page is a good place to start. Recently licensed pieces, new reviews and recently uploaded pieces show up on the left column.

Under the Pieces tab, you can browse by length, formats (essay, limited series) and topics (art, children, travel). Under the Reviews or Members tabs you can see what specific producers, stations and reviewers are working on and listening to.

Search

You can do a general search in the search bar at the top of every page. Just enter the text you're looking for, hit "search" and you'll be given every result possible on the PRX site. This is like googling (or using any search engine for the internet), but restricted to the PRX website.

If you have a more specific idea in mind, try our refined search. Click the "all search options" link next to the search bar to get to specifications. You can search pieces, reviews, and members with a variety of restrictions.

Listen

To listen to any piece on PRX just click the play button in the flash player found on a piece page.

Nothing to install, no new pages to go to. It's that easy.

Review

We encourage all PRX members to write reviews of pieces: click on "Review this piece" on the piece listing.

You can write a text review, add private notes to the producer, choose "tones" that for you characterize the piece, and pick a rating: one to five stars.

Help!

Have questions? Problems streaming, logging in, finding the right piece? We're here for you.


Online guide and FAQ: http://help.prx.org
Email: help@prx.org
Phone: (617) 576-5355

"Sign up" image credit Tom Gilbert. "Listen" image credit Angie Harms. "Reviews" image credit Diana Connolly. "Help" image credit John Wigham.

© 2006, The Public Radio Exchange