MusicMaster Blog

By Jesus Rodriguez

Recently I had a client call me wanting to send the same log to multiple studios. The client did have one request that his station local imaging did not export along with it only the generic imaging. This meant we couldn’t allow his frequency or city imaging to be exported because this would be going to an HD and a stream channel on the company’s app. Additionally, the two studios use different automation systems!

Given all those considerations, my first instinct was to introduce him to Export to Affiliate/Import from Network. With this option, he’d create a second database, export the relevant categories to the affiliate station, schedule the imaging and then export to the second station. However, he said that sounds too complicated and more work than he wants to do. We discussed it some more and he got straight to the point that he just doesn’t want these specific categories exported where they are at the few times in the hour the songs can segue.

Now if you think that Export to Affiliate/Import from Network is more your thing, I invite you to look up those blogs and videos on that topic from our site.

Fortunately, he had already prepared for this by loading the audio for all his items to both of his automation systems and had a designated field for each cart number. Each song and imager had a field for automation cart 1 and automation cart 2. I was able to create a second export design for him now that was designated to only export the information needed for the second automation, and in this case, the critical factor was to export with the correct cart number field. We were also able to exclude specific categories from participating in the second export design. In this case, we double-clicked on the song window to get another window where we selected only the categories that he needed to export which then gave us a random sequence of a song-to-song segues where we scheduled but did not export the local frequency imaging.

Presto! He got what he wanted and added no additional work to his daily task. We can now export two versions of his station, one localized, and another a bit more generic. He is using the same one log he does every day, sending it to two different studio locations with two different automation systems ultimately saving him money by being able to maximize his time because time is money. As an added bonus he’s not using an expensive automation system for this jukebox of a station.

I’ll be the first to admit the export design section can get a little tricky even for me but fear not for you are not alone! Contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant for assistance.

By Drew Bennett

Automation systems and music schedulers share the same client in many cases. Both software companies rely on one another, to a degree, to ‘get the station on the air.’ If the automation system doesn’t have a log to play, there’s no music. If the music scheduler can’t export its log to the automation system, there’s no music then either. So, in most cases, the music scheduler and the automation system rely on one another to get the job done for you. (more…)