[Powergold Music Scheduler 11.02
Facunda Ganesh
Music scheduling systems are employed to sequence music at radio stations. Although these systems were originally implemented by manual index card methods, since the late 1970s they have exploited the efficiency and speed of digital computers. They are essential tools for broadcasting by music radio stations.
These systems are databases of the songs in active rotation at a radio station, plus an ample set of rules for sequencing them in accordance with specific policies. For example, there may be restrictions on how much time must pass between two songs by the same artist, or whether a song played during noontime today may be heard at noontime tomorrow (or not). There are also rules for what kinds of songs may succeed another according to tempos or other characteristics.
Many people believe[vague] that disc jockeys at radio stations are responsible for choosing the music which is heard on their shows. In reality, playlists for each hour of the day have usually been generated in advance by a radio station's program director using a music scheduling system. This ensures that the station programming is optimal and adheres to the policies and objectives of the station's management. These policies and objectives are usually designed to please the greatest number of people inside the radio station's demographic target, and garner the best ratings possible for the radio station. However, there are some radio stations, for example those of BBC, which do allow most (but not all) disc jockeys to choose the music themselves without obligations, as these stations cover an eclectic range of genres. In addition, shows from resident/guest disc jockeys (particularly on mainstream stations) also do not need the program director's opinion for their playlists.
The first widely used commercial music scheduler for radio is Selector, originally written by Dr. Andrew Economos of Radio Computing Services, Inc, in 1979. A-ware MusicMaster (called Musicscan at the time) followed in 1983. The third most commonly used music scheduler, Powergold, was released in 1988. Today, Selector, MusicMaster and PowerGold are the three most widely used music scheduling applications in broadcasting.
Scheduling, in the general radio broadcasting sense, is the placement of content against a linear timeline for transmission on a broadcast station. This content may include not only music, but also commercial advertisements, station identifiers and promotional jingles. Commercial advertisements, called spots in radio lingo, are scheduled by their own separate scheduling system, called a 'traffic system' which keeps track of monetary considerations. The music schedule, non-music schedule (jingles, promos) and the commercial schedule are later merged into a single schedule (called the log) to guide what must be played on the station on a minute-by-minute basis.
When considering the internet as a new broadcast medium, the definition of scheduling could be broadened "to curate or arrange a linear playlist of video/audio content for live transmission or on-demand distribution." This would apply to both internet distribution and traditional broadcasting.
One of the original authors of Powergold for Windows, and a Micropower team member for two decades, Lance is continually enhancing the science of music scheduling. He is constantly amazed and inspired by the complexities involved with music scheduling as well as the client-created internal systems with which Powergold must integrate.
Brandon is the operational glue that binds the Powergold team. Since joining Powergold in 2000, Brandon has learned the business inside out, advancing from client support, to general management, to COO.
This talented individual has shared stages with artists such as Willie Nelson, Reverend Horton Heat, Junior Brown, Alex Chilton and Kinky Friedman. He is a current member of Mulehead, the Salty Dogs, the Brian Nahlen Band, the Wildflowers, Go Fast and Big Boss Line.
A Powergold team member since 2007 Brent enjoys talking shop with music programmers around the world. A passionate musicologist, his favorites include France Gall, Gram Parsons and Fitz & the Tantrums.
Brenda first represented Powergold DOS during her long tenure with TM Century, beginning a relationship with the music scheduler and our clients that continues to this day. She is particularly inspired by how happy Powergold users are with the product, and enjoys helping clients succeed in the markets they serve.
A lifelong radio fan, Steve was one of many UK broadcasters who set out to sea in leaky boats to deliver music and personality to pop-starved masses. Back on shore, he achieved considerable success in Irish and British radio, including the top-rated morning drive show at one station.
Few people know computerized music scheduling like Lutz, who has been with the Powergold team since 2000. In fact, Lutz earned his university diploma by writing a paper on Radio Automation Systems. He later served as product manager for the design of a music scheduling program used exclusively by a leading German pop and classical public broadcaster.
Holland-born Peter van Klei has a passion for radio that extends back to the mid-1980s when he began working as a volunteer for radio stations in the Netherlands. He coupled that passion with studies in both information and communications technology and electronics.
In the early 1990s, Peter combined his knowledge of ICT and radio, and his interest in music, by joining M&I Broadcast Services, the leading broadcast technologies reseller based in Hilversum, Netherlands.
He moved to the United States in 1991 to work in the radio industry, serving as an on-air personality, music director and program director. He also began using Powergold Music Scheduling. He liked the product so much that he decided to share his passion for Powergold with others.
Veronica made her start in the radio industry in the early 1990s by representing a number of first-class US content and equipment solutions in Russia and the neighboring Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Since that time, Powergold remains a key product in the ProRadio line-up.
I had used Selector my entire programming career, dating back to 1989, and used it ever since up to the moment the President of our company (David Santrella) asked me to test drive MusicMaster. I'll have to admit that I was not only skeptical, but... Read More
For many years we were using another music scheduling software program because it was just what we were used to. We started exploring our options and many of us felt that MusicMaster was hands down the best product available. MusicMaster is... Read More
Radio Veronica has worked with MusicMaster after a transition from RCS Selector in 2012. We were the first nationwide radio station in the Netherlands that used MusicMaster and we have no regrets. Instead of all kinds of workarounds that were... Read More
Do what you love. Love what you do. After working with RCS Selector and Powergold, I am really enthusiastic about MusicMaster. It is the first scheduling software that is able to do what I want instead of dealing with workarounds. MusicMaster... Read More
Virgin Radio Italy began broadcasting July 12, 2007, and since its planning, we used MusicMaster as music scheduler. It has an intuitive and fully customizable interface, with drag-and-drop and copy-and-paste like a classic spreadsheet. It has an... Read More
I would NOT be able to do my job without MusicMaster. With so many different stations, markets, and program directors, there are a million different requests I get for quirky ways to schedule a station. MusicMaster's rule options are limitless. And... Read More
Initially, the reason I chose MusicMaster for my stations was a budget consideration. However, after seeing the feature set and experiencing the great one-on-one support, we have now standardized MusicMaster to all of our clusters. After using... Read More
I am a big fan of the Rule Wizard/Optimization tool, I also rely on Auto Platoon to keep the library manageable. The link to search YouTube is also an awesome tool! We were on a system that is frankly too embarrassing to mention here.... Read More
All the repetitive functions of editing are available with keystrokes as well as mouse clicks. Using both makes it easy to get into a rhythm checking your logs. Favorite features include the Artist Separation wizard. Having the wizard to help set a... Read More
After many years of using different pieces of music programming software, we recently changed to MusicMaster and we are very pleased with the outcome. The diversity of available rules and the ability to copy and paste them individually (or whole... Read More
Having only used Selector, we were really concerned about the work load when starting from scratch with our 1,500 song library at our new non-commercial station KX 93.5. But we couldn't believe how easy it was to import our entire library,... Read More
The two best things about MusicMaster are its customer support and its ability to make our daily work so much easier. Before coming to Lake 96-1 eight years ago, my only experience was with DOS. Paul Ziino made the transition flawless.... Read More
I've been programming music for more than 20 years. Our company just underwent a complete overhaul back in August 2009. This included our on-air systems and subsequently our music system as well. I can tell you I couldn't be more pleased that we... Read More
I'm really new with MusicMaster. We switched to the system just recently but already I'm very pleased with the software. The feature that I truly love is being able to make clock changes up to a year in advance! This makes scheduling 10... Read More
I started using MusicMaster a few years ago and it didn't take me long to fall in love with it! I love its clean and simple visual appearance, the fact it's much faster and less prone to crash than any other windows based music... Read More
Before being exposed to MusicMaster, I scheduled music with blinders on. Now, don't get me wrong, I could tap out a day of music on the other system pretty quick. I thought it was right on. I was wrong. What we get with MusicMaster is phenomenal... Read More
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