I got an e-mail last week from Brian O'Neill, producer of El Padre y Los Homies. He says: "I actually sent CD copies of my documentary program to hundreds of stations with response cards. I got six responses and one station aired it. I have had so much more success via you guys. WZZZ, who licensed my work last week, was one of my rejection responses from my mailings."

We did not pay Brian for his endorsement.

A brief overview: Public radio stations can license work they find on the Public Radio Exchange. Some work comes from other radio stations, some from production companies, and some--more than one-half of all work--is licensed from independent producers. Any producer can post work to PRX.

Who's buying? So far, 67 stations; most are looking for weekend documentaries and five-minute Morning Edition and All Things Considered drop-ins. We've been working with Public Interactive to feature independent work on public radio station websites. WCAI/WNAN, WGBH, WZBC, WYSO, East Village Radio, KUT, KUOW, WKSU and WNPR regularly use PRX to flesh out their weekend shows with segment-length pieces. WNYC's The Next Big Thing, WBUR's Here and Now, and American Public Media's Weekend America have all acquired work through PRX.

So PRX is starting to work; a year after our launch, independent producers are finding an audience among stations and national shows. But we, like the rest of the Internet, can only solve enough of your problems to let you concentrate on some new ones. For example, I get an e-mail once per week that reads, "A lot of stations; that's very nice for you, but how do I, independent producer, get in on it?"

Swiss Army Knives Are Useless Without Swiss People
Stations are showing an increasing amount of interest in using PRX to fill the optional Morning Edition and All Things Considered cutaways, so think about cutting your work down to 3:30 or 5:30. More important, as I talk to program directors about shopping on PRX, it's becoming clear that the more they know about your work, the easier it is for them to choose to run it.

Promos
WUAL GM Roger Duvall, when asked what he wanted to see on PRX, answered "Promos, promos, promos." Roger wants his listeners to know what he's doing on their behalf; two ready-made promos to run the week before your documentary helps him do that.

Intros, Outros, and Cues
Think your way down the broadcast chain. A host has to read in and out of your piece. An engineer has to cue it up. Suggest piece intro copy. If there's a music intro, indicate the timing. Copy in the first and last sentences of your piece.

Transcripts
It's still faster to scan the text of an essay than to stream it.

Descriptions
Your PRX piece description is a pitch letter. What do you say to a PD if you only have a minute? And I'm serious, people, spellcheck! A sloppy PRX listing is one more reason to move on.

Pictures
If I have an image, I can create a feature. If I don't, I can't.

Be thorough. Be Swiss. Invest the extra half-hour it takes to list a piece well on PRX.

Flatter Me
We promote a lot of independent work on our home page and in weekly station e-mails. These editorial choices drive a good deal of our licensing. I want stations to see PRX features and e-mails as useful tools--not market-y-spam--so help me out. Give me a date peg, a current issue, any reason to run your piece, and I will do my best to let stations know. I am susceptible to flattery, short e-mails, and profane haikus.

Contact Brendan Greeley by e-mail at brendan@prx.org or by phone at (617) 576-5355.

EXAMPLE

David Schulman, a producer at WUNC, posted Musicians in Their Own Words--a series of interviewsto PRX. (Check out his very Swiss piece listings.) After each interview, he obtained the musician's tour schedule and wrote the stations at each tour date, letting the PD know he had posted to PRX a well-produced interview with a musician about to perform in the station's market. Musicians in Their Own Words has become one of our more successful series.