MusicMaster Blog

Welcome to MusicMaster

TSO – Bonaduz, Switzerland; MDR Figaro, MDR Klassik – Halle, Germany; NPO4 – Amsterdam, Netherlands; WEAL-AM, WJMH-FM, WPAW-FM, WPET-AM, WQMG-FM, WSMW-FM – Greensboro, NC; WALS-FM, WSTQ-FM/WIVQ-FM, WYYS-FM – Peru, IL

The Official CRS 2015 Kick-Off Party – The Legends at Legends

MusicMaster is having a CRS party.  Would you like to come?

A-Ware and ON AIR join forces again for another 10 years!

Here are Joe Knapp and Rainer Eichhorn while signing the extension of their contract for another 10 years. They have now worked together for over 25 years and have lots of great plans for the next 10 years. The whole ON AIR team is happy to work with a company like A-Ware and with people like Joe Knapp and Scott Wirt.

Visions, Trust, Work, and Fun is what these two companies shared from day one of their cooperation and it will be the
basis for the future as well!

During the visit of Joe and Scott in Berlin for the traditional ON AIR Christmas Dinner, they took the chance to discuss some plans for next year’s activities.

Software Giant Strengthens Sales and Support Departments

MusicMaster announced recently the addition of Bradley Bender to enhance the sales and support departments. Brad brings with him a strong background in strategy, IT and Finance.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to be part of this outstanding team of wonderfully dedicated professionals,” commented Bradley Bender.

Prior to joining the MusicMaster team, Bradley was Manager of Operational Accounting and a Manager of the Network Infrastructure team at Wyndham Jade, a technology based events and Travel Company which specializes in convention and trade show housing and registration, meetings, and corporate travel. Mr. Bender is an SMU Cox School of Business alumnus with distinction and has studied at the University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management.

MusicMaster President, Joe Knapp, adds, “While rapidly expanding the MusicMaster family this year, our search was focused on those amazing people who are blessed with a healthy balance of passion, patience and curiosity. Our goal is to diversify our team with professionals who bring with them a broad range of talents and experiences. Brad Bender, with his extensive background in accounting and information technology, fits our profile perfectly.  He’s a geek like me and we’re lucky to have him on board!”

MusicMaster was founded by Joe Knapp in 1983 and continues to be the world’s largest Windows-based music scheduling software for radio and television stations.

Flying North for the Winter

Team MusicMaster Worldwide continues to visit radio stations and software partners in our quest for product knowledge and better automation interfaces. MusicMaster’s Shane Finch and Jeff Schroeder crossed the border to visit OMT Technologies in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Standing left to right: David Borges, Gordo Fry, Greg Boyd, Renel Choiselat, Bill Baines; Kneeling left to right: Jeff Schroeder, Shane Finch, Gary Kristiansen

OMT Technologies is a solutions provider to the broadcast media industry across North America and Internationally. Many MusicMaster users are familiar with the iMediaTouch Radio Automation System and Digital Logger, iMediaLogger.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch with OMT’s Gary Kristiansen and Renel Choiselat.

MusicMaster enjoys partnering with OMT as various broadcasting conventions, including the NAB Radio Show in Las Vegas.

Ho! Ho! Ho! The Traditional ON AIR Christmas Party

It was a wonderful day cruising from Christmas market to Christmas market in a historical yellow double-decker bus from the 60s.

After finishing the tour, everybody went for a traditional German goose dinner into one of Berlin’s coziest Restaurants. We all had a blast!

Thanks to the MusicMaster family members from the USA, Poland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, and Germany for making this a very special day!

Here a part of the crew on a Christmas market in front of the Charlottenburg Castle at a nice Glühwein stand!

10 Steps to MusicMaster perfection

The English version of our tutorial series, The First 10 Steps to MusicMaster Perfection, is finally finished! We are very happy to have Duncan Allen of MTV, UK as our host of the series.

Duncan has been using MusicMaster for a long time, and he shares some of his knowledge with all of us in these tutorials. The tutorials lead you through MusicMaster, from installing the software, to the advanced Rule Tree possibilities, to editing your finished log. After watching these 10 steps you should be easily able to set up your own MusicMaster system.

You can easily access these videos, as well as a version of them in German, at MusicMaster.com or ONAIR.de. And please feel free to watch them as often as you want!

Another Happy MusicMaster Customer

Another very happy MusicMaster user, Pepper Daniels, Music Director for KKJG San Louis Obispo, American General Media, met up with Drew Bennett, MusicMaster Scheduling, at Music Fest 2015 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

MusicMaster at RTL France

One of our last gigs this past December was a three-day basic training session at RTL France, one of the leading French nationwide networks with its headquarters in Paris.  This is a very exciting project for us and another successful international joint venture with our friends from Netia (France) and Swiss Media Partners (Switzerland). The integration of MusicMaster into RTL’s sophisticated and state-of-the-art IT environment will keep us busy for the next few months.

Enjoy the happy faces of RTL’s music crew and new MusicMaster Pro’s Laurent Jérôme, Mathieu Habegger (SMP), Séverin Méry and Pascal Amiaud. Thanks again for joining us!

Music Master of the Month

Sara Beth Merz
Music Director
QMIX 107.3 (WRZQ)
Columbus, Indiana

“I started my ‘adventure’ in radio in 2006, and became Music Director for QMIX in 2007. I say adventure because I’m not your typical die-hard ‘I’ve wanted to be in broadcasting since I was 5’ radio station employee. I never came close to even thinking of working in radio growing up. I accepted the job because the station cluster needed a graphic designer and they thought I could also host an air shift too. Work in an office where it’s cool to listen to music? Sweet!

“When I accepted the Music Director position, I was crazy excited about getting to listen to new music and be paid for it. Other than that, I had no idea what the rest of the position entailed, including managing the music database. Currents? Power Golds? Rule Tree? Turnover Analysis? Needless to say, it was a baptism by fire.

“Thankfully, we were using MusicMaster at the time, and with help from the training videos and some guidance from country consultant Keith Hill, the MusicMaster software program was easy to navigate and became very intuitive once I started managing our music databases.

“MusicMaster has the ease of use that novice users appreciate, and at the same time the power the advance MD’s want to dig deep and fine tune the database and rules to schedule exactly what you want it to schedule. As I was growing as a Music Director I wanted to learn more about what MusicMaster could do because it was so easy to learn.

“As the station’s website manager, I’ve dealt with several management systems that can be frustrating to navigate because the structure is poorly built or the language used is for someone with a PhD. MusicMaster by far has been my favorite program to use. I actually look forward to those times when our Program Director comes to me and says ‘make this (insert music/playlist task) happen!’ because I know MusicMaster will get the job done. And for those few times I get stuck, I have no problem talking to anyone on the friendly tech support staff.

“I think Keith Hill shared a version of this quote with me on one of his consulting visits, and I whole heartily agree with it concerning MusicMaster. ‘There are several vehicles out there that can get you from point A to point B. The difference is in the ride experience – you could get there smushed in the backseat of a clunky old VW bug, or enjoy the luxury of the smooth ride of a Cadillac.’ MusicMaster is that Cadillac.”

Quick Tip: Too Many Fields, Too Little Screen Space?

Let’s face it, you have lots of fields in MusicMaster and your screen is only so big. That means you probably can’t see all the fields at the same time. We also doubt you’ve memorized the order of your field list. So, if that means you’re constantly scrolling back and forth looking for the field you want to edit, here’s an easier way to do that: Right-click on the header and select Find Field. This will open a second box where it will list in alphabetical order all the displayed fields. Simply click on the field you want and the screen will automatically go to that field. There are two context menus in Library Maintenance, so be sure you are clicking on the header column to access this feature. We’ll let you discover all the cool options if you right-click in the lower portion of the display.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

In Case You Missed It: Backups
By Paul Ziino

After a long day’s work of editing logs, adjusting rotations, building clocks, and analyzing your data, it’s always a good idea to make a backup. Here’s how… (Read more.)

In Case You Missed It: 2fer Tuesdays
by Paul Ziino

Lots of stations do a 2fer Tuesday feature or other artist double-shots. Here’s how to do this in MusicMaster. (Read more.)

Industry Event Calendar

There are industry events and conventions every month around the world. We always appreciate meeting our customers and finding out how MusicMaster is working for them. If you’re planning on attending any of these events, let us know. We’d love to meet with you if possible.

• January 29-30: South Carolina Broadcasters Association Winter Conference – Columbia, SC
• February 8-10: Salon de la Radio – Paris, France
• February 23-26: NRB International Christian Media Convention – Nashville, TN
• February 25-27: Country Radio Broadcasters Country Radio Seminar – Nashville, TN
• March 4-5: Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference – Dallas, TX
• March 10-11: Great Lakes Broadcast Conference – Lansing, MI
• March 10-12: CABSAT 2015 – Dubai, UAE
• March 1519: Radiodays Europe – Milan, Italy
• March 26-27: Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention – Oklahoma City, OK
• April 11-16: National Association of Broadcasters Annual Show – Las Vegas, NV
• April 12: RAIN Summit West – Las Vegas, NV
• April 22-24: AllAccess.com Worldwide Radio Summit – Hollywood, CA
• June 2-5: BroadcastAsia2015 – Singapore