MusicMaster Blog

We are very excited to welcome Entercom/Seattle to the MusicMaster family this month! As this is his “home” market, Aaron Taylor had the opportunity to spend time on site with the programming staff to devise plans for their MMWIN and Wide Orbit integration. Entercom stations in the Seattle market include legendary rocker KISW-FM (with over 40 years in the format) nationally recognized alternative KNDD-FM, country KKWF-FM “The Wolf”, “playing the best of today’s rhythm and old school throwbacks” KHTP-FM “Hot 103.7, and AAA KHTP-HD2 “The Mountain”.

In the photo left to right, Tony (Co-Host “Fitz In The Morning” KKWF – The Wolf), Tanch (Afternoons, APD/MD KHTP – HOT 103.7), Thee Ted Smith (Afternoon Co-Host of “The Men’s Room” KISW), Garrett Michaels (PD KNDD – 107.7 The End), and Aaron Taylor!

Aaron also stopped by KMPS-FM CBS/Seattle to catch up and visit with longtime MusicMaster client and friend, Program Director Ed Hill. Ed has been using MusicMaster since the 80’s, when it was called MusicScan. KMPS will celebrate 40 years in the country format in Seattle in 2015. The station was also Aaron’s on air home from 1995-2007. Thanks, Ed for being a valued A-Ware client for so many years! Pictured left to right, mid-dayer Cornbread, Aaron Taylor and Program Director Ed Hill.

Classical KING-FM/Seattle has been in the classical format since 1948, and is noted as being one of the first stations in world to stream their format on the internet. KING-FM uses MusicMaster Enterprise as their master database, which is linked to six scheduling databases for their terrestrial and streaming programming.

From left to right, Bryan Lowe, KING-FM Program Director, Geoffrey Larson, Assistant Music Director Aaron Stoess, Music Director, Aaron Taylor and Maggie Stapleton, Assistant Program Director.

The most recent MusicMaster training in Spain took place in Barcelona and Madrid. This is the crew of Catalunya Mùsica (below), the classical music station of public broadcaster Catalunya Ràdio in Barcelona. Their daily work focuses on programming mainly Romantic and Classical pieces mixed up with some Contemporary and Baroque.

Catalunya Mùsica is one of our state of the art projects when it comes to handling big classical music data. The stations catalogue of 80,000 + pieces of music (!) plus tons of meta-data is managed in a MusicMaster Enterprise environment with individual databases for FM, Live-Concerts-only and a Web stream. It’s always very exciting to meet them once in a while trying to make their new ideas work in MusicMaster. What a fantastic crew and great station!

In Madrid we met our long time friends from KISS. The KISS group operates three very successfully networks, KISS FM, HIT FM and KISS TV. This picture (below) was taken during the three day follow-up-training in the station’s tropical garden. From the left: Iván Tenorio (Hit FM), Iván Guillén (Kiss FM), ON AIR’s Thomas Roth, Ana de la Morena (KISS TV) & Ramón Tapias (Head of Programs).

The MusicMaster station hop continued across Edmonton to the Newcap studios at The West Edmonton Mall.

MusicMaster Sales Director Shane Finch tries to convince Newcap/Edmonton General Manager Sharon Taylor to find a spot in the budget for three additional programming people.

The Newcap Radio family welcomes MusicMaster during WABE week!

Since Aaron and Shane were in the neighborhood, there’s no better place to go than radio stations filled with cool peeps!

Taylor and Finch in the 91.7 “The Bounce” studio with (left to right)Rogers Promotions Coordinator Amanda Schultz, Program Director Liann Cameron, Promotions Coordinator Tyler Diagnault, and PM Driver Tripp West.

Aaron Taylor joins Rogers/Edmonton PD Liann Cameron in the Sonic102.9 Listener Lounge for some tunes and tales.

Even though the weather outside was frightful October 26-28, MusicMaster huddled up with hundreds of broadcast engineers,technical staffers, and I.T. professionals for the 64th Annual Western Association of Broadcasters Convention.

Each fall, WABE holds an annual gathering at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton, Alberta that highlights the best of radio and television technologies, and provides a venue for engineers to share information and their experiences.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch and Aaron Taylor joined automation partners iMediaTouch and Wide Orbit to reveal the latest musics scheduling know-how.

MusicMaster’s Aaron Taylor hangs out with Matt Holmes, Chief Engineer of Jim Pattison Broadcasting in Calgary, AB.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch discusses public funded radio with the crew from iMediaTouch and CKUA’s Rod Setter.

Aaron Taylor and Wide Orbit’s Dub Irvin provide tips to WABE attendees.

Wide Orbit Sales Manager Jim Hammond has a laugh with Newcap/Edmonton Chief Engineer Troy Dyck.

Thanks to our partners, clients, friends, and the entire WABE committee for a fantastic event!

The pride of Buckeye broadcast engineering met on Thursday, October 30th for the Ohio Broadcast Engineering Conference. MusicMaster joined ENCO at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and encountered many Raving Fans!

MusicMaster Raving Fan, OAB Board Member, and Findlay Publishing Vice President Dave Glass visits MusicMaster’s Shane Finch at our exhibit location.

WSKU/Kent State Radio was well represented by Senior LAN Administrator Chuck Poulton and I.T. Tech Rick Cruz. These Golden Flashes express their appreciation for the helpful MusicMaster support department.

Not to be outdone by his brother University broadcasters, Raving Fan Mike Meadows of WOSU/Columbus “dots the I” in Ohio!

Mark Levin, Chief Operator of 104.9 The River, reveals some clever programming tips to Finch, and auditions to become a MusicMaster Raving Fan!

This year MusicMaster has had a great integration with the station monitoring service Radio Monitor out of London, UK. Recently we took this interface a big step further and integrated the most important numbers and information right into MusicMaster’s internal web browser.

Once you click on a song in MusicMaster, you have all the important monitoring information right there in your MusicMaster desktop. No switching between applications or screens anymore.

Here’s a picture of Michael Neumann of Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin, who is the first happy user of this new level of integration. We are very happy about this integration and also want to thank Phil van Oopen, CEO of Radio Monitor, for his great support and cooperation. We at MusicMaster love these kinds of tools that we can offer to make your life at work easier and easier!

Hopefully very soon we will have a lot more happy users of this new interface which comes FREE of cost to any station that uses MusicMaster and Radio Monitor!

Once again this fall, MusicMaster Team Global gathered for a season of learning, sharing and celebration.

October 6-8, our international force joined together near our worldwide corporate headquarters at Milwaukee Marriott West.

MusicMaster President Joe Knapp opened the event with a presentation of reflection and direction. Joe shared how MusicMaster continues to be the world’s fastest growing music scheduling software company, witnessing unprecedented domestic and international growth.

Knapp welcomed our four new domestic employees, Music Scheduling Consultant Jerry Butler, Senior Accountant Lorie Robers, Senior Technical Consultant Jeff Schroeder, and Music Scheduling Consultant Dave Tyler.

Joe concluded his opening remarks by reviewing a passionate and ambitious agenda for exciting new objectives and strategies.

Throughout the entire conference, each MusicMaster team member made a presentation detailing progress from their specific departments.

MusicMaster W.I.Z.A.R.D. Jill Sorenson discusses a “soon to be revealed” addition to the MusicMaster product line.

Sales Coordinator Drew Bennett and MusicMaster’s Canadian Partner Malcolm Sinclair unveil “soon to be announced” worldwide clients.

MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant Marianne Burkett introduces new team member Jerry Butler.

MusicMaster Webmaster Cole Marshall speaks of a future development action plan.

MusicMaster Partner Rainer Eichhorn of On-Air in Berlin, Germany disclosed riveting details about MusicMaster’s international appeal. Rainer also outlined our trade show and advertising plans for 2015.

Our MusicMaster crew was also treated to an entertaining and amazing branding presentation from Steve Jones, author of “Brand Like a Rock Star” and “Start You Up”.

Plus, we learned from sales pro Jim Mathis, author of “Reinvention Strategist”.

What an incredible time of team building, education and edification.

Thanks, Joe Knapp, for investing your time, talent, and treasure into our product, clients… and MusicMaster family.

The MusicMaster team joined hundreds of fellow Wisconsin broadcast professionals at the 58th Annual Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Clinic, October 21-23 at the Middleton Marriott Conference Center.

MusicMaster was created 31 years ago in The Badger State by A-Ware President, Joe Knapp, and maintains our worldwide headquarters in the western Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield, WI.

MusicMaster shared booth space on the exhibit floor and provided client demonstrations with automation partners ENCO and Wide Orbit.

MusicMaster President Joe Knapp looks on as Wide Orbit Regional Sales Manager Jeff Dempsey shares his latest automation presentation.

WBA President & CEO Michelle Vetterkind shares a moment during the busy agenda with WBA board member Lupita Montoto. Lupita is also the station manager for Midwest Family Madison station “La Movida” 1480.

ENCO Sales and Marketing Rep Samantha Matheson and MusicMaster Sales and Support Director Shane Finch visit with a potential Wisconsin client.

Wide Orbit Regional Sales Manager Jeff Dempsey and MusicMaster Senior Technical Consultant Jeff Schroeder show the automation interface now employed by thousands of radio stations worldwide.

MusicMaster joined hundreds of enthusiastic professionals at the 63rd Annual Central Canadian Broadcast Engineers Career Development Conference, September 25 – 28 in Barrie, Ontario.

MusicMaster VP/CTO Scott Wirt shared the latest on the MusicMaster menu of scheduling
options. Our team joined Wide Orbit for two nights of spirited conversation and learning in our hospitality suite.

MusicMaster Canadian representative Malcolm Sinclair of Sinclair Media (pictured center) and MusicMaster Sales Coordinator Drew Bennett (pictured right) congratulate Bell Media/Toronto Engineer Wally Lennox (pictured left) on his Lifetime Achievement Award.

Friends and broadcast colleagues join the MusicMaster staff for casual conversation in our Wide Orbit hospitality suite.

MusicMaster Sales Coordinator (pictured right) provides personal consultation to a CCBE member.