Info for Stations

How to submit your stream and promote the Player

The Public Radio Player is here to help your station reach existing listeners wherever they go, and reach new listeners, too. The project is open to all public radio stations in the United States (see below for eligibility). You can submit up to four streams — including HD Radio streams and multiple bit rate options. The more public radio station participation, the better this application gets!

1. Check if your station is eligible

To be in the Public Radio Player, your station must meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • CPB qualified
  • NPR member station
  • APM affiliate
  • PRI affiliate
  • PRX paid station member
  • National Federation of Community Broadcasters participating member
  • Station Resource Group member station

2. Submit or edit your stream information

First, gather and review the information you will need to submit. Below are the recommended technical specs for live audio streams in the Public Radio Player.

Supported Stream Formats
  • The Player supports MP3, AIFF, PLS, M3U, AIFC, WAVE, CAF, NeXt, AAC, and ADTS formats and performs best with streams 64kbps or lower. More about bit rates and mobile streaming.
  • The Player does not support Windows Media (.wma) or Real Media (.ram) streams, nor can it read streams from a Flash player.
Email Us This Information

Public Radio Exchange (PRX) manages stream submissions. To submit a new stream, email publicradioplayer .at. prx .dot. org with “Station:” in the subject line and provide the following information. You can submit up to four streams; just include the same detail for each.

Please send following information:

  1. Station Name: This is how the stream name will appear in the list on the Player. We recommend identifying your geographic location and/or service in your stream name. Max. 35 characters including spaces
  2. Call Letters & Frequency: Max. 22 characters including spaces
  3. Website address: We link to this from the stream page in the app
  4. Stream/Station Logo: Can be .gif, .jpg, or .png. Max. height is 100px; max. width 242 px
  5. Your Composer feed URL(optional) This displays your schedule in the app; learn more at NPR Digital Service’s site
  6. Audio stream URL
  7. Stream bit rate

Also include:

  1. Full name
  2. Your email address
  3. Position at your station
  4. Your station’s street address
  5. Stream market (city or region)
  6. Full name of technical contact at your station (for your Internet stream)
  7. Phone number of technical contact at your station (for your Internet stream)
  8. E-mail address of technical contact at your station (for your Internet stream
  9. Which of the following groups does your station belong to? (required for Player participation)
  • CPB qualified
  • NPR member station
  • APM affiliate
  • PRI affiliate
  • PRX paid station member
  • National Federation of Community Broadcasters participant member
  • Station Resource Group member
Things to Keep in Mind

Station Schedule Data: Program schedule information on the Public Radio Player is supplied by NPR Digital Services. If your station uses NPRDS’s Composer tool, you can update your schedule directly. If not, please contact NPRDS directly.

Reporting: The Public Radio Player calls your station’s Internet stream, so you should be able to use your existing reporting tools to measure use of your stream through the player. The Public Radio Player team will not have access to reporting data specific to your station’s stream.

Bandwidth: The Public Radio Player has had more than three million unique downloads. Stations should be aware that inclusion in this application may increase usage of your Internet streams. If you have concerns about being able to support additional use of your Internet stream, talk to the technical contact at your station.

Email Us for Other Reasons, Too

Stations should email publicradioplayer .at. prx .dot. org with “Station:” in the subject line for the following:

  • To submit and/or edit station and stream information (see above)
  • To update on-demand program information, such as podcast URLs for programs you “own”
  • For general questions about the app
  • If your listeners have questions about the Public Radio Player that you can’t answer, please direct them to our Facebook page, which we monitor regularly. Or, email us with “Station:” in the subject line

Note: Station stream schedule information is pulled from Composer, an NPR Digital Services tool. Any questions about schedule data should be directed to NPRDS.

We get a lot of inquiries, so please give us time to get to yours. But we will!

3. Promote your participation in the Public Radio Player

Your iPhone presence is something to be proud about. So get the word out! Use your air, use your website, your mobile website, your podcasts, your social networks… Keep reading for logos, audio promos, and suggested copy.

Direct and Affiliate Links

The short link to the Public Radio Player in the iTunes Store is: http://tinyurl.com/publicradioplayer. This is an affiliate link. Apple pays 5% commission for sales from traffic that link refers.

If you are already a member of the Apple iTunes affiliate program, managed by LinkShare, we encourage you to post your own affiliate link to the Public Radio Player on your site. You can join the program here.

If you don’t have an affiliate membership but want to help support the project, we invite you to use PRX’s affiliate link (just right click and copy this URL). You can use this link with one of the Web graphics below.

Public Radio Player Logo

Public Radio Player logo (large)
Public Radio Player logo (medium)
Public Radio Player logo (small)

Promo Graphics for Stations

Web graphics in various sizes to use on your station site.

Promo graphic 300 x 250
Promo graphic 200 x 150
Promo graphic 160 x 600 (skyscraper)

Badges for Your Blog

Web graphics that can be used by stations, program websites, and bloggers. Download and post in your sidebar using an html or text box.

Badge 300 x 250
Badge 200 x 150
Badge 160 x 600 (skyscraper)

Ideas for On-Air Promotional Copy

“Stream audio from [Station], live and on-demand, using the free Public Radio Player app for iPhone. For more information, visit [Station URL - OR - Apps DOT PRX DOT Org].”

“You can stream [Station] using the Public Radio Player on your iPhone or iPod Touch. For more information on the free download, visit [Station URL - OR - Apps DOT PRX DOT Org].”

“Listen to [Station] on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Download the free Public Radio Player and enjoy public radio on the go. More information available at [Station URL - OR - Apps DOT PRX DOT Org].”

Video demo of Public Radio Player 2.0

Here’s a brief tour of an earlier version of the Player, but it still gives a very good idea of how it works. Feel free to embed on your site.