Zeitfunk Awards: 2011
Our annual list of the "mostiest" PRX members and pieces
Thank you…thank you…thanks for being with us tonight. We’re honored to be here to present the 2011 Zeitfunk Awards for the “mostiest” of PRX members, producers and stations. We'll be filling in for John Barth who just tweeted this picture from the green room. Thanks for sharing, John.
Let the show begin!
With a total of 17,488 licenses in 2011, who will walk away our Most Licensed Producer? And with 93,000+ listeners signed up on PRX.org, which will be the Most Listened-To Piece? Keep reading to discover PRX's Zeitfunkiest people, groups, pieces and stories.
Other good stuff from 2011
The PRX tech team dominated the app scene and rolled out eight new apps for public media and won a Webby Award for the This American Life iPhone App. PRX and The Moth also won a Peabody Award for The Moth Radio Hour.
But it is the PRX producers, listeners and stations that make PRX what it is--a growing community dedicated to bringing significant stories to millions of people.
Cheers to you, to stories and to an amazing year!
Zeitfunk 2011 First-Place Winners
from Radio Rookies (more)
from the Kitchen Sisters (more)
Complete Zeitfunk 2011 Results
We have made some changes to Zeitfunk this year — like showing more than 10 places in certain categories — because of factors like the role played by PRX shows (e.g. The Moth Radio Hour). We have been vigilant about the delineation between producer groups versus individual producers. We have also removed licenses that occurred in private regional networks, where pieces were not available to all PRX stations.
You can learn more about the winners by clicking on their names.
Most Licensed Producer
These individual producers had the most pieces licensed by stations and outside purchasers (non-station entities) in 2011. All of these producers listed have a weekly series, which shows the benefits of having weekly content.
Most Licensed Group
Groups are collections of two or more producers who distribute work on PRX. These are the groups that had the most pieces licensed by stations and outside purchasers in 2011.
Most Licensed Station
Stations are also big producers of pieces. These stations sold the most pieces to other PRX stations and outside purchasers in 2011.
Most Licensed Piece
Here are 2011's best-selling pieces that were not part of a recurring series.
- Best of the Best: The 2011 Third Coast Festival Broadcast from Third Coast International Audio Festival | 50 licenses
- Living Nine Eleven from WNYC
- Like A Rolling Stone - The Music of Bob Dylan
- Tie:
Travels with Mike: In Search of America 50 Years After Steinbeck from The Center for Documentary Studies
The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 1) from The Kitchen Sisters - The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 2) from The Kitchen Sisters
- The Sonic Memorial Project from The Kitchen Sisters
- The Whole Story: How Mr. Rogers Saved Public Media from 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting
- BackStory - American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving from BackStory with the American History Guys
- Robert Johnson Centennial Celebration from Joyride Media
- Tie:
Dream Jobs 2011: Outside the Cubicle from Spectrum Radio
Mississippi Gulf Coast - Defending the Gulf from State of the Re:Union
Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound from the Association of Independents in Radio
Most Licensed Series
Series come in many forms on PRX.org: weekly, monthly, occasional — even daily! And, they come from individual producers, groups and stations. These were the most licensed in 2011.
- Vinyl Cafe from Vinyl Cafe | 736 licenses
- Folk Alley from WKSU
- The Moth Radio Hour Spring and Fall 2011 Seasons from The Moth
- Blues & Beyond from WXPN
- L.A. Theatre Works from L.A. Theatre Works
- StoryCorps from StoryCorps
- Radiolab from WNYC
- The Bluegrass Review from Philip Nusbaum
- Stuck in the Psychedelic Era from Stephen R. Webb
- Global Village with Chris Heim from KMUW
Station that Licensed the Most Pieces
Stations of all sizes and from all over the country use PRX to get audio for air. These are the stations that bought the most pieces from other stations and producers in 2011.
- KFOK-LP - Georgetown, Calif. | 901 pieces licensed
- KPVL - Decorah, Iowa
- KUOW - Seattle, Wash.
- WRNC-LP - Ashland, Wisc.
- KUT - Austin, Texas
- KKRN - Round Mountain, Calif.
- KOSU - Stillwater, Okla.
- Tie:
KEOS - Tacoma, Wash.
WTIP - Grand Marais, Minn. - KMXT - Kodiak Island, Alaska
- Yellowstone Public Radio - Billings, Mont.
Most Licensed Debut Producer
Consider this the "top new artists" category in this year's Zeitfunk awards. Of all the individual producers who were new to PRX in 2011, these folks sold the most pieces.
- Paula Morell | 31 licenses
- Candice Agree
- Aaron Sand
- Tie:
Jack Loeffler
David Tarnow - Erin Gleeson
Most Licensed Debut Group
Consider this Part Two of the "top new artists" category. Here are the groups of producers who were new to PRX in 2011 and sold the most pieces:
- WTF with Marc Maron | 133 licenses
- The Guardian
- This Land Press
- NOVA
- The New Jazz Archive
- RAFI USA
Most Licensed Youth-Produced Piece
PRX has hundreds of youth-produced pieces from different radio groups and individuals around the country. Here are the youth pieces that were licensed the most by stations and outside purchasers in 2011.
- Our 9/11: Growing Up in the Aftermath from Radio Rookies and WNYC | 21 licenses
- Fresh Greens 2.0 from Terrascope Youth Radio and NHPR
- What is American? from Youth Media Project
- Tie:
Homestead Childhood City High Radio
Best Couple from Radio Rookies and WNYC
- 3-Way Tie:
Different, Not Disabled: The Perception of My Mind from WHJE
Schooled: Teens' Stories About American Public Education from KUOW
Coming of Age Illegal from MPR News Stations
Most Listened-To Piece
To keep our public radio community open and growing, we allow anyone who signs up on PRX.org to stream any piece for free. And, we give the option of open streaming that doesn't require logging in, lets the Facebook audio player play full pieces, and gives access to an embeddable audio player.
Here are the pieces that were listened to the most in 2011. An individual listen is considered 30 seconds or more of play.
- The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 1) from The Kitchen Sisters | 7,422 listens
- The Moth Radio Hour 402 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 401 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 405 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 403 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 301 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 501 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 404 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 302 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 502 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 303 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 305 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 503 from The Moth
- The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 2) from The Kitchen Sisters
- The Moth Radio Hour 504 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 304 from The Moth
- WTF Episode 106 with Robin Williams WTF with Marc Maron
- WTF Episode 101 with Judd Apatow from WTF with Marc Maron
- The Moth Radio Hour 505 from The Moth
- WTF Episode 108 with Carlos Mencia from WTF with Marc Maron
- WTF Episode 110 Dane Cook & Janeane Garofalo from WTF with Marc Maron
- The Moth Radio Hour 204 from The Moth
- WTF Episode 104 with Louis CK from WTF with Marc Maron
- The Moth Radio Hour 101 from The Moth
- Everything Was Right: The Beatles' Revolver from Paul Ingles
- February 24, 1607: The Premiere of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo from WFMT
- The Moth Radio Hour 205 from The Moth
- Why Pink Floyd? from Andy Cahn
- WTF Episode 103 with Bob Odenkirk & Maria Bamford from WTF with Marc Maron
- The Moth Radio Hour 104 from The Moth
Most Playlisted Piece
Anyone can create playlists on PRX.org. Use ‘em to gather favorite stories or as a way to show off your curatorial skills. The following pieces were added to the most playlists in 2011. We do not include PRX's staff editors' picks or our format curators' picks in the totals.
- The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 1) from The Kitchen Sisters | 24 playlists
- Tie:
The Hidden World of Girls with Host Tina Fey (Hour 2) from The Kitchen Sisters
The Moth Radio Hour 302 from The Moth - Tie:
Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound from the Association of Independents in Radio
The Moth Radio Hour 303 from The Moth - 3-Way Tie:
The Moth Radio Hour 304 from The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour 301 from The Moth
The Witches of Lublin from Sue Zizza
Most Licensed Producer by Public Radio Remix
Public Radio Remix is PRX's 24/7 stream of awesomeness on XM 123, mobile (Public Radio Player), web, and terrestrial radio. These are the individual producers whose pieces were licensed the most by Public Radio Remix in 2011.
- Rebecca Sheir | 15 licenses
- Hillary Frank - The Longest Shortest Time Podcast
- Tie:
Aaron Sand - Sift Podcast
John Kessler - Tie:
Rachel Falcone
Eric Molinsky
Most Licensed Group by Public Radio Remix
These are the producer groups whose pieces were licensed the most by Public Radio Remix in 2011.
- Third Coast International Audio Festival | 42 licenses
- The Guardian
- This Land Press
- Tie:
The Moth
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies - Radio Netherlands Worldwide
- TurnStyle
- Tie:
Atlantic Public Media
NOVA
- Murray Street Productions
- 3-Way Tie:
Hearing Voices
State of the Re:Union - Snap Judgment
Documentary On One - RTE Ireland
Outside Purchaser that Licensed the Most
Outside Purchasers are a growing list of distributors, services, and shows beyond public radio stations. These are the PRX OPs who licensed the most from PRX producers in 2011.
- Public Radio Remix* | 649 licenses
- HCC Radio The Dragon | 76 licenses
- The Story
- YouthCast
- SALTcast Podcast
- Tie:
WORLDcompass.org
CBC Inside the Music
- HowSound
- Third Coast Festival/Re:Sound
- Interfaith Voices
* A note regarding Public Radio Remix: It is PRX-owned but curated independently by Roman Mars and Emily Corwin, who license the content largely from PRX's indie producer community. We will be rewarding the first-place trophy to HCC Radio The Dragon, but left Remix on the list so that our community could see the impact Remix has.
Most Embedded
Sharing is caring. PRX's embeddable audio player allows listeners to embed the audio on websites and blogs. Here are the pieces that were embedded the most in 2011.
- The Hidden World of Girls (Hour 1) from The Kitchen Sisters | embedded 12 times
- The Art of War from War News Radio
- Learning Experience from War News Radio
- Ira Glass Generic Promos from WTF with Marc Maron
Most Visited Embedded
Of all the pieces that were embedded using PRX's embeddable audio player, these were on websites that were viewed the most.
- The Hidden World of Girls (Hour 1) from The Kitchen Sisters | Visited 34,710 times! Read about it on our blog.
- The Hidden World of Girls (Preview) from The Kitchen Sisters
- Ira Glass Generic Promos from WTF with Marc Maron
- WTF Episode 101 with Judd Apatow from WTF with Marc Maron
- Why Pink Floyd? from Andy Cahn
- The Moth Radio Hour 402 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 401 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 101 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 204 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 405 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 403 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 501 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 305 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 404 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 302 from The Moth
- The Moth Radio Hour 301 from The Moth
- Moon Graffiti from The Truth
- Beyond the Comfort Zone from The Drucker Institute
- The Moth Radio Hour 303 from The Moth
- Asian-American Health Disparities in Minnesota from KFAI
Useful Stats and Facts
During 2011...
- 8,000 individual pieces were licensed by station and outside purchasers; many of those pieces were licensed more than once. The total number of licenses was 17,488 (that's 4,062 more than 2010)!
- 185 new sellers sold pieces.
- 437 individual producers and 176 groups sold pieces.
- We counted 28,519 new registered members on PRX.
- Listeners added 805 new comments to PRX.
Image by Woodley Wonderworks
By Dec. 31st, 2011, PRX had:
- 201 active stations
- 2,535 producers
- 90,010+ listeners (PRX members who don't buy or sell work, but who listen to pieces)
- 29,896+ published pieces
- 1,666 series
- paid nearly $1.4 million to producers
Most Licensed Piece Lengths of 2011
Producers: check out what's selling!
- 55+ to 60 min. (6,747 licenses)
- 0+ to 5 (3,184 licenses)
- 50+ to 55 (2,917 licenses)
- 5+ to 10 (1,746 licenses)
- 115+ to 120 (1,107 licenses)
- 25+ to 30 (702 licenses)
- 10+ to 15 (241 licenses)
- 60+ to 65 (119 licenses)
- 35+ to 40 (114 licenses)
- 20+ to 25 (112 licenses)
Staff Yearbook
Original image by Ricky Gervais
Staff Favorite Memes
If you couldn't guess, we spend a lot of time on the internet. Here are our favorite internet jokes from 2011.
- Kerri: "I admit to repeat views of Evolution of Dance. The Harry Potter puppet pals drove me insane. I also care a lot about the Grantham family."
- Robert: "And that's why you always leave a note."
- Rekha: "My honey badger got more views than all of yours combined! Also, can't forget this."
- Matt: "I raise your honey badger with a Rebecca Black."
- Jones: "A haiku: Aquatic sea beast/causes Rhode Island mayhem/love this too-long bit"
- Andrew: "Put a bird on it!"
- Roman: "I try to stay away from memes."
- Chris: "Inglip is the best meme. It is a better meme than all of the other memes, and it has a cool website. Plus, it is very funny."
- Genevieve: "I like anything that makes fun of cable news, and I love funny news in general. So naturally I like Autotune the News. I bookmark funny news stories, and I have a folder of bad 'news' screenshots. Like this, this, and this."
- Farski: "This is the first sentence of my submission. I vote for Chuck Testa."
- Audrey: "It's definitely a close tie between two of my favorite people: Presidential Candidate Vermin Supreme & Feminist Ryan Gosling."