{"id":2777,"date":"2014-03-22T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2014-03-22T10:10:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T15:10:50","slug":"new-distributor-for-american-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/03\/22\/new-distributor-for-american-life\/","title":{"rendered":"New distributor for \u2018American Life\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ira<\/a>

<\/a> Ira Glass<\/p><\/div>\n

Just as Ira Glass promised, it didn\u2019t take long for \u201cThis American Life\u201d <\/a>to land a new distributor. Sources tell me it\u2019s going from PRI to PRX.<\/p>\n

After 17 years with Public Radio International, the award-winning weekly radio program announced<\/a> Thursday that it was severing ties with the Minneapolis-based outfit that oversees sales, marketing and transmission of the show to 587 stations nationwide.<\/p>\n

Although all parties involved are keeping mum (host and executive producer Glass will say only that he\u2019ll have an announcement \u201csometime soon\u201d), insiders said Friday an agreement is expected with Public Radio Exchange, <\/a>another distributor of public radio programming, based in Cambridge, Mass. The current deal with PRI expires on July 1.<\/p>\n

PRX already distributes Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis\u2019s \u201cSound Opinions\u201d (also produced by Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5), as well as \u201cThe Moth Radio Hour,\u201d \u201cState of the Re:Union,\u201d \u201cSnap Judgment,\u201d \u201cAmerican Routes\u201d and \u201cWTF with Marc Maron.\u201d\u00a0On the board of directors of PRX is Torey Malatia, former president and CEO of Chicago Public Media and the man Glass frequently credits with co-creating \u201cThis American Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRI has been distributing the show since 1997 \u2014 two years after it began locally as \u201cYour Radio Playhouse\u201d on WBEZ. Since 2006, production of the show has been based in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our most recent negotiation, it became clear that our organizations\u2019 expectations regarding our futures were different,\u201d PRI said in a statement <\/a>posted on its website Thursday.<\/p>\n

Initial news reports<\/a> of the split with PRI led to confusion about whether \u201cThis American Life\u201d would still be available to its 2.2 million weekly listeners. \u201cPanic ripped through public radio circles overnight, after it was announced on Thursday that Public Radio International (PRI) would no longer be distributing mainstay 'This American Life,' \u201d reported theguardian.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDear @Variety and everyone else: We are not going off the radio, just switching distributors,\u201d the program quickly\u00a0\u00a0tweeted<\/a>. \u201cBut thanks for the concern!\u201d<\/p>\n

Alison Scholly, interim CEO of Chicago Public Media, reassured WBEZ staffers in a memo: \u201cA few news outlets are making this a bigger story than it is, so we wanted to make sure that everyone knows that: 1) there will be no impact on our listeners\u2019 ability to receive the show; and 2) we\u2019ll be announcing our new distribution partner in the next few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is the full text of Glass\u2019 blog post:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re leaving our distributor Public Radio International. What this means for listeners is ... nothing! We\u2019ll continue to make our radio show and podcast. The same public radio stations will continue to broadcast it. They just won\u2019t be getting it through PRI.<\/em><\/p>\n

PRI has been a great partner. When we signed up with them in 1997, we were already on over a hundred public radio stations. It\u2019d taken us a year to get that many. In three months, PRI doubled the number. A miracle. Over the years since, they built that number to 587 stations.<\/em><\/p>\n

But looking at where PRI is now pushing its business and where we're growing \u2013 especially on the digital side of things, which we\u2019ve always done without PRI \u2013 both we and our colleagues at PRI came to the same conclusion: to go our separate ways.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most listeners I meet seem utterly unaware of who our distributor is, or they think \u2013 mistakenly \u2013 that we\u2019re part of NPR. NPR is the company that puts out Morning Edition and All Things Considered and many fine programs. But there are several other companies that distribute public radio shows around the country. Local public radio stations get shows from all of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll announce sometime soon what our new plan is to distribute the show to radio stations.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as Ira Glass promised, it didn\u2019t take long for \u201cThis American Life\u201d to land a new distributor. Sources tell me it\u2019s going from PRI to PRX. After 17 years with Public Radio International, the award-winning weekly radio program announced Thursday that it was severing ties with the Minneapolis-based outfit that oversees sales, marketing and... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2784,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions\/2784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}