A different idea of the Talent Contest

Hi Dani,

Yes, I saw that blog post too (in fact we've got an automatic feed of posts mentioning the Talent Quest , fully anticipating there would be good, bad, and ugly stuff bubbling up).

The Talent Quest is the real thing, in the sense that we're genuinely trying to help find new talent for public radio and create opportunities for new hosts and shows and ideas to get on the air.

We do indeed want to drive traffic to this site, and lots of it, but only so we can cast a wide net to get a diverse and interesting group of contestants and then get enough public voters to help us sort through it.

PRX is a nonprofit, and this project is funded by a grant from CPB, and you can rest assured that no one is profiting off this in some nefarious way.

We'll be posting the full official rules as soon as possible, we've just got to wait for a lawyer to review them and make sure everything is in order. The contest doesn't begin until April 16th and the rules will be posted long before then, so we're not asking anyone to sign up for anything sight unseen.

Certainly it's fair game for podcasters to opt out of the whole idea, and one of the best things about podcasting is that you don't need broadcast radio or an invitation from the industry to help you develop a show or reach an audience.

I think there's mutual benefit to be found between the emerging podcasting community and the evolving public radio world, and so far too little of that has starting taking root. I hope the Talent Quest can be a step in the right direction.

Cheers,

Jake