PRX Builds Great Mobile Apps

As part of PRX's mission to expand the reach and impact of public media through innovative use of technology, we are now developing mobile applications for iOS (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) and Android systems.

Mobile apps offer extraordinary opportunities for stations and producers to serve and engage listeners and also to generate revenue. This is a rapidly developing part of the media landscape, and PRX has taken a lead in building internal expertise and a mobile platform to accelerate app development that keeps pace with new technology.


A Brief History of Our Apps

PRX's first iPhone app is the Public Radio Player -- over 3 million unique downloads since its first release in January of 2009.

Since then, we've brought This American Life to the iPhone, iPad, and Android. The app provides access to their entire archive of shows back to 1995 plus extra features; like the Public Radio Player, the iPhone version has been listed as one of the top apps in the iTunes Store. This American Life for iPhone won a 2011 Webby Award in Mobile & Apps.

Our venture into station apps began with the WBUR Boston iPhone app, designed as a fully-featured mobile experience for WBUR listeners including live streaming, an on-demand program archive, social network integration, location-based member benefits, a virtual member card, local sponsor banners, and an "assignments" feature for soliciting user-generated audio, text, and photos. The product of extensive research, design, and development, the WBUR app is now serving as the template for our new app platform that streamlines development of apps for more stations and other public media partners.

We Believe in Mobile for Public Media

Everyone in public media is talking about mobile these days, and for good reason. A significant and growing number of listeners have smartphones, and they engage deeply with the content and services they find there. Mobile apps support a public media strategy that focuses on digital distribution, interactivity, location-based services, and monetization.

We believe this is an important moment for public media to make major inroads in mobile, with significant opportunities for serving audiences, building revenue, and establishing a strategic presence on a vital new platform.

Thinking of Going Mobile?

We'd love to hear from you. Please take a look at our overview about app features and process (PDF), then get in touch for more information on pricing, technical requirements, and anything else you want to know!

In the News

Public Radio Player

This American Life App

WBUR App

Mobile and the Future


Our Apps So Far


iPhone

iPhone
iPad
Android

iPhone

iPhone

"Public Radio [Player] is one of my favorite iPhone applications. I can now sleep late on the weekend and still listen to Weekend Edition, by listening to a west coast public radio station, or if I wake up really late, I can catch Weekend Edition on one of the Hawaiian public radio stations. Being a program director, I've found this to be a great source for monitoring other station’s pledge drives, to get ideas of what others are doing to generate calls." -Station Program Director
"I love this app. Makes the world seem so small. Fun to listen to New Orleans during Mardi Gras while in Montana." -Public Radio Player iTunes review
"This warrants a pledge. I know I'll be using this app more than a lot of one[s] I've paid for." -WBUR app iTunes review
"This is just the best app of its kind. Hundreds of episodes on demand with the ability to keep track of your favorites and mark each episode as 'heard'." -This American Life App iTunes review