February 2017

Welcome to MusicMaster!

New From the MusicMaster Blog

Airplay Affidavits – Show Your Value with the Help of MusicMaster

by Jerry Butler - Most stations believe they have to run their promos, PSAs or underwriting through traffic to show value to the sponsors or charity. MusicMaster gives you the ability to run an airplay affidavit and show the value of your airtime. First, make sure you have fields that are available for the affidavit. You’ll need a numeric – currency field, and one or two text fields for sponsors. You may also need a memo field if you would like to show a script.

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Setting your Pass Order, Search Depths and Combining the Pass

by Marianne Burkett - Since coming on board with MusicMaster in 2005 after years of being in radio as a programmer in various places, I thought I knew a lot about scheduling music. In the past, I’d always set my pass order from Currents first to my larger gold categories last and set the search depth to 30% or so. Now, I’ve changed my tune. I still schedule my currents first by the session. A’s schedule, than B’s, C’s etc. Then I combine the pass order for my larger categories, plus I now use 100% search depth in my larger categories.

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Custom Time Periods

by Jesus Rodriguez - Recently clients have asked me if there was a way to make sure that they are always playing specific types of songs during certain parts of the day. As an example our friends to the North in Canada have to play a specific amount of Canadian content, some Latin countries face similar regulations, and other clients just want to make sure the hours aren’t leaning to urban, pop, rock, etc. One great tool to help with this kind of stuff is the “Custom Time Period"...

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Quick Tip: History Browser Time Periods

You might use the History Browser to look at your overall history, but have you ever considered using it to look at smaller segments of your day? The Time Period, Included Hours option allows you to pick which hours you review. Double-click or use your space bar to toggle the green dots. This allows you to focus, perhaps, on your middays or just your weekends allowing you to dig into your play history to make sure you are hitting all your programming goals even in very discreet time frames.

Real-Time Listener Research in MusicMaster

MusicMaster Real-Time Playlist Research... Add another level of optimization to your song scheduling decisions in MusicMaster with updated music research from your active listeners surveyed by Media Score.

Effortless Insights... Using real-time song scores with your music scheduling decisions in MusicMaster is just two clicks away:

Click 1 – Create your list of songs and click to send to Media Score for testing.
Click 2 – Click to update your songs with the latest song scores from Media Score

Click the video below to see for yourself how easy it is!

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Read What a MusicMaster Client Has To Say…
"This service has made a dramatic impact on our music department. With a button click, we get real-time playlist feedback from our listeners right inside of MusicMaster, ensuring we schedule the songs our listeners want instead of what everyone else is playing or what we think they want to hear."
- Chris Lynch, X92.9 Music Director, Music Director of the Year 2010, 2014, 2015 & 2016

Special Introductory Offer!
The first 50 MusicMaster clients that subscribe will receive 50% off the first six months of their subscription.

Contact Tom Meyer at tom@mediascoreinc.com or 214.878.1628 for more information or to get started.

MusicMaster Genius Day Coming to Music City USA

You are invited to attend a MusicMaster Genius Day in Nashville during the Country Radio Seminar. This event will be held February 22nd from 9am to 3pm, so you can attend before the convention opens! You'll find us in Room 5/6 at the Hyatt Place Nashville/Downtown (301 3rd Avenue S). Come early for our 8am Coffee Hour to meet the team and ask questions.

Because it's Nashville, we're bringing the party to the classroom. During breaks, you can sit with our team and examine your database while listening to live music from our guest artists. You can't do that on Lower Broadway! You'll also walk away with the advanced tricks, latest features and must-knows you might have been missing. While our Genius Day is guided by the needs of our participants, here is a glance at some of the topics that are covered:

1. MusicMaster’s user defined database, including the use of custom fields.
2. Lesser-known LIbrary Maintenance shortcuts and workflows.
3. Rule Tree: Advanced Knowledge, including Rule Merging, Scalable Rules, Rule Groups and Optimum Goal Scheduling.
4. Advanced Format Clock Editing, including drag and drop, mass changer, clock filters, format scheduler, and a walkthrough of all element types.
5. Auto-Platooning: How does it work and why is it used?
6. Schedule Editor: Advanced shortcuts and workflows.
7. Turnover Analysis: Understanding turnover and how to read analysis values.
8. History Analysis: Basic reports you should be using.

In addition, you can bring your database or your questions and sit with our team one-on-one for diagnosis and discussion. On top of all that, you'll hear some industry insights from our special guest speakers, including The Unconsultant himself, Keith Hill. Stay tuned for more details as they come. Complete your registration for this free event and reserve your spot early!

Click to Register

Behind-the-Scenes with MusicMaster Version 7

MusicMaster Pro Version 7 continues undergoing rigorous tests and new improvements. This month we'd like to give you a peek at some of the features awaiting you in the Clock Editor. Click here to learn more about the coming Version 7 updates.

ClockTooltip - Tooltips that show more details about your clock elements and category codes on the pie chart.

ClockMatchingSongs - Lookup the songs that any music element can potentially play, which also takes element filters into account.

ClockTimeSavers - Time savers for creating and updating clocks include a new Elements panel on the Infobar which lets you drag any element type to any position in your clock. You can also drag multiple elements within a clock to another position and even to another clock. Quick Entry mode allows you to quickly type shortcut codes to create elements and to type in new properties in the Description column.

ClockConfig - Configure the Format Clock to your liking by adding or removing columns and hiding selected element types.

CategoryColors - Category Color Wizard helps you come up with a good set of colors for your categories.

UserToolbar - User tools now have their own toolbar which can contain many more tools. You can now dock or float these separate from the main toolbar.

French MusicMaster workshop at Salon de la Radio in Paris

On January 29 - 31, nearly five thousand radio professionals flocked to La Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris for the Salon de la Radio show. This event is not only the first European industry conference of the year, but also the largest for the French-speaking market.

This year's attendees had the chance to discover and discuss the music scheduling secrets of one of Europe’s finest music programmers when MusicMaster and ON AIR teamed up with Gérard Floener, Head of Music at RTL Luxembourg, for an exclusive MusicMaster workshop. During his session, Gérard showed some true MusicMaster insights and a few personal tricks which help him create a smooth flow of music for his station.

Gérard Floener shares his valuable MusicMaster insight with attendees of our Salon de la Radio workshiop. Also pictured, ON AIR's Max Mueller.

At the MusicMaster Meeting Point, the ON AIR MusicMaster team enjoyed visits from friends and MusicMaster users from RTL, Radio France and Radio Classique as well as interesting talks with our French industry companions at Netia and Dalet. Merci et à bientôt!

The MusicMaster Meeting Point at the Salon de la Radio.

South Carolina Broadcasters Association Winter Convention

Held in January each year, the Winter Convention features targeted training for sales and engineering professionals, general sessions for all attendees, a broadcast exhibition, a legislative breakfast, the Awards of Distinction Ceremony and an annual business meeting and elections. MusicMaster enjoys sharing our latest technology with commercial and non-com broadcasters in South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia.

MusicMaster's Jerry Butler hosts SCBA attendees at the Meeting Point.

“Welkom”, “Haai” and “Goeie Dag” To All the Scheduling Pros at the SABC

We are excited to finally share the news that MusicMaster and the playout and production suite DIRA! will be part of the brand new on-air and radio production setup at the South African Broadcasting Company (SABC). Since SABC is one of the largest radio networks in Africa, the implementation of DIRA! & MusicMaster is happening in several stages and is being led by the scisys project management team.

Since the approval of the proof-of-concept system by SABC’S management back in September of last year we’ve already completed a series of intense and in-depth training sessions at the SABC headquarters in Johannesburg. We are glad to announce that 14 out of 18 stations went on-air with MusicMaster at the beginning of this month! More are to follow in the next months during the implementation of DIRA!. Thank you to all the SABC music scheduling pros we have met so far and the project-management teams at SABC, scisys and ON AIR.

ON AIR's Thomas Roth led in-depth MusicMaster training sessions for the SABC programming staff in Johannesburg.

Life is a Highway

MusicMaster’s Jerry Butler and Shane Finch took advantage of a recent visit to Columbia, South Carolina to check-up on a few customers and friends. After the South Carolina Broadcasters Association Winter Convention, the first stop was at Columbia’s 94.3 The Dude. Blasting the Midlands Region of the Palmetto State with flashbacks and favorites, The Dude boasts the slogan “Undivided Country”.

(Pictured left to right) Finch, Marty Hall, Butler, Keith Clark.

After a dozen doughnuts and a 160 mile cruise south, we found the new Bluffton, South Carolina studios of Alpha Media. Serving the Savannah, GA and Hilton Head, SC markets, Alpha is finalizing remote studios in quaint downtown Bluffton.


Savannah morning radio legend, Monty Jett with MusicMaster's Butler	Finch, Alpha/Savannah VP, Market Manager Gigi South, Butler

After a bag of hamburgers and another 160 mile drive south, we found Cox Media in Jacksonville, FL. Home of The Big Ape, WAPE, Cox boasts a Classic Hits, Urban AC, and Alternative Rock powered by MusicMaster.

Cox Media Operations Manager, Todd Shannon, The Big Ape, and Butler

Lisa Grossi - Assistant Program Director/Music Director at CHUM-FM, Toronto, Canada

Lisa shares: "I've been at CHUM FM for 10 years, (Music Director for 6 years and Assistant Program Director for a year) and have been scheduling with MusicMaster for 4 years now.

CHUM FM is one of the few radio stations that hand schedule every element, from music to imaging, so the history grid is the most important feature for me. I'm constantly checking the daily spins, weekly spins and total spins per day, so that we get the best rotation possible for each element scheduled.

The "Show More History" feature is also a great feature to have when scheduling specialty programs like our Back In The Day Brunch. It allows me to go way back on the history of songs that may have only played once or twice over the past couple of years.

I also can't forget to throw a shout out to Malcolm, Drew and the MusicMaster support team for their quick responses to any questions that I may have."

Rainer Eichhorn
General Manager - ON AIR
Berlin, Germany

Rainer started his career in 1981 at Radio Luxembourg after working as a musician and record producer. He had the opportunity to be part of the team for the first private TV Station in Germany, working as director and producer of the nationwide morning show "Guten Morgen Deutschland." In 1986, Rainer met Joe Knapp and started selling MusicMaster internationally. In 1990, he became PD of the RTL European Network but still extended the MusicMaster business - which led to the start of ON AIR. Since then he has consulted stations all over Europe in music and programming strategies and helped MusicMaster to become the leading system in the industry.

In his spare free time, Rainer still composes and records in his own studio for TV stations in Europe. Rainer loves playing pedal steel guitar, collecting fun gadgets and of course, “music, music, music!” Rainer’s favorite thing about working at MusicMaster is: “It is just the best. It is easy to use, flexible, open, useful for fully automated needs but also capable of being used with the most difficult formats like classical music, Jazz and TV.” Rainer’s best advice to people in the radio industry is: “Radio stations should concentrate on their own unique strengths instead of trying to become more like all the other media offerings out there.”