MusicMaster Blog

Welcome to MusicMaster

WLNK – Charlotte, NC; CFJB, CKMB – Barrie, Ontario; WNRN – Charlottesville, VA; WCQQ, WKCN – Columbus, GA;
Deutschlandradio Kultur – Berlin, Germany; Deutschlandfunk – Cologne, Germany; Baden FM – Freiburg, Germany; RTV Noord-Holland – Amsterdam, Netherlands; Absolut Radio – Nuremberg, Germany; Absolut relax – Nuremberg, Germany

New Sales Director

We’re proud to announce the addition of Shane Finch as the new MusicMaster Sales Director. He comes to us from Asterisk Communications in Ocala, Florida, where he has been the Operations Director for WTRS and WMFQ since 1995, and also hosted the midday show on 92Q.

His track record also includes some great radio stations, such as Operations Director for WDEZ and WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin. Before that he put his magic touch on several stations in Des Moines, Iowa, as Promotions Director for KIOA, Account Executive at KDMG in Des Moines, Music Director at KRNQ, Program Director at KXLQ, and more. Throughout his impressive radio career Shane has been on the air as well. He will fit right in to the MusicMaster family!

New Marketing Director

MusicMaster is also adding Melanie Ross as Director of Marketing. Her experience in retail sales management and brand support are a welcome addition to our team. You may soon hear from her as she intends to make contact with every MusicMaster user to make sure they are completely satisfied with our products and services. Please join us as we welcome her to the MusicMaster family.

MusicMaster Training Library Update

Our Training Library contains short-form walkthroughs and long-form webinars on all aspects of the program. The walkthroughs are all designed to be very short so you can get the information you need quickly. Most are only a couple of minutes long. The webinars are more in-depth looks at various topics. We’ve added a new webinar that explains the difference between Clock Filters and Scheduling Filters.  Join Drew Bennett for a tour of how to set up clocks, rules and scheduling settings so you can take advantage these clock options.

Visiting RTBF

Laurent Finet of RTBF Belgium and Joe Knapp are seen below at the offices of RTBF in Brussels. RTBF is using MusicMaster on their great channels like Pure FM and Classic 21. Thanks for having us, Laurent! It was a pleasure to be there!

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.

• June 18-21: Broadcast Asia – Singapore
• July 17-19: The Conclave – Minneapolis, MN

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Bob Hamilton

Bob Hamilton is President of Hamilton Communications, specializing in Management, Programming, Music direction, talent improvement, promotion marketing, Sales/Programming development and station cash flow! Forty-five years of Programming/Managing stations. Previous station owner. National Music Director for RKO Radio Stations consulted, WNEW AM New York, KRLA LA, KTWV LA, KLAC LA, KABL SF, B-103 Long Island, KGW Portland, KJUL Las Vegas, KLUV Dallas, KEZW Denver, Route 81 Radio, First Broadcasting, Chancellor, AM/FM Stations, Clear Channel Radio and King Broadcasting.

Our purpose is to help you gain market position and win, resulting in cash flow success. We offer programming that works with sales and programming. We are not satisfied until you win! We work with all aspects of station operation from traffic to engineering to sales to management. We cover all the bases.

Personal successes include building K-EARTH 101 from ground one and making it the premier Oldies station in the nation; making WNAK AM/FM the premier Adult Standards station in the country; building Adult radio that works including success stories like KSFO/KYA San Francisco; turning Magic 61 into the standards station; taking KABL from nothing to 35-64 winner in San Francisco; and, winning two awards from the NAB.

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: Sorting in the Library

You probably know you can click on any header to sort your library. Clicking again sorts in the opposite order. Did you know there are other kinds of sorts you can do? If you right-click on the header, select Arrange List and you’ll find six more ways you can sort the library, including by Rest and Schedule Order.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

Making Life Better Through Nexus
By Drew Bennett

Did you know you can streamline a lot of your workflow between MusicMaster and your automation system? Haven’t you always dreamed of the automation system and the scheduling database talking to one another? How about adding and dropping songs in real time or adding the song to your music scheduler the instant you record it into your automation system? These things can happen for you today and you may have everything you need right now. All you need is a MusicMaster license, a ‘Nexus-Ready’ automation system (Wide Orbit, Enco, Media Touch, etc.), the Nexus Server and your MusicMaster database. Today, we’ll cover some of the great new features you can take advantage of with Nexus and your automation system. (Read more.)

Nothing Scheduled Today in MusicMaster… Help!
By Aaron Taylor

We often will get calls or emails in our support department from a user who indicates they’ve attempted to schedule a day part, full day or longer time period and nothing ended up scheduling. Here are the most common culprits, and areas to review in your databases that usually will point to this occurrence. (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Allen McLaughlin
Operations Director
KRVT Tulsa, OK – Listen Live
MDL Broadcasting

“I am a big fan of the Rule Wizard/Optimization tool, I also rely on Auto Platoon to keep the library manageable. The link to search YouTube is also an awesome tool! We were on a system that is frankly too embarrassing to mention here; MusicMaster was recommended by a consultant and it was a very good call. I have recommended MusicMaster every chance I get.”

Editor’s note: Our congratulations to Allen for being named one of the Program Directors of the Year, Markets 26+.  Other MusicMaster PDs who received this honor include:

Yolanda Novarro, KLOQ, Merced, CA
Manuel Sepulveda, WSYW & WEDJ, Indianapolis, IN
Jimmy Steal, KPWR, Los Angeles

These MusicMaster stations were named Station of the Year, Markets 26+:

KOYE & KCUL, Tyler-Longview, TX
KRVT, Tulsa, OK
WGSP-AM, Charlotte, NC

Welcome to MusicMaster

WZTI-AM – Milwaukee, WI; Krush Talents; Antenne Vorarlberg – Bregenz, Austria; JACK FM – Berlin, Germany; Drechtstad FM 95.7 – Dordrecht, Netherlands; Omroep Zeeland – Oost Souburg, Netherlands

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.

• June 18-21: Broadcast Asia – Singapore

NAB Recap

Las Vegas was the host of another great convention and MusicMaster 5 fans came out strong. Thank you for all of the great and overwhelming responses. We hope to find even more people enjoying the latest version after so many stopped by our booth wanting to upgrade or become a MusicMaster.

We also look forward to this great event every year because of all the great people we get to meet for the first time, being able to see so many old acquaintances, clients, and our very own European MusicMaster team. The location isn’t too bad of an incentive to participate either. It’s Vegas, Baby!!!  The events surrounding the convention were amazing this year from the Tim McGraw and Friends taping at the MGM to the NAB after parties.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas isn’t necessarily true this year because optimism is what was heard from many exhibitors compared to the last few years. Many taking with them plenty of positive leads which are definitely a good sign for our industry, its economic recovery, as well as that of our great nation which allows us to participate freely as creative individuals and voices of opinions in the great industry we call broadcasting.
Above, from left to right: Kevin Hopkins (On Air Digital Project Manager), Joe Knapp (President and CEO), Max Mueller (On Air Digital Head of Administration & Finance) and Jesus Rodriguez (Music Scheduling Consultant)

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Keith Cunningham

Jacobs Media is the nation’s leading rock consultancy firm. Fred Jacobs created the Classic Rock radio format in 1983. Since then, Jacobs Media has expanded its services to include Rock, Alternative (“The Edge”), and Public Radio.

With a commitment to innovation and customized strategies, the Jacobs Media team of consultants keeps clients aware of new trends, using nationwide online polls, focus groups, and ethnography, going beyond the numbers and observing real people in real life situations. Station services include strategic development, cluster strategy, music management and architecture, production and positioning, personality coaching, and promotional, contesting, and tactical concepts and execution. Jacobs Media’s SmartSuite analytics package helps programmers better understand their stations’ music design and on-air presentation, as well as tracking the competition.

You can contact Keith at 310-452-7126 or keith@jacobsmedia.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: Drag a Query into the Editor

Did you know you can drag any query you’ve created into the Editor to fill or change a position? Queries show up on the Query tab of the InfoBar under the music note tab. Left-click and drag the query into the Editor. A single red line means the query will insert a song; a double red line means you’ll overwrite the position. Once you let go of the mouse click, the query will process. If you happen to use a Prompted Query, check out the bigger dialog box that now includes edit helper buttons for Keyword, Attribute and Date type fields.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

MusicMaster Enterprise and Changes in 5.0
By Drew Bennett

What is Enterprise? Enterprise is the name for the MusicMaster system that allows you to manage one library of music, but schedule that music in several other scheduling databases. Think of Enterprise as your music library and your scheduling databases can import that music based on parameters you choose and then schedule it. A great example of using Enterprise might be that of a large music network that curates all its music in one MusicMaster Enterprise database and then assigns music based on format to its satellite scheduling databases. Those scheduling databases export logs to the music network’s vast selection of channels or stations. (Read more.)

Looking for Unscheduled Positions and the Manual-Assist Scheduler
by Paul Ziino

After you’ve run the Automatic Scheduler, many programmers will look for the unscheduled positions in their log—positions the Auto-Scheduler was unable to fill due to unbreakable rule violations, lack of options, or manual clock positions.  There are several ways to do this. (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Allan Gidyk
Operations Manager
Classic Hits, Coast 101.1
St. John’s, NL Canada

“I’ll be first to admit I was kicking and screaming to avoid moving to Windows-based music systems in the early millennium. A speed demon MD in DOS with six logs for two stations to do in advance of a long weekend had no time for click, close, click again. MusicMaster for Windows was my first Windows based system and I love the combination of mouse activity and keyboard shortcuts. All the repetitive functions of editing are available with keystrokes as well as mouse clicks. Using both makes it easy to get into a rhythm checking your logs.

“Favorite features include the Artist Separation wizard. Having the wizard to help set a customized artist sep on all artists is great at keeping the artists with fewer tracks separated. I was happy to see MusicMaster 5 offer the ability to run a projected turnover and schedule density on an attribute like a Sound Code. Very useful in a variety based format. Adding ‘Category Plays’ to the Auto-Platoon function instead of only ‘Move Date’ is another useful MusicMaster 5 addition for me.

“I’m very happy with MusicMaster and the support team. The transition was smooth, complete with custom written files for song imports with what I wanted. An excellent program backed by a great team.”