WBUR gathered the input of its audience when planning features for the app and, with the PRX team, sought to create an app that harnessed the power of the iPhone. More than just a tool for streaming audio, the WBUR app is meant to facilitate a new level of engagement between the station and its audience.
Here are some highlights of the new WBUR app:
Live stream WBUR
Read the latest news from WBUR and NPR and share stories on Facebook and Twitter
Submit breaking news tips and photos to the WBUR Newsroom
View your member benefits on a map with a built-in location finder to locate participating businesses and redeem savings using a virtual member card
Initiate donations to WBUR from your iPhone
Alarm clock/Sleep timer for the night owls and early birds.
Listen to 20+ programs on demand
View the program schedule
Like with the Public Radio Player, PRX plans to release the code for the WBUR app under an open source license to assist other stations in the development of their own apps. The WBUR app is available for free in the iTunes App Store. You can see more screenshots of the app and watch a brief video tour.
Monle, one of the many audio
recording and editing apps
With great content from hundreds of live and on-demand streams, the Public Radio Player app quickly transforms you into a public radio power user. But what if you want to break down the proverbial fourth wall and make some radio of your own? Good news — it’s getting easier and easier to record and edit audio directly on your phone. A number of new apps are taking mobile audio production to the next level.
First off, remember that every iPhone comes with the Voice Memos app. And sure – it’s useful tool for reminding yourself to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home. But it can also be used to record a street musician you encounter or interview a friend or relative. Your recordings can then be emailed to your computer where you can edit and mix together tracks with a free digital audio editor like Audacity.
Want something a little more powerful? Try Monle, a new app that turns your iPhone into a 4 Track audio studio. Monle was built by a public radio producer who was frustrated with hauling so much equipment around. This app allows you to record, edit and mix audio directly on your phone. You are then able to export the individual tracks or the finished product via email, or straight to your computer via WiFi. There is also an option to submit your story to American Public Media.
4 tracks of audio editing not enough? The more ambitious audio enthusiast can purchase MultiTrack – a 16 track editing app. MultiTrack has many of the same recording, editing, and exporting features as Monle. With so many tracks, you’ll be able to create lush sonic landscapes or record a demo of that local garage band down the street.
The marketplace for audio recording and editing apps is growing fast. For more choices, you can view the full listings available in the iTunes App Store. Prices tend to range from $4 to $19, depending on the features.
One concern with creating radio on your iPhone is sound quality, and you may find you want to invest in an external microphone to improve your recordings. There are numerous mics designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch in a wide range of sizes and prices. A quick Google search led me to these two examples – the Vericorder and the Mikey.
When you’re done creating your masterpiece, consider joining PRX for free and posting your work online. Public radio stations are always looking for fresh new voices. Now get out there and make some radio!
Big news for public radio fans and gadget geeks alike: This American Life has just launched a new iPhone app, and it’s available right now in the iTunes Store! While we’re not usually the type to blow our own horn (yeah, right), we can’t help this one because the new TAL app was built by the same development team that brought you the Public Radio Player: Public Radio Exchange (PRX).
The folks at This American Life partnered with PRX to bring streaming audio of the show’s full archives (dating way back to 1995) to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Each week, the app will automatically update to bring you the latest episode of the radio show. Add to that a number of great features — search the full archives by episode or favorite contributor, listen to TAL staff picks or set up your own list of favorites, view video from the This American Life television show, and get notifications of new episodes as soon as they become available.
More information about the app is on thePRX blog, and you can download the new This American Life app in the iTunes Store. This is sure to become an essential download for the TAL fanboys and fangirls everywhere.
When the Public Radio Player first appeared in the fall of 2008 (known then as the Public Radio Tuner), there were an estimated 10,000 apps available in the iTunes App Store. Today there are well over 100,000140,000! And with this amazing growth, we are seeing more and more iPhone apps for public radio lovers. We recently updated our catalog of public radio apps and were delighted to find the list nearly doubled in size. There are now nearly 40 apps alongside the Public Radio Player in the iTunes App Store. If you’re a fan of the Player, peruse the list and try out a few. And if you know of any public radio apps we missed, tell us about it in the comments.
We’re not going to let the Public Radio Player rest on its laurels. With nearly 2.5 million downloads of the Player to date, we’ve got a lot of public radio fans to keep happy! The PRX tech team is hard at work on an update to the Public Radio Player that will include some great new features. Keep an eye on this blog during the coming weeks for more details.
The list of public radio iPhone applications continues to grow, and we’d like to welcome the NPR News app to the party. As its title suggests, the NPR app provides the latest stories from the NPR.org website and audio from the hourly newscast. NPR has been a partner in the development of the Public Radio Player, and the two apps do share some common features as well as some common content and data behind the scenes. Like the Public Radio Player, you can listen to hundreds of local station streams and on-demand audio of NPR-produced content.
After playing with the NPR News app for a few days, I find it to be a great addition to public radio iPhone scene, and fans of the Public Radio Player should give it at try. From one pubradio app to another, consider this a tip ‘o the hat!
Public Radio Player
We like to keep you up to date on the growing world of public radio mobile tools. WBUR , in Boston, has a great new iPhone app and it has a Public Radio Player connection. The PRX development team, the folks behind the Player and This American Life’s iPhone app, partnered with WBUR and led development of the app.
Big news for public radio fans and gadget geeks alike: 
