MusicMaster Blog

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KAXL-FM – Bakersfield, CA; Wiener Bezirksblatt Radio – Vienna, Austria;

MusicMaster at the Broadcast Symposium in Berlin

On the first two days of November this year, MusicMaster will be a big topic at the Broadcast Symposium in Berlin. On Air’s Justus Fischer will be part of the panel “We love Music Strategy – Music Management works!”.  Another workshop will talk about the “myths of music scheduling”.

Last year over 200 people from the European broadcast industry joined together in Berlin for this inspiring event. Even the location might be worth the travel. The music and lifestyle hotel “nhow” is famous for its design and the own recording studio. Artists like N.E.R.D., Erykha Badu or Jessie J. have done recordings there.

You can register now for a special early bird rate.

MusicMaster in Brazil

A very warm welcome to our very first MusicMaster stations in Brazil!

Beat98 in Rio de Janeiro and BHFM in Belo Horizonte are both part of the Globo Radio network. Both stations are very successful, playing a major role in their markets (Beat98 is #2, BHFM is #1). The Globo Radio network is consulted by Radio Intelligence from Sweden.

Renan (PD, Beat98), Irene (Group PD), Micheline (MD, BHFM), Zequinha (MD, Beat98) and Jonas (PD, BHFM) during the MusicMaster training in Rio de Janeiro.

Milwaukee MusicMaster Crew

Staff meetings should always be over lunch!  The Milwaukee contingent of MusicMaster held a recent meeting over lunch to discuss the latest happenings.  Good food and conversation were both on the menu.  It was a great way to head into our busy fall schedule.

From left to right:  Alexis, Lydia, Melanie, Susan, Jill, Scott, Joe and Paul

SwissRadioDay

This year’s SwissRadioDay was a big get together for all radio people in Switzerland. The major topics  were “Radio and Online” and “Digital Radio and Entertainment Electronics in cars”.

Nominated as “Radio of the Year” was Radio 105 from Zurich, for the third year in a row now, another station scheduling with MusicMaster.

Here you can see Andreas Meier (Head of Music, Radio 24, Zurich) and Jean-Claude Frick from Swiss Media Partners enjoying their coffee break.

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.

• September 4-7: Momentum Christian Music Broadcaster – Orlando, FL
• September 12-17: IBC2013 – Amsterdam, NL
• September 17: RAIN Summit – Orlando, FL
• September 17-19: Public Radio Programming Conference – Atlanta, GA
• September 18-20: NAB Radio Show – Orlando, FL

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson is the Senior Vice President of Alan Burns & Associates, and has been with the company since 1987.

Alan Burns & Associates is a small firm that specializes in precise custom strategies and close, personal attention to our limited client list. Our task is to help each client formulate – then execute – the one strategy that will result in success. We help radio stations increase ratings by providing custom strategies, music plans, morning show development, marketing/promotion ideas, and the training of your staff. We consult all forms of AC and CHR: from Mainstream, Soft, Modern, Gold AC and Hot AC, to Mainstream and Rhythmic CHR.

Alan Burns & Associates is proud to have helped hundreds of AC and CHR stations succeed in even the toughest of market circumstances. The result of our accumulated knowledge, experience, and skills is successful clients. A few of the radio stations we have helped win include great stations like Z100 New York, WBMX Boston, and WSHH Pittsburgh.

Contact Jeff Johnson at (410) 647-6666 or jeff@burnsradio.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: Results Bar in the Editor

The Results Bar is an additional display in the Editor that will give you snapshots of various data.  You can turn on this feature using the Toggle ToolBars icon, which is the last one on the right.  Select the Results Bar and it will appear at the bottom of your screen (although you can dock it wherever you’d like).  Now, right click in one of the displayed panels.  This opens the customization screen where you can choose what to display.  Popular options here include the date/time, minimum rest and keyword fields.  We especially like the Song Rotation graph, which is a mini history graph!  Once you’ve made your selections, click OK to save the display.  A few more tips:  You can hover over the panel to show additional information.  Any panels that show a blue “I” are for information only.  If the element you are on has no information for the panel, it will simply be grayed out.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

It’s Time to Talk About Backups Again
By Drew Bennett

Every so often we write about making backups and why it’s a good idea to backup at least once a day. I would venture to say it’s the number one rule in our support department. Try as we may to get everyone in the habit, someone always calls with a serious situation where the database is corrupt or gone and there’s no recent backup in sight. (Read more.)

Four Housekeeping Tasks to Safeguard and Improve your MusicMaster Experience
By Marianne Burkett

What is the most important thing about your radio station?  This may be a point of discussion, but I’m going out on a limb here and say: “it’s what comes out of the speakers”.   So, your music and/or on-air talent, sizzling imaging & community involvement is likely what makes the station so good?  Yes?  Good answer, we’re on the same page.   So, if some freak accident happened like lightning strikes, you trip over your power cord and fry your hard drive or your audio and data library in MusicMaster were completely wiped out, you’d be up the creek, without a paddle! (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Marc van den Heuvel
Assistant PD/MD
Radio Veronica
Naarden, Netherlands

“Every day, every hour, we want the best playlists at Radio Veronica. MusicMaster has really helped us to improve our rotations and quarter hours. If you have everything in balance, Optimum Goals are a good feature to create the perfect playlist. Our favorite is the Optimum Spin Consistency: Each library does have those hits that are difficult to place, due to the rules. The Optimum Spin Consistency ensures that they are regularly scheduled.

“In 2012 Radio Veronica had the best year in the ratings since the start of the station in 2003. MusicMaster 5.0 has been in use since May.”