MusicMaster Blog

By Jesus Rodriguez

You may already have a holiday grid ready to go for the winter break. You may possibly even have clocks that flip your station to an all Christmas channel 24/7. Those concepts are great tools to have so that you’re prepared for the holiday season every year. (more…)

By Aaron Taylor

For this article, I thought I’d try to create a reference guide to some other common questions that seem to come up for us on an ongoing basis here at MusicMaster. My hope is that you’ll be able to utilize this as a “Go to Guide” the next time you have one of those “I know you showed me this once” types of questions. (more…)

By Marianne Burkett

So… you want your clocks to be slightly different each hour and you painstakingly create many, many clocks.  That is one way to do it.  However, in MusicMaster there is a lesser-used feature that I really like that will save you time now and in the future… the Format List! (more…)

by Paul Ziino

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

Start by going to Dataset/Library/Keywords/Artist Keywords, click Tools/Kickoff Category Wizard and follow the prompts. Check the categories you want MusicMaster to consult when determining which artists have enough music for a 2fer. Generally this would be your entire active music library, though some stations have a large Hold category with songs that could be used for 2fers as well.

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by Paul Ziino

So many programmers use a static clock where the same category plays at the same time in the hour.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could vary it up while still maintaining control, adding an element of spontaneity to your station’s sound?  The answer to this question is to use Migrating Clock Elements. (more…)

by Paul Ziino

You can predetermine what clocks or assignment grids you wish to use on certain days.  For example, you want to use your “All Christmas” grid on Christmas Eve and Day.  Instead of having to remember on December 23^rd to switch your grid before scheduling the 24^th and 25^th, then change it back prior to running the 26^th, you could use the Format Scheduler to do it for you.

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By Marianne Burkett

What is the “Format Scheduler”?

In a nutshell, the Format Scheduler allows you to pre-schedule your Clocks and Assignment Grids in advance on a calendar.  You can also “rotate” your Assignment Grids.

The Format Scheduler gives you the ability to “override” your active assigned clocks for a pre- determined time frame for a date range, or perhaps for just one hour on a particular day. Just what you need if you would like to have different clocks in place for the holiday Monday coming up (perhaps you have a specialty weekend or count down planned, or simply will be voice tracked Monday) and need to have those clocks in place to export to your automation system.

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By Paul Ziino

Looking for some “unpredictability” in your clocks? Just trying to keep things sounding fresh? Here’s an idea: try using Proportional clock elements. (more…)

By Drew Bennett

When you abandon old clocks for new ones, a lot of times the old clocks get left in the database and never used again. (more…)

By Paul Ziino

A Combo element allows you to select any number of your categories. When MusicMaster starts the auto-schedule process, it will attempt to fill that Combo position with a song from the first category selected in that position, based on the Schedule Properties. (more…)