With trade show season now in full swing, we're excited to be on the road to meet with MusicMaster users everywhere and share some very important updates!

If you are planning to attend the Worldwide Radio Summit in Los Angeles (April 13 - 15), or are just going to be in the area, we welcome you to join a MusicMaster Genius Day session. You'll learn things you never knew about MusicMaster, take in programming tips from local programming legends, and have the opportunity to ask questions or make requests.

Tickets are just $39.95, or free for WWRS attendees. Conference guests should contact us for a discount code prior to registering. Non-attendees may use the link below to purchase a ticket right away.

Click here to reserve your spot for the Los Angeles Genius Day.

After your time in LA, we suggest heading over to the NAB Show taking place April 16-21 in Las Vegas. This year, the MusicMaster team, along with some of our international team members and integration partners, will be at Booth #N6129. If you register through MusicMaster, your exhibit-only pass is free. Look for a special invitation e-mail in the coming weeks.

At this year's NAB, we are revealing a revolutionary new product: MusicMaster Client-Server (CS). After six years and a half-million man-hours of development, we are proud to now offer this brand new solution for large radio organizations with multiple stations and users.

MusicMaster CS will allow you to manage a single database of music for all of your stations. This provides an incredible advantage to programmers who wish to manage and schedule several stations at once. With all of the business intelligence on a powerful central processor doing the heavy lifting, MusicMaster users will enjoy a faster and more streamlined workflow than ever before. MusicMaster CS offers many new tools and features, some of which have never been seen before in scheduling software. Stay tuned for more information on CS, or make plans to join us at NAB for the full tour!

You'll also have an opportunity to learn more about the cool new features in MusicMaster Pro Version 6, as well as take our Nexus-enhanced automation integrations for a test drive. You can also learn more about MusicMaster Personal Edition, which is an affordable yet robust solution designed for retail stores, events and personal streams.

Stop by Booth #N6129 to see for yourself, and be sure to drop us a line to let us know you're coming.

You can now get the latest service release of MusicMaster Version 6 (6.0sr2). This update includes options that will make you even more efficient when using MusicMaster. Here are a few of the highlights:

• When you export a log, just double-click the name to start the export.
• We've added Export to HTML and Export to Affiliates to the Schedule Editor key mapping feature.
• If you use the Chart Editor and have locked fields or select the same field more than once, you'll now get a warning.
• If you're using the new Library Query element, you can now load the contents of an existing saved query into the element or save the contents of the Library Query you make for future use.

Travel broadens the music-lovers mind. Just a few weeks ago we found out that Tunis is one of THE hubs for electronic music in Northern Africa. Tunisians love beats and basses, and they crowd the festivals, venues and clubs in town all around the year.

The station to listen to cool beats is definitely Radio Mosaïque. Tunisia's first commercial radio station was founded in 2003 and is based in the lively business district of Tunis. A team of 75 internationally trained radio professionals offer a blend of news and talkshows in Arabic and French, mixed with current oriental electronic sounds. The #1 station in Tunisia since day one is deejayed by a fantastic set of local DJs and syndicated shows by David Guetta, Carl Cox and Armin van Buuren.

Radio Mosaïque began using MusicMaster some years ago, thanks to our friends and partners from French system provider Netia - and ON AIR, MusicMaster's International Distributor based in Germany.

Mosaïque's team of DJ’s alongside ON AIR's Thomas Roth, during a three-day "MusicMaster from A-Z" training session, enjoying true Tunisian hospitality. From the left: Ettriki Rayhan (DJ Rayhane), Larif Hichem (DJ Hichem), Ayed Marouen (DJ Maroo), Thomas Roth (DJ ON AIR), Ben Salem Ramzi (DJ Ramzus), Messaidi Oussema and Assali Nejib (DJ Danjer)

Nearly 5,000 attendees and over 70 exhibitors, mostly from French speaking media markets, attended this year's edition of Salon de la Radio in Paris from January 31 through February 2. The one and only trade show for the French radio industry is definitely one of the biggest radio industry events in Europe, offering dozens of superb workshops, discussions and the awarding of the Prix ON'R.

Besides meeting with our friends and MusicMasters from RTL (the No.1 station in France) and Radio Classique (the No.1 classical music station in France) we’ve had the pleasure to meet Philippe Chapot, the founder of Salon de la Radio. Philippe has managed the event since 2003 and runs the French radio industry magazine la Lettre Pro. His vision for the show is to attract more international visitors over the next few years with dedicated sessions in English. He already has joined forces with Radio Days Europe, which is held March 13-15 in Paris.

This year's conference was moved from a rather small venue in the center of Paris to a bigger exhibition area right next to the Philharmonie Paris and the Conservatoire Paris. The Grande Halle de la Villette, formerly an ancient cattle market, turned out to be a beautiful surrounding for a three-day-meet and greet with radio and music pros from France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and Northern Africa.

If you are looking for some insights on the Francophone radio business, Salon de la Radio is a must-go. We'll definitely be part of it again next year.

Grand Halle de la Villette

Paul Ziino, MusicMaster Support Manager, spent February 9 with the programming team at WFMT-FM in Chicago. They spent the day analyzing WFMT and Beethoven Network's libraries and came up with some better ways to edit their daily logs. The team loved the ability to hide and rename fields, adjust layouts throughout the databases, and editing logs via direct field entry. Twenty MusicMaster users joined in the fun including Joshua Sauvageau, Paloma Orozco, Maggie Jensen, Jim Skupien, Peter van de Graaf, Kevin Crowley, Justin Henderson, Tony Macaluso, Maggie Clennon Reberg, Stephen Raskauskas, Kerry Frumkin, Louise Frank, Sarah Zwinklis, Dennis Moore, Lisa Flynn, Andi Lamoreaux, David Polk, Candice Agree, Matt DeStefano, Michael San Gabino, and Laura Gulyban.

MusicMaster’s Director of Learning and Development, Drew Bennett visited the A-Ware Software Inc. offices in February along with Austin, TX radio veteran JB Hager to discuss fun new projects. Joining Drew, JB and Joe was Dallas radio legend, George Gimarc, owner and programmer of the 24/7 Comedy Network and author of Punk Diary, the authority tome on punk music in Europe and the United States. It’s always a challenge to either Joe or George to see which of the two has the rarest record in their collection. The day was spent looking through old vinyl, discussing the future of radio and how MusicMaster will lead the way.

Joe Knapp, J B Hager, Drew Bennett, and George Gimarc.

I recently returned from Advertising Specialty Institute's trade show in Orlando. Having worked for Shane Finch as his Promotions Director for WTRS and WMFQ radio earlier in my career, I've paid my dues behind the table at more health fairs and home-and-garden shows than I can remember. I stood for hours smiling, watching people sweep armloads full of our "cheap plastic crap" into their tote bags, just because they could.

But for the last 12 years, I've been on the "takers" side of the table. It's GREAT, or so I thought, until recent years: each trip was paid for by the boss, gave me a few days out of the office for "business and pleasure" (but mostly pleasure.) I'd scan the program when I arrived to decide which seminars looked interesting - or for break-outs that covered what my boss might quiz me about upon my return - but spent most of my time outside the exhibitors' halls exploring each city. My focus inside the exhibitors' halls had less to do with the products and services exhibitors offered, and more to do with who had the best after-parties. What I generally returned to work with was nothing more than a two-day hangover needing another weekend off to recover. Anyone else been there?

Well, it’s never too late to trade it in and Trade Up. What a disservice I'd done to my own professional development. It didn't take me but a couple of years to discover that I didn’t have a plan, and I didn’t have a purpose. Boy, did that change when I went into business for myself. Now, you may work for yourself, or you may work for someone else, but the real question is this: WHO or WHAT drives you? Is it family? Your kid's education? A charitable interest? That vacation home? Retirement? Figure that out, and every moment becomes an opportunity to realize your goals.

Have a plan - Long before I step foot on the convention hall floor, I study the list of vendors, the educational sessions, the keynote speakers, and determine which of these can have a positive impact on my business AND my clients - the people I serve. These vendors, sessions and speakers are priority: put these on your agenda...plan on attending and connecting. Worst case scenario is that what you've chosen ends up not being exactly what you were looking for, but still allowed opportunities to connect with someone that might be exactly what you are looking for. These are rarely wasted opportunities.

I've always been Hallmark Holiday Obsessive. We spend so much of our time trying to create a premise or a reason or a theme for contesting, that it's almost an affront to The Big Guy if you miss something like Easter. On the other hand, I worked with a station that missed Thanksgiving, Black Friday, New Years, Star Wars and a natural disaster, and nobody lost their jobs, so what the Hell do I know?

Creating a promotion for any of the Hallmarks is a little like Frog Day in 8th grade Science class. You pin it to a board and start cutting. We're looking for elements that we can play with.

Christmas? Wow. Santa, snow, shopping, travel, lights, cards, chimneys, sleighs, stockings, kids, malls, parades, reindeer, bad presents…and that's just the tip of the proverbial berg.

Valentines? Love, ex's, dinners, chocolate, flowers, proposals, marriages, hearts, presents, dinners, jewelry. And someone who I think everyone has known: the guy who made the big first step and proposed but has now spent the last six or seven years creating excuses why the timing is just really bad to do a wedding. "I just can’t stay focused and give you the time and commitment and 100% of my heart that you deserve honey, while poor Uruguayan tungsten miners are without a labor union."

I'm kind of jaded with consulting stations on promotions for two decades, so I think I’ve seen or heard every version of "call and tell us why you love your wife and we’ll hook you up with flowers."

First, a basic rule of thumb. If everyone is doing something, don’t do it.

Second, not everyone loves Valentines Day, which is why stations like QYK in Tampa where they had women bring down old love mementos from past douchebags and blast them into powder at a gun range, seem to strike a cord. And stand out. Which is more or less the goal of Promotions.

So maybe my favorite Valentines promotion was done by WPXY in Rochester circa 2007. Realizing that again, everyone knows the cold feet guy, they did it as a morning topic, which lead into The Ambush Wedding.

It was seemingly just a random topic where they invited listeners to call in and gripe about their seemingly endless engagement. Off-air, they got a number, called back the listeners after the show and asked a simple question: if we ambushed your guy, would he go through with it. If we just showed up with all of his family and his friends…and a minister, would he go through with it?

And one of the listeners, a guy, felt fairly positive that his fiancée would throw in the towel so-to-speak and finally culminate the engagement.

The next week was spent putting together a wedding totally under the radar. Her family was brought into the loop. Catering was booked. Rings were sized. A justice of the peace and a notary were on hand for a faux, Friday morning breakfast broadcast by Scott Spazzano and his co-hosts.

The unsuspecting woman was invited by a friend to go and get some free breakfast with her at a historical and very quaint farm museum. When she walked in, there were candles and flowers and probably every single person she’d ever met. Including her co-workers.

And yes. She went through with it.

It’s hard to sometimes remember that we’re in Show Biz, but we are. If you asked Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard or Monty Hall to do a Valentines promotion, I doubt that they’d have people “like us on Facebook for a chance to win a Fanny Farmer gift card.” They’d probably do something like this.

Are you planning to go to one of these events?
We would love to meet you there! Contact your MSC or send us an email to let us know.

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