MusicMaster Blog

On September 15th the MusicMaster crew went on a three day trip visiting customers and hosting Genius Days. President/CEO Joe Knapp, Marketing Director Melanie Ross, MusicMaster Support Coordinator Paul Ziino, and the Unconsultant Keith Hill visited with the team at Entercom-Milwaukee on September 15th. They discussed advanced scheduling concepts with Brian Kelly, Jojo Martinez, Leigh McNabb, and other members of the team at WXSS and WMYX as well as David Moore from Entercom-Madison.

On the 16th it was a day-long visit with Midwest Communications in Green Bay, WI. Program and Music Directors from every Midwest Communications market were on-hand for the extensive Q&A session. We met with Duke Wright, Jeff McCarthy, Corey Carter, Dan Stone, Jason Hillery, Mark Fleischer, Craig Holgate, Scott Hanson, PJ Lacey, Derek Moran, Greg Atoms, Tom Gjerdrum, Andy Harris, Cade, Shawn Powers, Jeff Frieders, Jay Morris, Ken Lanphear, Shane Cox, Randy Chambers, Otis Day, Amber Lee, Doc Murphy, Steve Cannon, Mojo, Jonathan Hensler, JT, Karla Cantrell, Barbara Bridges, Ron Allen, Hurricane Shane, and Rusty James. The day ended with a cocktail party and taco bar for all!

And September 18th the crew stopped in at Minnesota Public Radio to meet with folks from Classical 24, KSJN, and The Current including Doug Rowe, Rex Levang, David Safar, Jeff Esworthy, Lindsay Kimball, Suzanne Schaffer, and Steve Nelson. Lots of good questions came up which stimulated several hours of discussion. We learned a lot about how MPR does what they do and made some suggestions for how to improve it as well as some ideas on how to enhance MusicMaster.

After those three sessions the MusicMaster team went home with pages of notes and tons of new ideas. Look for those and many other new features in upcoming service releases and versions of MusicMaster!

Brian Kelly, Paul Ziino and Joe Knapp at Entercom Genius Days.

Group shot at Entercom

Very interested in what Joe Knapp is saying

Keith Hill, Jeff McCarthy, Midwest Communications, Duke Wright, Midwest Communications and Joe Knapp, MusicMaster

Genius Day Group from Midwest Communications

Genius group at Midwest Communications listening to Joe Knapp, MusicMaster

Brian Kelly is a Genius MusicMaster User with Joe Knapp, MusicMaster

Minnesota Public Radio

Paul Ziino was on site at WCRB and WGBH in Boston for two days of training and work with Jon Frank and Rani Schloss. In addition to learning a bunch of MusicMaster tricks they also completed the full integration of MusicMaster with their Audio Vault. Many happy people rejoiced during the staff meeting prior to Paul’s departure.

Below we see Rani, Jon, and Paul testing out the MusicMaster integration with Audio Vault.

IBC, the largest multimedia show in Europe, was held between September 12-17. MusicMaster could be seen at the different stands of our partners like Enco, Scisys, David Systems, AVC and Netia. Kevin Hopkins, Andreas Wissmeyer and Rainer Eichhorn of ON AIR Digital were there to show MusicMaster and meet a lot of our existing clients. Also Jean Claude Frick, Mathieu Habegger and Michael Buholzer of Swiss Media Partners have been there to help on the MusicMaster side.

Like every year, it was a great event and we want to thank all our users and partners who helped and came to see us, shake hands and discuss the future of our industry. It was a pleasure! See y’all next year!

The lovely Marion Grabler of Bremmedia and Rainer Eichhorn at the David Systems booth

Rainer Eichhorn and Gene Novacek of Enco are happy about the deep integration with MusicMaster

The guys are all right: Michael Buholzer, Jean Claude Frick, Rainer Eichhorn, Greg Podsiadlo, Mathieu Habegger and Andi Wissmeyer at the end of a long day on the convention floor

The great looking MusicMaster direct search window inside the Netia system. This gives users perfect song replacement access with full Rule functionality from within the the play out software. Very cool!

Christian music programmers, speakers and artists from around the world gathered in Central Florida’s “City Beautiful” for 3 solid days of connecting God’s Word with God’s people in early September in Orlando, Florida.

MusicMaster’s Marianne Burkett, Jerry Butler and Shane Finch joined hundreds of participants eager to engage the culture with positive music and a message of hope.

On Friday, September 5, MusicMaster Sales and Support Director Shane Finch (below) presented “The Artistry and Science of Music Scheduling” with Christian’s cutting edge music programmers.

“Momentum” presents many opportunities to socialize with old friends and MusicMaster clients. Pictured below left to right are MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant Jerry Butler, Actor and VSR Record Executive Terry Silverthorn, MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant Marianne Burkett, JOY-FM General Manager Jeff MacFarlane, MusicMaster Sales Director Shane Finch.

Christian music superstar David Crowder (below center) shares a “Momentum” moment with MusicMaster’s Shane Finch (below left) and wife Jana Finch (below right).

Three days of MusicMaster education, entertainment and enlightenment enhanced the fall Radio Show at the Indiana Convention Center and Downtown Indy Marriott in the middle of September.

MusicMaster happily consorted with automation partners ENCO, OMT and Wide Orbit on the exhibit hall trade floor, and hosted a festive hospitality evening for clients and chums.
MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant Jerry Butler (below left) demonstrates Optimum Goal Scheduling to a potential radio programming partner.

MusicMaster Founder and President, Joe Knapp (below right) visits the ENCO booth and meets a fellow music enthusiast, Jerry Phillips (below left). Jerry is the owner of Big River Broadcasting in Florence, Alabama, and father to the lovely Halley-Phillips Yeager of Big River. Oh, and he’s also son of legendary Sun Records Founder Sam Phillips.

A stormy summer night in Indy couldn’t keep the revelers away from the jammed MusicMaster hospitality suite at the Downtown Indianapolis Marriott. The highlight was sharing some time with radio legend Scott Shannon of CBS-FM and Scott Shannon’s True Oldies (below center). Radio’s best friend Art Vuolo (below far right) had created a video montage of Scott’s long radio history.

This amazing moment, captured by MusicMaster VP/Media Laurie Knapp, includes (left to right) Sean Ross of Ross On Radio, Steve Resnik of RAMP, Shannon, MusicMaster Founder Joe Knapp, and Art Vuolo.

Heather Boethin, Local Sales Manager and Digital Resource Sales Manager of Cox Media, Tulsa (below left) shares a laugh with Scott Shannon of CBS-FM (below right).

Jill Sorenson and Aaron Taylor visited the great city of Portland, Oregon for the annual Public Radio Program Directors (PRPD) Conference at the beginning of September. They had an opportunity to visit with many clients discussing how MusicMaster makes their scheduling a breeze. They still squeezed in time to wander the city block known as Powell’s Bookstore and drool over Voodoo Donuts. Really, click on the link if you’ve never seen a Voodoo doughnut! Kudos to host organization Oregon Public Radio (a MusicMaster user) for their hospitality. We look forward to visiting Pittsburgh where the 2015 conference will be held. Until then, a few photos of our MusicMaster friends:

1 – Schnitzer Theatre
2 – The PRPD opened with the March Forth Marching Band
3 – Rik Malone (KFDC), Aaron Taylor, Bill Lueth (KUSC and PRPD Board Member)
4 – Aaron Taylor and Cheryl Dring (WDPR)
5 – Matt Abramovitz (WNYC) and Jill Sorenson
6 – Aaron Taylor and Chris Wienk (WMHT)
7 – Suzanne Bona (Sunday Baroque) and Jill Sorenson

Jesus Rodriguez and Aaron Taylor visited MusicMaster clients Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) during their Los Angeles visit to see if night DJs really have the most fun. They got the opportunity to hang out with DJ Pato and his show doing big things in the LA market.

Jesus Rodriguez and Aaron Taylor made a surprise visit to MusicMaster client Univision Radio during their Los Angeles visit. At every corner there was a computer with MusicMaster in action. Beware! Your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant might surprise you too someday so make sure those rotations are tight. We kid! We kid! Well, as long as you schedule our favorite song.

Univision Building

Univision Radio LA Stations

Aaron Taylor, Nando (Music Research Dept.), Jesus Rodriguez, and JJ Ayala (Music Research Department)

Aaron Taylor and Jesus Rodriguez took part in the largest convention for Spanish and Latin American broadcasters hosted by Monitor Latino in Los Angeles at the Pacific Palms Resort.

Jesus Rodriguez hosted a workshop where he demonstrated the power of MusicMaster scheduling software. He spoke about all the new versions of MusicMaster such as PE, LT, and PRO to current and future clients that joined us! Jesus Rodriguez then participated in a live and recorded interview feed to the Monitor Latino and Radio Nota members that could not make it to the convention but were logged in via the web and discussed MusicMaster’s key benefits.

Aaron Taylor, Monitor Latino’s Juan Carlos Ortizand, Jesus Rodriguez, and Juan Carlos “JC” Hidalgo at the Monitor Latino Convention

The Convention Floor

Jesus demonstrating MusicMaster in action at his workshop

Jesus interviewed by RadioNotas live stream to discuss the benefits of MusicMaster and recap of the work shop.

Joe Knapp, Malcolm Sinclair, and Paul Ziino spent a day with the program and music directors at Central Ontario Broadcasting. From the get-go the room was buzzing with excitement…and it continued throughout the course of the full Genius Day. They discussed CanCon and Emerging Artists, ways to use Auto-Platooning, Ctrl-Q and Ctrl-R in the library for quick searches, history linking and tons more.

From left to right: Paul Ziino – MusicMaster; Dave Carr – VP of Programming, Central Ontario Broadcasting; Adam Thompson – Program Director, Indie 88; Charlie Vigna – Music Director, Cool FM; Michael Religa – Assistant Program Director/Music Director, Indie 88; Craig Ross – Assistant Program Director/Music Director, Rock 95; Joe Knapp – President, MusicMaster.

“Thumbs up!” for MusicMaster at Central Ontario Broadcasting! Craig Ross, Dave Carr, Adam Thompson, Charlie Vigna, Michael Religa, and Joe Knapp in the foreground.