MusicMaster Blog

By Paul Ziino

A client posed the following scenario.

I am only using one clock 24/7.  The categories always show up in the same place every hour.  As such, those items at the end of the hour aren’t getting played very often—they’re dropped due to time updates in automation.  I play primarily 80s pop, but have four positions per hour that are 90s, 70s pop, 80s rock, and 70s rock.  Right now, that 80s rock drops almost every hour as it’s the last position.  What can I do without rebuilding everything else that is working so well?

We looked at his clock.  He has things spread out very well, so anything that strays from that core 80s pop sound is surrounded by that core sound.  He still wanted one of each of those categories scheduled in the hour, but maybe he didn’t always need it to be the 80s rock that gets dropped.

So, what did we do?  Migrating Positions!  We turned those four clock positions that called for the 80s Rock, 70s Pop, 70s Rock, and 90s into migrating positions.  Now MusicMaster knows where in the hour to schedule those four items, but it can move them around making their specific placement different one hour to the next.

By looking at the clock and Flex Rules, you can see that we have four positions in the hour (Usage column in the Flex Rules) and that one of each of those positions must come from each of those four categories (Min/Hour and Max/Hour in Flex Rules).  We let MusicMaster decide which position will come from each, and the result is the same rotation overall, but different placement within the hour.  Overall, it’s an easy way to move things around and keep it interesting without the need to create a bunch of different clocks.

If you have questions on this or any other MusicMaster topic, make sure to reach out to your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.