MusicMaster Scheduling

MusicMaster in Africa posted on February 10th, 2014

ON AIR’s Justus Fischer recently visited CoolFM, Wazobia FM, and Nigeria Info in Lagos/Nigeria to do a six day MusicMaster special workshop with the music department.

The three networks broadcast mostly nationwide offering a straight CHR format, local African music, and a News/Talk/Sports format mixed with some smooth Jazz. Furthermore, the corporation is in the process of launching several new TV stations.

Justus was not only impressed by the professionalism concerning their work but also by the gentleness of the Nigerian people in general. It looks like it was lots of fun too!

MusicMaster Crew on the Road Again posted on February 9th, 2014

Watch for the MusicMaster team at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, February 19-21. You can find us on the exhibit floor with automation partner Wide Orbit, and look in your registration packet for a special MusicMaster party invitation.

MusicMaster is thrilled to partner with Wide Orbit and ENCO for our first visit to The Annual NRB International Christian Media Convention and Exposition at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, February 22-25.

South Carolina Broadcasters Convention posted on February 8th, 2014

After driving in from frosty Atlanta, the MusicMaster road crew visited many old friends and made several new friends at the South Carolina Broadcasters Convention last week. The beautiful Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina sits right in the Vista area of town, and it’s a great place to hang out with friends! Representing MusicMaster was Drew Bennett in the Wide Orbit booth with Brad Young and Lee Bell, and also Aaron Taylor in the Enco booth with Aaron Johnson. Joining them was MusicMaster’s President, founder, and CEO, Joe Knapp, along with Shane Finch who heads up MusicMaster sales and support operations. We even managed to visit some area radio stations with morning donuts in hand!

SiriusXM Genius Day posted on February 7th, 2014

Sirius XM hosted Joe Knapp and Paul Ziino for two separate Genius Day workshops. On Monday, January 13th they visited the New York City offices and worked with 33 MusicMaster users. As the discussion was heating up around 2pm… the fire alarm went off! Fortunately the Fire Marshall announced an all-clear, saving everyone from a 37 story stair descent.

On Wednesday, January 15th Joe and Paul visited the Washington DC offices and worked with 33 more users. At 11am the fire alarm went off, but this time everyone was forced to evacuate (fortunately it was only three stories). We all stood outside for nearly an hour discussing all things MusicMaster and Sirius XM while the fire department tended to their business. So much excitement! Lots of great conversation was had, and everyone came away having learned something new. All the users were blown away by the new Optimum Goal Scheduling options available in MusicMaster version 5.0, especially Optimum Radial Spread, and many ran to their workstations to implement the new Goal right away.

Thanks to Cheryl Porro in New York and Jim “Jinx” Bonner in Washington for helping coordinate two great days of learning.

Issue #99 posted on February 4th, 2014

Welcome to MusicMaster

RTL France – Paris, France; FM Brussel – Brussels, Belgium; WWWY-FM – Columbus, IN; CHFT-FM – Fort Murray, AB; Beatgasm – Virginia Beach, VA; Dollar Media Group – Lake City, FL;
Glasco Media – Cave Creek, AZ; Cogeco Diffusion Acquisitions Inc. – Montreal, PQ; Pattison Broadcast Group – Winnipeg, MB; Waters Communications Inc. – Potsdam, NY; Mahalo Broadcasting – Los Angeles, CA;
WWUS-FM, WCNK-FM, WEOW-FM, WFKZ-FM, WCTH-FM, WAIL-FM – Florida Keys, FL; WKUZ-FM – Wabash, IN; KXUL-FM – Monroe, LA

welcometomm1401

SiriusXM Genius Day

Sirius XM hosted Joe Knapp and Paul Ziino for two separate Genius Day workshops. On Monday, January 13th they visited the New York City offices and worked with 33 MusicMaster users. As the discussion was heating up around 2pm… the fire alarm went off! Fortunately the Fire Marshall announced an all-clear, saving everyone from a 37 story stair descent.

On Wednesday, January 15th Joe and Paul visited the Washington DC offices and worked with 33 more users. At 11am the fire alarm went off, but this time everyone was forced to evacuate (fortunately it was only three stories). We all stood outside for nearly an hour discussing all things MusicMaster and Sirius XM while the fire department tended to their business. So much excitement! Lots of great conversation was had, and everyone came away having learned something new. All the users were blown away by the new Optimum Goal Scheduling options available in MusicMaster version 5.0, especially Optimum Radial Spread, and many ran to their workstations to implement the new Goal right away.

Thanks to Cheryl Porro in New York and Jim “Jinx” Bonner in Washington for helping coordinate two great days of learning.

MusicMaster Goes Asia – Part II

AsiaPart2

We want to thank everybody we met during our four weeks of touring Asia for their hospitality, the fun, and the interesting meetings we had on the whole trip.

It was a pleasure to see so many radio talents and so many radio and TV stations. The meetings were very interesting and we learned a lot more about the Asian media market that will help us optimize our products for the future. Here a couple of impressions of this wonderful trip.

Cheers to all of you! Hope to see you again soon!

South Carolina Broadcasters Convention

After driving in from frosty Atlanta, the MusicMaster road crew visited many old friends and made several new friends at the South Carolina Broadcasters Convention last week. The beautiful Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina sits right in the Vista area of town, and it’s a great place to hang out with friends! Representing MusicMaster was Drew Bennett in the Wide Orbit booth with Brad Young and Lee Bell, and also Aaron Taylor in the Enco booth with Aaron Johnson. Joining them was MusicMaster’s President, founder, and CEO, Joe Knapp, along with Shane Finch who heads up MusicMaster sales and support operations. We even managed to visit some area radio stations with morning donuts in hand!

MusicMaster Crew on the Road Again

Watch for the MusicMaster team at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, February 19-21. You can find us on the exhibit floor with automation partner Wide Orbit, and look in your registration packet for a special MusicMaster party invitation.

MusicMaster is thrilled to partner with Wide Orbit and ENCO for our first visit to The Annual NRB International Christian Media Convention and Exposition at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, February 22-25.

MusicMaster in Africa

ON AIR’s Justus Fischer recently visited CoolFM, Wazobia FM, and Nigeria Info in Lagos/Nigeria to do a six day MusicMaster special workshop with the music department.

The three networks broadcast mostly nationwide offering a straight CHR format, local African music, and a News/Talk/Sports format mixed with some smooth Jazz. Furthermore, the corporation is in the process of launching several new TV stations.

Justus was not only impressed by the professionalism concerning their work but also by the gentleness of the Nigerian people in general. It looks like it was lots of fun too!

MusicMaster visits ENCO

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch and Aaron Taylor visited Southfield, Michigan in suburban Detroit this past month to meet with our good friends at Enco Systems. They were welcomed with a guided tour of the features now available in the latest version of the Enco digital audio automation system. On hand to greet them were members of the Enco team pictured below, including Shawn O’Donnell, Ken Frommert, Dave Turner, and Wesley Grass.

While in town, Shane Finch paid a call on Radio’s Best Friend, Art Vuolo (who is also MusicMaster’s best friend). We thought we’d shoot some candid video in HIS studio for a change!

MusicMaster Personal Edition

mm_pe
MusicMaster is pleased to announce the latest addition to our scheduling family–MusicMaster PE. The “PE” is for Personal Edition. This is a slimmed down version of the MusicMaster you’ve come to rely on. It is designed for users who want to create their own personal audio stream. You’ll be able to manage your music and schedule your logs just like you’ve always done. MusicMaster PE also comes with its own player. After you add a few songs, you’ll be listening to your own stream. Whether you like to plan out your party music or want to create a stream on the Internet, MusicMaster PE gives you all the functionality you’ll need to do that at a price that won’t break your budget. If you or someone you know wants to set up their own stream, call us so we can discuss how quickly you’ll be up and running with MusicMaster PE!

Learning and Growing

Jill Sorenson recently spent three days away from the “polar vortex” to visit sunny Florida for some intensive training on a new suite of tools that we’ll be using to take our help and documentation systems for MusicMaster and our other new products into the 21st century. We look forward to seeing these improvements in the near future!

Roswell Genius Day

You’re looking at what may be the last group photo of the programming team at Majestic Broadcasting in Roswell, New Mexico. From left to right, John Sebastian, VP Director of Operations; Ryan Burden, Promotions Director; Tony Clayton, Roswell’s Rock Deity; Joe Knapp and Jesus Rodriguez, MusicMaster; and Ron Stevens, KMOU morning show host. Joe Knapp and Jesus Rodriguez from MusicMaster conducted a Genius Day workshop here last month, just days before three of these gentlemen left the building to pursue other options. Hey, guys, we hope it’s nothing we said! Maybe the aliens had something to do with it. In any case, KMOU-FM, KBCQ-FM, KBCQ-AM, and KSFX-FM are now all in the capable hands of Ryan Burden.

MusicMaster and Broadcast Electronics

Shane Finch also stopped over in Quincy, Illinois to visit the headquarters of Broadcast Electonics. He was greeted by Tim Bealor, who was recently promoted to become BE’s new President.

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.

February 5: RAIN Summit – New York, NY
February 7-8: Talk Show Boot Camp 2014 – Dallas, TX
February 9-10: Salon de Le Radio – Paris, France
February 18-22: Country Radio Seminar – Nashville, TN
February 22-25: National Religious Broadcasters – Nashville, TN
March 23-25: Radiodays Europe – Dublin, Ireland
April 2-4: All Access Worldwide Radio Summit – Hollywood, CA
April 6-10: NAB – Las Vegas, NV
May 6-10: Canadian Music Week – Toronto, ON
June 17-20: BroadcastAsia2014 – Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Jose Santos

Santos Latin Media, Corp. is an independent radio and media consulting firm based in Southern California, that currently programs and consults over 25 radio stations (AM’s and FM’s) in the United States and Mexico. Among them are radio properties in California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington (State).

We specialize in all Spanish / Latin formats, as well as the development of innovative Spanish language formats (based on current market conditions).

Current Formats under Santos Latin Media supervision or programming:

Spanish AC
Spanish Pop
Regional Mexican
Spanish Adult Hits

CHR-Rhythmic
Spanish Oldies
Tropical
Spanish News/Talk

Santos Latin Media, Corp. specializes in consulting overall operations of radio and media properties; including programming, marketing, promotions and sales; as well as general operations of radio broadcast facilities, internet and multi-media platforms.

We currently oversee programming, sales and promotional/marketing efforts in Portland, OR; Seattle-Tacoma, WA; Fresno, CA; Bakersfield, CA; Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX; San Antonio, TX; McAllen-Brownsville, TX; Laredo, TX; Waco, TX; West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL; Ft Myers-Naples-Marco Island, FL; Clewiston, FL; as well as stations in Mexico (Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas). The formats are various in different markets, based on the competitive environment and market conditions.

Contact Jose Santos at (661) 993-5701 or santoslatinmedia@gmail.com

The MusicMaster Pro-Team is comprised of experienced broadcast consultants and programmers who are available to assist MusicMaster clients with programming advice. Their services are available under this cost effective program with no long term commitment required, and can be added to your existing software support plan. Information on each MusicMaster Pro-Team member is available below. If you would like to retain the services of one of the MusicMaster Pro-Team members or have questions about the specifics of the program contact Joe Knapp, President/CEO at +1 (262) 786-6519 or JoeKnapp@A-Ware.com.

See the complete MusicMaster Pro-Team Roster.

Quick Tip: Customizing Replacement Search / F9

You probably don’t even think about double-clicking or using F9 to replace a song. You know you will get a list of replacement songs for the position you’re on. Did you know, though, that you can customize which categories are included at that point?

By default, F9 will replace any existing song with one from the same category; any unscheduled position will include the categories associated with that position. If you want to change that, you can with these easy steps: Go to Tools, Options, Replacement Song Options. This screen will open to the F9 setting, but there is a drop down if you’d like to change other replacement options. Using the radio buttons and category list, you can now customize which categories will appear.

Why might you do this? Let’s say you have a depth category on hold and you want to pick from that if you need to make a change. By changing the Tools, Option setting, that category will now automatically appear when you replace a position.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

Is Your MusicMaster Database Slow?
By Jesus Rodriguez

One of the most common calls I get is when clients think their database has become corrupted or got a “virus” as they put it. Those scenarios are very odd so I follow up by asking what made them come to that conclusion? I get answer like: Well the database is taking too long to load or replace a song. Or: I get the never-ending hourglass or as many call it the circle of death. They then follow it up by saying that they know something is wrong with MusicMaster because all of their other software works fine and at normal speed with my (enter outrageous RAM quantity here). (Read more.)

Shortcuts – The “Keys” to Enlightenment
By Marianne Burkett

You may be a MusicMaster “Genius”, or you may be just starting out – but there are so many features you may NOT be using in the software because you aren’t aware. I would like you to go to HELP/Search in your software and type in “Shortcut Keys”. Print out the list and keep it handy. The shortcuts may be especially helpful if you are working on a laptop when you’re relaxed on your couch or your laptop mouse is uncomfortable. I love the mouse controls and rarely use the shortcuts, but that’s just me. (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Shawn Turner
CHAY Music Director
Corus Entertainment
Barrie, ON

“I’ve been using MusicMaster for many years now. When I first started using it, it was actually called ‘Music Scan’ – yes, that was quite a few years ago…actually, I was 2 years old when I used Music Scan. Let’s just go with that story, okay?

“I’m glad that through my entire radio career, MusicMaster has been what I’ve been using. Sure, I’ve tried other music scheduling software, but, honestly, I’ve never found one that works as well or is as user-friendly as MusicMaster.

“My favorite feature has to be the ‘Rule Tree.’ It’s made setting up rules and restrictions one of the easiest things in the world. Plus, as an added bonus, whenever anything is in doubt, the ‘Rule Wizard’ is there to make suggestions. I find that very helpful.”

Replacement Song Options posted on February 3rd, 2014

By Paul Ziino

There are lots of ways to make your MusicMaster database your own. Today we’re going to look at ways you can customize the Replacement Song Options.

Go to Tools/Options/Replacement Song Options. There are nine Search Modes and each one can be tweaked to give you exactly what you’re looking for when replacing songs in the Schedule Editor. (more…)

Tags: Schedule Editor Options

MusicMaster Goes Asia – Part II posted on January 24th, 2014

AsiaPart2

We want to thank everybody we met during our four weeks of touring Asia for their hospitality, the fun, and the interesting meetings we had on the whole trip.

It was a pleasure to see so many radio talents and so many radio and TV stations. The meetings were very interesting and we learned a lot more about the Asian media market that will help us optimize our products for the future. Here a couple of impressions of this wonderful trip.

Cheers to all of you! Hope to see you again soon!

Shortcuts – The “Keys” to Enlightenment posted on January 20th, 2014

By Marianne Burkett

You may be a MusicMaster “Genius”, or you may be just starting out – but there are so many features you may NOT be using in the software because you aren’t aware. I would like you to go to HELP/Search in your software and type in “Shortcut Keys”. Print out the list and keep it handy. The shortcuts may be especially helpful if you are working on a laptop when you’re relaxed on your couch or your laptop mouse is uncomfortable. I love the mouse controls and rarely use the shortcuts, but that’s just me.

These are my favorite shortcuts!

The F1 key. Rather than using your mouse to get to Help/Search … just click F1 if you have anything open. It will automatically open the Help/Search mode.

The ALT + ___ keys. Look at the first letter of the toolbar menu titles… F for File, E for Edit, V for view, D for Dataset… so on and so forth. Alt + the first letter of the menu options will bring up the menu for each of those.

In fact, look at most menus and you see a letter underlined. You might need to do several “ALT” keystrokes, but you can use those to get to many different areas. For instance, if you want to print logs, you can do ALT-D (Dataset), then ALT-S (Schedule) and then ALT-P (Print Logs).

SPEEDING UP YOUR “TSE” (time spent editing logs)

In the editor, the Shortcut Keys are especially useful if you do some hand editing. I received a call from a client of mine who uses the auto scheduler, but likes to replace the regular song with an edited version from time to time. He has the edited versions in a Hold category and wanted a speedy way to get to the edited version. I suggested he put his cursor on the title and use Ctrl+1. At first it didn’t work because his Replacement song options were not set up. Go to Tools/Options/Replacement Song Options and use the drag down menu next to Search Mode and find your “Find Matching Values” setup:

Pick the categories you want to work with and APPLY.

The BEST thing about Ctrl 1 is the speed of finding replacement song. You can put your cursor on ANYTHING…including runtime, intro, artist, gender..etc… and if there’s a match in any of the categories in your options, it will pop up immediately.

Now, the next shortcut may be especially helpful if you’re editing A “2-fer” or “Rock Block” or if you want to match something on the PREVIOUS song in the editor–Ctrl+2. Put your cursor on the Artist field and select Ctrl+2. Boom, the Prior artists songs will all appear.

If you migrated from MusicMaster’s DOS program you’ll recognize our original song replacement keyboard shortcut is F9. It does the same thing as a “double-click” on your mouse. F9 just brings up the normal song replacement screen where available songs in the same category appear. However…If you like to “pre-schedule” some songs by hand the SHIFT F9 key will find THE most rested song that is “perfect”…by “perfect” I mean is the song passes ALL the rules.

So, if you’re looking for more time saving options in your editing or library maintenance work, explore the Shortcut Keys!

If you have any questions, contact your Music Scheduling Consultant!

Is Your MusicMaster Database Slow? posted on January 13th, 2014

By Jesus Rodriguez

One of the most common calls I get is when clients think their database has become corrupted or got a “virus” as they put it. Those scenarios are very odd so I follow up by asking what made them come to that conclusion? I get answer like: Well the database is taking too long to load or replace a song. Or: I get the never-ending hourglass or as many call it the circle of death. They then follow it up by saying that they know something is wrong with MusicMaster because all of their other software works fine and at normal speed with my (enter outrageous RAM quantity here). (more…)

Tags: Purge

Christmas Dinner in Berlin posted on January 8th, 2014

ON AIR’s yearly Christmas dinner took place at ‘Kochende Welten’, an artsy loft in the very particular suburb of Wedding in Berlin. The motto: DO YOUR OWN COOKING! All the preparing, cutting, seasoning, and grilling was done by us, the dinner guests.

The team of ‘chefs’ was truly international. Our friends from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands were joined by MusicMaster’s Joe Knapp and Melanie Ross, who flew over from Dallas. Fortunately and worthy of mention, the eating was done by us as well.

Above: Two chefs, Joe Knapp & Rainer Eichhorn

Above: The busy girls, Gabi Seidel (On Air) & Melanie Ross (MusicMaster)

Above: the gang from MusicMaster, On Air, and Swiss Media Partners working the day after the party in Berlin. They are all so committed! Front row: Matthieu, Joe, Gabi, Rainer, Max, and Michael; back row: Jean Claude, Andi, and Kevin.

MusicMaster Blog