MusicMaster Blog

Team MusicMaster Worldwide continues to visit radio stations and software partners in our quest for product knowledge and better automation interfaces. MusicMaster’s Shane Finch and Jeff Schroeder crossed the border to visit OMT Technologies in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Standing left to right: David Borges, Gordo Fry, Greg Boyd, Renel Choiselat, Bill Baines; Kneeling left to right: Jeff Schroeder, Shane Finch, Gary Kristiansen

OMT Technologies is a solutions provider to the broadcast media industry across North America and Internationally. Many MusicMaster users are familiar with the iMediaTouch Radio Automation System and Digital Logger, iMediaLogger.

MusicMaster’s Shane Finch with OMT’s Gary Kristiansen and Renel Choiselat.

MusicMaster enjoys partnering with OMT as various broadcasting conventions, including the NAB Radio Show in Las Vegas.

Here are Joe Knapp and Rainer Eichhorn while signing the extension of their contract for another 10 years. They have now worked together for over 25 years and have lots of great plans for the next 10 years. The whole ON AIR team is happy to work with a company like A-Ware and with people like Joe Knapp and Scott Wirt.

Visions, Trust, Work, and Fun is what these two companies shared from day one of their cooperation and it will be the
basis for the future as well!

During the visit of Joe and Scott in Berlin for the traditional ON AIR Christmas Dinner, they took the chance to discuss some plans for next year’s activities.

Go to Help, Check for Update to get the latest service release of MusicMaster Pro. This has lots of handy new features including the ability to click the Hour Selection bar in the Editor to the “now” time of today’s log while Instant Analysis can be set to show all panels no matter where the pointer is (see the Quick Tip for more details). Numeric and Currency fields are now right-justified. We’ve added a few more Special History reports as we continue to see MusicMaster used around the world and even added the ability to force a path when running the reports. We’ve improved RealTime, our in-studio component (thanks to WXRT Chicago for their assistance) as well as continuing to update our Nexus interface. Should you need any help with installing the update, please contact your Music Scheduling Consultant. Happy Scheduling!

MusicMaster is having a CRS party. Would you like to come?

Brookfield, WI – MusicMaster announced today the addition of Bradley Bender to enhance the sales and support departments. Brad brings with him a strong background in strategy, IT and Finance.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to be part of this outstanding team of wonderfully dedicated professionals,” commented Bradley Bender.

Prior to joining the MusicMaster team, Bradley was Manager of Operational Accounting and a Manager of the Network Infrastructure team at Wyndham Jade, a technology based events and Travel Company which specializes in convention and trade show housing and registration, meetings, and corporate travel. Mr. Bender is an SMU Cox School of Business alumnus with distinction and has studied at the University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management.

MusicMaster President, Joe Knapp, adds, “While rapidly expanding the MusicMaster family this year, our search was focused on those amazing people who are blessed with a healthy balance of passion, patience and curiosity. Our goal is to diversify our team with professionals who bring with them a broad range of talents and experiences. Brad Bender, with his extensive background in accounting and information technology, fits our profile perfectly.  He’s a geek like me and we’re lucky to have him on board!”

MusicMaster was founded by Joe Knapp in 1983 and continues to be the world’s largest Windows-based music scheduling software for radio and television stations.

Additional information about the company, our software, partners, and customers can be found at www.MusicMaster.com.

A unique music mix of “Super Oldies and Austrian Pop” – that’s Arabella 92.9 in Vienna. But not only. Arabella 92.9’s team gets also very creative when it comes to organizing events. One of their “Talk of the town” activities this year was the “Vienna Bobby-Car race”, the largest Formula “Bobby Car” race in town.

Want to see their listeners dressed like Lewis Hamilton? Check out the party’s pictures.

During our last visit at Arabella 92.9 we’ve had the pleasure to enjoy a cup of coffee with Isabella Kettner (Assistant PD) and Ralph Waldhauser (PD).

Thanks for joining the MusicMaster family in Austria! Keep on racing…

Any good parent knows you’re not supposed to have a favorite child, but MusicMaster founder and CEO, Joe Knapp, does admit to having a favorite MusicMaster radio station, CBS Radio’s WXRT in Chicago.

We spent a few days with them this month helping out with their transition to the latest version of MusicMaster RealTime for Windows. This amazing radio station has been playing “free form” rock music since the 1970’s. After all these years, the station is still hand-crafted, one song at a time, by the incredible lineup of air talent under the expert supervision of Program Director, Norm Winer. MusicMaster RealTime is a special log editor developed specifically for use in the studio for just-in-time music scheduling. The original design was created and perfected back in the mid-1980’s at KBCO in Boulder, Colorado with the help of then-PD Dennis Constantine. WXRT in Chicago was one of the very first stations to use the system, and one of very few still using it today. Of course, the system works best when you have air talent who are all perfectly in tune with the music and the audience, which is certainly true for each and every member of the WXRT air staff. The depth of their knowledge of rock music and the Chicago area would take your breath away! Along with Joe Knapp, WXRT’s MusicMaster music scheduling consultant, Drew Bennett, and MusicMaster Marketing Director, Melanie Ross, were also on hand, all bidding a fond farewell to WXRT’s Music Director and Operations Manager, John Farneda, who exits this legendary station after decades of service.

MusicMaster Vice President, Scott Wirt, even drove down from Milwaukee to help out. He’s pictured here sitting in the main control room where all the magic happens!

The MusicMaster Genius Sessions were on tour in Eastern Canada with Newcap. First stop was in Toronto at the Boom and Flow studios! Joining Malcolm Sinclair was Steve Jones VP of Programming, Rick Tompkins from Sudbury, Amy Ballard and Dan Youngs from Ottawa, Adam Spencer was in town from Fredericton (we’re still wondering how he scored Leaf tickets), Troy McCallum and Wayne Webster of Boom, and Paul Parhar and Cory Balash of Flow! Super day, amazing food and great people!

From Toronto it was off to beautiful Moncton for another great day with Joey Arsenault from Fredericton, Kayleigh Butt from St. John’s, Corey Tremere from Charlottetown, Rod Martens from Saint John, Mel Sampson and Paddy Quinn from Miramichi, Anna Zee and Trevor Wallworth of Halifax, and our hosts Adam McLaren and Scotty Mars from Moncton. It was Malcolm’s first time getting Papa John’s pizza because they don’t have one where he lives!

Thanks again to all the amazing folks from Newcap having us visit their stations!

Our MusicMaster team made stops in Canada during the week of November 17^th. President / CEO Joe Knapp and Music Scheduling Consultant Jerry Butler visited with Newcap Radio teams in Vancouver and Edmonton for Genius Day Seminars. Staff from numerous Newcap markets were in attendance at both events. President / CEO Joe Knapp worked through various areas of the program answering questions and analyzing individual databases and questions specific to the programming team’s needs.

Edmonton – Back Row: Jeff Murray, Mark Cappis, Heather Klages, Travis Currah, Kurt Price, Brent Shelton, Johnathan Best, Todd James, Joe Knapp, Stuart McIntosh, John Roberts, Lucas Banack; Front Row: Jordan Rae, Al Thompson, Kathryn Chase, Abbey White, Jackie Rae Greening, Marisa Jodoin, and Stephen Keppler

Vancouver – Steve Cassidy, Paul Sereda, Dwayne Bishop, Sandra Klaric, Kat Carter, Paul Kaye, Joe Knapp, Roo Phelps, Rickie Tyler, Casey Clarke, and David Larse

Nicola Albertoni, head of music at Rete3, started as the station’s editor when they still were using the MusicMaster DOS version. He grew up scheduling music with MusicMaster and after all these years he’s still euphoric when it comes to new MusicMaster versions and new features.

This picture was taken after we discussed the new Optimum Scheduling Goals and the many other great features that are part of MusicMaster V5. As you can see he is a happy camper and so are we. Great station, great people, fun to work with and good friends. What more can you ask for?