MusicMaster Scheduling

A Happy MusicMaster Station for 20 Years posted on November 25th, 2014

Nicola Albertoni, head of music at Rete3, started as the station’s editor when they still were using the MusicMaster DOS version. He grew up scheduling music with MusicMaster and after all these years he’s still euphoric when it comes to new MusicMaster versions and new features.

This picture was taken after we discussed the new Optimum Scheduling Goals and the many other great features that are part of MusicMaster V5. As you can see he is a happy camper and so are we. Great station, great people, fun to work with and good friends. What more can you ask for?

Seattle Market Spotlight posted on November 24th, 2014

We are very excited to welcome Entercom/Seattle to the MusicMaster family this month! As this is his “home” market, Aaron Taylor had the opportunity to spend time on site with the programming staff to devise plans for their MMWIN and Wide Orbit integration. Entercom stations in the Seattle market include legendary rocker KISW-FM (with over 40 years in the format) nationally recognized alternative KNDD-FM, country KKWF-FM “The Wolf”, “playing the best of today’s rhythm and old school throwbacks” KHTP-FM “Hot 103.7, and AAA KHTP-HD2 “The Mountain”.

In the photo left to right, Tony (Co-Host “Fitz In The Morning” KKWF – The Wolf), Tanch (Afternoons, APD/MD KHTP – HOT 103.7), Thee Ted Smith (Afternoon Co-Host of “The Men’s Room” KISW), Garrett Michaels (PD KNDD – 107.7 The End), and Aaron Taylor!

Aaron also stopped by KMPS-FM CBS/Seattle to catch up and visit with longtime MusicMaster client and friend, Program Director Ed Hill. Ed has been using MusicMaster since the 80’s, when it was called MusicScan. KMPS will celebrate 40 years in the country format in Seattle in 2015. The station was also Aaron’s on air home from 1995-2007. Thanks, Ed for being a valued A-Ware client for so many years! Pictured left to right, mid-dayer Cornbread, Aaron Taylor and Program Director Ed Hill.

Classical KING-FM/Seattle has been in the classical format since 1948, and is noted as being one of the first stations in world to stream their format on the internet. KING-FM uses MusicMaster Enterprise as their master database, which is linked to six scheduling databases for their terrestrial and streaming programming.

From left to right, Bryan Lowe, KING-FM Program Director, Geoffrey Larson, Assistant Music Director Aaron Stoess, Music Director, Aaron Taylor and Maggie Stapleton, Assistant Program Director.

Critical Listening : Dynamic Flow posted on November 24th, 2014

By Marianne Burkett

I just experienced the pleasure of helping a client go through a process of format concept to completion. The new format sounds terrific and better than he expected. Good sounding radio doesn’t just happen. All the great music in the world, played back to back – won’t sound right if it’s not scheduled correctly. While discussing the importance of what I term as “Dynamic Flow”, my client visualized it like this: ”Kind of like how awesome and comfortable it is to sit at the seashore and listen to the ocean waves.”… I indicated, yes…that’s it! I want dynamic texture everywhere in my music log. This is where the rubber meets the road. Here is the main reasoning behind my philosophy: Dynamics in music is critical to a songs success or failure. It’s a very rare instance that you’ll hear a song doesn’t have some kind of dynamic change near the bridge. If songs sounded the same at the beginning, middle and the end – they’d be downright boring.

So if songs require dynamics to be successful, wouldn’t you think dynamic flow would benefit your format? If you’re listening to your station and it wears you out… you might have a dynamics issue. If you’re listening to your station and you get bored, you might have a dynamics issue. If you’re listening and it is enjoyable, interesting and ebbs and flows like the tide, you are likely paying attention to dynamics.

Dynamic flow check list:

Ensure you correctly code your music library with power (intensity), tempo, mood, sound coding and gender. I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog “a song without a code is a like a free radical” …it can’t be controlled. So get some control! If you have “average sounding songs” code them with an Average sound code and throw some spice in-between when you can.
Use the analysis tools and rules in MusicMaster to decipher and separate the codes and distribute them evenly. Get out your paintbrush and create a beautiful sound using the correct rules. Run the automatic scheduler and watch MusicMaster create beautiful music.
This may be old school philosophy, but in every quarter hour, you should be able to deliver the different “flavors” of your music library. Typical drive times around the country vary…ranging anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Give your listeners a reason to return when they get back in the car or get back to their desk. Unless you’re doing rock blocks or something similar – give the folks the best tasting smorgasbord of music you can cook up.

That’s all for now!

If you have any questions or would like to discuss my philosophy – reach out to me or, get in touch with your Music Scheduling Consultant… we’re always here to help.

Tags: Strategy

MusicMaster in Spain posted on November 17th, 2014

The most recent MusicMaster training in Spain took place in Barcelona and Madrid. This is the crew of Catalunya Mùsica (below), the classical music station of public broadcaster Catalunya Ràdio in Barcelona. Their daily work focuses on programming mainly Romantic and Classical pieces mixed up with some Contemporary and Baroque.

Catalunya Mùsica is one of our state of the art projects when it comes to handling big classical music data. The stations catalogue of 80,000 + pieces of music (!) plus tons of meta-data is managed in a MusicMaster Enterprise environment with individual databases for FM, Live-Concerts-only and a Web stream. It’s always very exciting to meet them once in a while trying to make their new ideas work in MusicMaster. What a fantastic crew and great station!

In Madrid we met our long time friends from KISS. The KISS group operates three very successfully networks, KISS FM, HIT FM and KISS TV. This picture (below) was taken during the three day follow-up-training in the station’s tropical garden. From the left: Iván Tenorio (Hit FM), Iván Guillén (Kiss FM), ON AIR’s Thomas Roth, Ana de la Morena (KISS TV) & Ramón Tapias (Head of Programs).

Just Rockin’ the Mall, Y’all posted on November 15th, 2014

The MusicMaster station hop continued across Edmonton to the Newcap studios at The West Edmonton Mall.

MusicMaster Sales Director Shane Finch tries to convince Newcap/Edmonton General Manager Sharon Taylor to find a spot in the budget for three additional programming people.

The Newcap Radio family welcomes MusicMaster during WABE week!

Hanging Out with Friends posted on November 14th, 2014

Since Aaron and Shane were in the neighborhood, there’s no better place to go than radio stations filled with cool peeps!

Taylor and Finch in the 91.7 “The Bounce” studio with (left to right)Rogers Promotions Coordinator Amanda Schultz, Program Director Liann Cameron, Promotions Coordinator Tyler Diagnault, and PM Driver Tripp West.

Aaron Taylor joins Rogers/Edmonton PD Liann Cameron in the Sonic102.9 Listener Lounge for some tunes and tales.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside posted on November 13th, 2014

Even though the weather outside was frightful October 26-28, MusicMaster huddled up with hundreds of broadcast engineers,technical staffers, and I.T. professionals for the 64th Annual Western Association of Broadcasters Convention.

Each fall, WABE holds an annual gathering at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton, Alberta that highlights the best of radio and television technologies, and provides a venue for engineers to share information and their experiences.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch and Aaron Taylor joined automation partners iMediaTouch and Wide Orbit to reveal the latest musics scheduling know-how.

MusicMaster’s Aaron Taylor hangs out with Matt Holmes, Chief Engineer of Jim Pattison Broadcasting in Calgary, AB.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch discusses public funded radio with the crew from iMediaTouch and CKUA’s Rod Setter.

Aaron Taylor and Wide Orbit’s Dub Irvin provide tips to WABE attendees.

Wide Orbit Sales Manager Jim Hammond has a laugh with Newcap/Edmonton Chief Engineer Troy Dyck.

Thanks to our partners, clients, friends, and the entire WABE committee for a fantastic event!

Buckeye Buzz posted on November 12th, 2014

The pride of Buckeye broadcast engineering met on Thursday, October 30th for the Ohio Broadcast Engineering Conference. MusicMaster joined ENCO at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and encountered many Raving Fans!

MusicMaster Raving Fan, OAB Board Member, and Findlay Publishing Vice President Dave Glass visits MusicMaster’s Shane Finch at our exhibit location.

WSKU/Kent State Radio was well represented by Senior LAN Administrator Chuck Poulton and I.T. Tech Rick Cruz. These Golden Flashes express their appreciation for the helpful MusicMaster support department.

Not to be outdone by his brother University broadcasters, Raving Fan Mike Meadows of WOSU/Columbus “dots the I” in Ohio!

Mark Levin, Chief Operator of 104.9 The River, reveals some clever programming tips to Finch, and auditions to become a MusicMaster Raving Fan!

Perfect integration of MusicMaster and Radio Monitor posted on November 11th, 2014

This year MusicMaster has had a great integration with the station monitoring service Radio Monitor out of London, UK. Recently we took this interface a big step further and integrated the most important numbers and information right into MusicMaster’s internal web browser.

Once you click on a song in MusicMaster, you have all the important monitoring information right there in your MusicMaster desktop. No switching between applications or screens anymore.

Here’s a picture of Michael Neumann of Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin, who is the first happy user of this new level of integration. We are very happy about this integration and also want to thank Phil van Oopen, CEO of Radio Monitor, for his great support and cooperation. We at MusicMaster love these kinds of tools that we can offer to make your life at work easier and easier!

Hopefully very soon we will have a lot more happy users of this new interface which comes FREE of cost to any station that uses MusicMaster and Radio Monitor!

Ten Tips to Prepare for the Holidays posted on November 10th, 2014

As the holiday feasts begin, here are a few choice leftovers (holiday related and otherwise) from our blog vault to help you prepare for the “most wonderful time of the year” in your MusicMaster databases!

Here’s our first tasty, albeit rewarmed holiday treats for you…A couple of great general checklists that Music Scheduling Consultant Marianne Burkett created to help you plan for your holiday programming! Get ready for the holidays and “Holiday Prep Time”.
Maybe you had a format flip this year, or created a database from scratch and have a need to copy all those holiday chestnuts from one database to another. Here is how to do it.
Did you know you can make customized Title keyword separations? Because no one needs to hear the only two versions you have in your database of “Feliz Navidad” within the same shift, right?
Thinking that this year you want to packet together those tertiary versions of “Jingle Bells” or all of the novelty songs together, and have never set up packets before? Well, read on about your options for packeting in MusicMaster.
Everyone has their own ideas, methods and numbers on how/when they start spiking in the holiday tunes. What is an easy way to get them into your regular rotation clocks, without having to modify the “master clocks”? Just copy em’!
Here’s a wonderful gift from the software programming elves, it’s the fast way to change out specified element types in bulk within your MusicMaster clocks: All about the Clock Mass Changer.
You’ve created your special holiday clocks already, and you’ve put them on Assignment Grids… Now wouldn’t it be perfect this year if you didn’t have to think about manually making those grid adjustments in the midst of all of the other seasonal madness? Remember that one time you forgot? Why not deploy the Format Scheduler this year?
So you’ve created a perfect block of Christmas Eve/Christmas morning programming, and you’d like to repurpose it either for the next day, or perhaps you just want to have it repeat over and over in four hourly segments. Do that with the clone hour’s functionality!
Planning on and end of the year countdown special, and haven’t a clue how to get started and create it within MusicMaster? We’ve covered it here, and here.
We would love to hear about your special holiday programming ideas, and if you have questions about how to translate that engaging content into your MusicMaster database, reach out to your Music Scheduling Consultant for assistance. Happy Holidays from all of us at MusicMaster!

Tags: Holidays

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