By Marianne Burkett

For new and veteran users, the MusicMaster website is constantly evolving and offers a lot of easy-to-access information.

1. Training Videos and Webinars
2. Blog Articles
3. Monthly Newsletters
4. Company News
5. Videos on the front page
6. Program installation files

Under the Home option on the main page, you’ll find Blog articles (clearly you found that already!) as well as our Monthly Newsletter and MusicMaster news.  If you’re not getting the Monthly Newsletter, use the option at the bottom of any screen to subscribe.

If you’re new to MusicMaster or just need a refresher, the website “Training” then “Walkthroughs” link is a great place to begin!  It’s available to everyone interested in learning about the software.

Walkthroughs are short videos designed to give you a quick overview of a single subject, like how to add a song.  You’ll also find longer-form webinars that go into greater detail under the “Training” option.

A lot of my clients will call me about installations.  Can I send them a link to the installer?  Though it is nice to be needed, you can always grab the program installers without assistance.

When you first become a MusicMaster user, we do send out an install disc to accompany the USB license key which allows the software to open – and the disc is nice to keep around for the first few installs so you can just walk it to multiple workstations and install.  With that being said, we improve the software constantly and there is usually a newer “Service Release” available through Help/Check for Update or you can find the latest installer through our website.   How do you get the installer from the website?   If you’ve given us your email address,  you’re already registered and just may not know it.  Your email will be your “user name” when logging in.  So, what is your password?  That’s up to you… the first thing you should do is just click on Contact Support, then Retrieve password… from there click on “Forgot your password? Click Here”.  We will send a temporary password to the email address you type in.  Be sure it matches the email we have on record for you!  If you get any message indicating your e-mail can’t be found, you can use the option “I am unable to retrieve my password and need access to the support center”.  You’ll be asked to fill out a short form so we know who you are.  We’ll then send you a temporary password so you can access the support center.

Now you can enter the world of Support on the website.  If I am your Music Scheduling Consultant you will see me.  If I am not your assigned rep, you will see someone else.  Look to the left hand side of the screen and you’ll see the various options available.  You can Live Chat one of the Music Scheduling Consultants to assist you,  review your open cases with support or submit a new one as well as Download the software (you’ll find the latest installer for whichever version of MusicMaster you use, even if it’s our old DOS version!).  All of our installers are here, along with additional information about the different versions.  Go to My Account and Change your password so you will always remember it.

Here is a screen shot of the password protected Support section:

The center of the Home page has quick links along with Notices about the software.

If you have any questions, or need assistance with anything regarding MusicMaster – contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

The latest service release for MusicMaster is now available. Go to Help, Check for Update to get 5.0sr7. This service release contains new options for exporting your log. You can now toggle between CTRL-ALT-D to see three different modes: date only, date/hour and date/time where you can pick a specific start and/or end for the export in the middle of the hour. Also included are a couple of enhancements to the purging of history and lognotes. In both, you will have the ability to manually set a new “Last Scheduled Date”, The history purge option will be useful to stations that rarely or ever run the automatic scheduler. The lognote purge will be useful to stations that have a large active history window and create unique lognotes in the Editor. Finally, you’ll be able to turn off the color and/or the icons that are displayed on the Scheduling Calendar with new settings in Tools, Options, Additional Properties. Contact your Music Scheduling Consultant if you have any questions about this latest release.

By Paul Ziino

Do you need to see what your top 40 songs were last week?  There is a quick way to do this using the History Browser in MusicMaster.  Either go to Dataset/Analysis/History Browser, or click the History Browser icon in the Toolbar.

The first tab on your History Browser Options box is “Time Period”.  Here you select the first and last hour you wish to include in the report.  You can also use the default setting of Last Complete Week which uses the Broadcast Week settings in Tools/Options to determine what is considered a week in your database and produces a report based on it.  If you wish to exclude hours from the week, use the space bar to clear the green dot from those hours in the “Included Hours” grid.

Next you’ll go to the “Categories” tab.  Here you’ll check only the categories you wish to include in your spins report.  Remember, if you’ve moved songs to new categories since scheduling the week in question, you’ll want to check the categories of where those songs currently reside in order to include them in your report.

Generally for your weekly spins report you will not need to enter anything on the “Filters” tab.  But if you wanted to only include songs by a certain artist you could filter for that artist, or you could exclude a specific artist or attribute, etc.

Next is the “Display” tab.  Change the Display Mode to “Individual Songs”.  Depending on what you’d like to see in your report, you can toggle the Song ID, Category, RunTime, Turnovers, Total Time, and Rank between inclusion and exclusion.  If you just want the top 40 songs, set that as your Maximum Rank.

Now you may click OK and your report will be generated.

You can now print this report via that icon.  Or if you’d prefer to copy it, click that icon, then paste the contents of the report to Excel, Word, an email, or wherever you like.

You can click the “Favorites” icon to save the report layout as a favorite.  Next time you need to run your report, select the Favorite design and click OK.  Then adjust your dates and you’re all set!

You can also run a Generic Spins Report via Dataset/Analysis/Special History Reports.  You can learn about how to run Special History Reports here.

Using the History Browser in MusicMaster you can run history reports based on many fields in the database.  Just remember to adjust the Display Mode on your Display tab to see all the options available.  As always, if you have any questions, make sure to reach out to your Music Scheduling Consultant for assistance.

Welcome to MusicMaster

WLNK – Charlotte, NC; CFJB, CKMB – Barrie, Ontario; WNRN – Charlottesville, VA; WCQQ, WKCN – Columbus, GA;
Deutschlandradio Kultur – Berlin, Germany; Deutschlandfunk – Cologne, Germany; Baden FM – Freiburg, Germany; RTV Noord-Holland – Amsterdam, Netherlands; Absolut Radio – Nuremberg, Germany; Absolut relax – Nuremberg, Germany

New Sales Director

We’re proud to announce the addition of Shane Finch as the new MusicMaster Sales Director. He comes to us from Asterisk Communications in Ocala, Florida, where he has been the Operations Director for WTRS and WMFQ since 1995, and also hosted the midday show on 92Q.

His track record also includes some great radio stations, such as Operations Director for WDEZ and WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin. Before that he put his magic touch on several stations in Des Moines, Iowa, as Promotions Director for KIOA, Account Executive at KDMG in Des Moines, Music Director at KRNQ, Program Director at KXLQ, and more. Throughout his impressive radio career Shane has been on the air as well. He will fit right in to the MusicMaster family!

New Marketing Director

MusicMaster is also adding Melanie Ross as Director of Marketing. Her experience in retail sales management and brand support are a welcome addition to our team. You may soon hear from her as she intends to make contact with every MusicMaster user to make sure they are completely satisfied with our products and services. Please join us as we welcome her to the MusicMaster family.

MusicMaster Training Library Update

Our Training Library contains short-form walkthroughs and long-form webinars on all aspects of the program. The walkthroughs are all designed to be very short so you can get the information you need quickly. Most are only a couple of minutes long. The webinars are more in-depth looks at various topics. We’ve added a new webinar that explains the difference between Clock Filters and Scheduling Filters.  Join Drew Bennett for a tour of how to set up clocks, rules and scheduling settings so you can take advantage these clock options.

Visiting RTBF

Laurent Finet of RTBF Belgium and Joe Knapp are seen below at the offices of RTBF in Brussels. RTBF is using MusicMaster on their great channels like Pure FM and Classic 21. Thanks for having us, Laurent! It was a pleasure to be there!

Industry Event Calendar

There are industry events and conventions every month around the world. We always appreciate meeting our customers and finding out how MusicMaster is working for them. If you’re planning on attending any of these events, let us know. We’d love to meet with you if possible.

• June 18-21: Broadcast Asia – Singapore
• July 17-19: The Conclave – Minneapolis, MN

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Bob Hamilton

Bob Hamilton is President of Hamilton Communications, specializing in Management, Programming, Music direction, talent improvement, promotion marketing, Sales/Programming development and station cash flow! Forty-five years of Programming/Managing stations. Previous station owner. National Music Director for RKO Radio Stations consulted, WNEW AM New York, KRLA LA, KTWV LA, KLAC LA, KABL SF, B-103 Long Island, KGW Portland, KJUL Las Vegas, KLUV Dallas, KEZW Denver, Route 81 Radio, First Broadcasting, Chancellor, AM/FM Stations, Clear Channel Radio and King Broadcasting.

Our purpose is to help you gain market position and win, resulting in cash flow success. We offer programming that works with sales and programming. We are not satisfied until you win! We work with all aspects of station operation from traffic to engineering to sales to management. We cover all the bases.

Personal successes include building K-EARTH 101 from ground one and making it the premier Oldies station in the nation; making WNAK AM/FM the premier Adult Standards station in the country; building Adult radio that works including success stories like KSFO/KYA San Francisco; turning Magic 61 into the standards station; taking KABL from nothing to 35-64 winner in San Francisco; and, winning two awards from the NAB.

The MusicMaster Pro-Team is comprised of experienced broadcast consultants and programmers who are available to assist MusicMaster clients with programming advice. Their services are available under this cost effective program with no long term commitment required, and can be added to your existing software support plan. Information on each MusicMaster Pro-Team member is available below. If you would like to retain the services of one of the MusicMaster Pro-Team members or have questions about the specifics of the program contact Joe Knapp, President/CEO at +1 (262) 786-6519 or JoeKnapp@A-Ware.com.

See the complete MusicMaster Pro-Team Roster.

Quick Tip: Sorting in the Library

You probably know you can click on any header to sort your library. Clicking again sorts in the opposite order. Did you know there are other kinds of sorts you can do? If you right-click on the header, select Arrange List and you’ll find six more ways you can sort the library, including by Rest and Schedule Order.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

Making Life Better Through Nexus
By Drew Bennett

Did you know you can streamline a lot of your workflow between MusicMaster and your automation system? Haven’t you always dreamed of the automation system and the scheduling database talking to one another? How about adding and dropping songs in real time or adding the song to your music scheduler the instant you record it into your automation system? These things can happen for you today and you may have everything you need right now. All you need is a MusicMaster license, a ‘Nexus-Ready’ automation system (Wide Orbit, Enco, Media Touch, etc.), the Nexus Server and your MusicMaster database. Today, we’ll cover some of the great new features you can take advantage of with Nexus and your automation system. (Read more.)

Nothing Scheduled Today in MusicMaster… Help!
By Aaron Taylor

We often will get calls or emails in our support department from a user who indicates they’ve attempted to schedule a day part, full day or longer time period and nothing ended up scheduling. Here are the most common culprits, and areas to review in your databases that usually will point to this occurrence. (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Allen McLaughlin
Operations Director
KRVT Tulsa, OK – Listen Live
MDL Broadcasting

“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; MusicMaster was recommended by a consultant and it was a very good call. I have recommended MusicMaster every chance I get.”

Editor’s note: Our congratulations to Allen for being named one of the Program Directors of the Year, Markets 26+.  Other MusicMaster PDs who received this honor include:

Yolanda Novarro, KLOQ, Merced, CA
Manuel Sepulveda, WSYW & WEDJ, Indianapolis, IN
Jimmy Steal, KPWR, Los Angeles

These MusicMaster stations were named Station of the Year, Markets 26+:

KOYE & KCUL, Tyler-Longview, TX
KRVT, Tulsa, OK
WGSP-AM, Charlotte, NC

We’re proud to announce the addition of Shane Finch as the new MusicMaster Sales Director. He comes to us from Asterisk Communications in Ocala, Florida, where he has been the Operations Director for WTRS and WMFQ since 1995, and also hosted the midday show on 92Q. His track record also includes some great radio stations, such as Operations Director for WDEZ and WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin. Before that he put his magic touch on several stations in Des Moines, Iowa, as Promotions Director for KIOA, Account Executive at KDMG in Des Moines, Music Director at KRNQ, Program Director at KXLQ, and more. Throughout his impressive radio career Shane has been on the air as well. He will fit right in to the MusicMaster family!

MusicMaster is growing again with the addition of Melanie Ross as Director of Marketing. Her experience in retail sales management and brand support are a welcome addition to our team. You may soon hear from her as she intends to make contact with every MusicMaster user to make sure they are completely satisfied with our products and services. Please join us as we welcome her to the MusicMaster family.

By Drew Bennett

Did you know you can streamline a lot of your workflow between MusicMaster and your automation system? Haven’t you always dreamed of the automation system and the scheduling database talking to one another? How about adding and dropping songs in real time or adding the song to your music scheduler the instant you record it into your automation system? These things can happen for you today and you may have everything you need right now. All you need is a MusicMaster license, a ‘Nexus-Ready’ automation system (Wide Orbit, Enco, Media Touch, etc.), the Nexus Server and your MusicMaster database. Today, we’ll cover some of the great new features you can take advantage of with Nexus and your automation system.

What exactly is Nexus? The full answer to that question is covered in another article that you can find right here. To summarize, Nexus is a small application with its own API that allows third party vendors to send commands and receive replies with a MusicMaster database. In other words, Nexus allows your automation system to talk to your MusicMaster database and vice versa.

Several third-party vendors have created applications or widgets within their software to communicate with a MusicMaster database through Nexus. It is important to note that not all automation systems share the same features. Refer to the automation system’s documentation when determining the features you may use with your automation system, Nexus and your MusicMaster database.

Schedule Log Features:

Most automation systems will offer the ability to reconcile a log in real time. That means changes to the MusicMaster log happen as the automation system adds and deletes elements during playback. If your afternoon air talent drops the last three songs in the 1pm hour because he/she ran out of time, the automation system sends a command to Nexus to tell MusicMaster to drop the last three songs in that hour. That change is made and the automation system receives a reply from Nexus letting it know the action has been completed. How cool is that?  Now you can schedule tomorrow’s log and songs that got dropped today have the ability to get scheduled and played tomorrow.

You can even send changes to the automation system without the need to re-export the log. Nexus gives you the ability to push the log changes to the automation system circumventing the need to send the log again. This is a great feature that gives you the power to change a song in today’s log without overwriting voice tracks or special events added to the log after export. Now, you can make a minor change in the log and buzz it over to the automation system instantaneously without losing other elements you’ve already placed.

Some automation systems go a step further with song additions and give you the power to make educated song replacements in the log based on important rules in your MusicMaster rule tree. For instance, the evening air talent can add a song to his playlist and choose a song that passes all the rules in the category of the song tested. Now, instead of making a choice based on no rules at all, the air talent can choose a song knowing he/she isn’t violating something like Minimum Rest to Artist Keyword Time Separation.

Library Maintenance Features:

Reconciling is not the only feature to use when you setup Nexus with your automation system. New interfaces give you the ability to add songs in either the automation system or MusicMaster and then see or track the addition in each database. So, if you added a song in MusicMaster, it is possible for that song to be added in the automation system and queued to be recorded and readied for playback. Conversely, it is possible to add the song in the automation system and then see that song appear instantly in the MusicMaster database. Seamless library maintenance is a great feature to take advantage of because it’s a real time saver!

Not only can you add songs and see that reflected no matter where you are, song information can be edited instantly too. If you notice the intro is incorrect on a song in the automation system, simply change it once in the automation system and you will see the change when you access the song card in MusicMaster.

We’ve been very impressed with the feature rich modules and widgets automation system companies have been able to develop recently using Nexus. From Wide Orbit Automation for Radio and Media Touch to Enco and Zenon, many of your favorite automation vendors are rolling out great new features that utilize the Nexus server. Check with your automation system to determine which features are currently available to you. If you need help setting Nexus up with your automation system, do not hesitate to call your assigned Music Scheduling Consultant at MusicMaster.

Nexus can make life so much simpler and cut down on your daily workflow. You may already have everything you need to get started! Happy scheduling!

By Aaron Taylor

We often will get calls or emails in our support department from a user who indicates they’ve attempted to schedule a day part, full day or longer time period and nothing ended up scheduling. Here are the most common culprits, and areas to review in your databases that usually will point to this occurrence.

1. Make sure that the active categories are checked off in the Automatic Scheduler, categories to schedule column. Seems so obvious, right? More often than not, for whatever reason (whether it’s a new database, or new categories that have just been created, or someone was testing something else related to scheduling) go ahead and click the CHECK ALL icon (the double check boxes with the blue checks at the top) and try the target time period again.

While you are here, check that the First Hour/Last Hour Session scheduling times are within the correct time/day/date/year for the scheduling run in question.

2. Check your assignment grid. Go to DATASET-CLOCKS-ASSIGNMENT GRIDS and make certain you have no blank spaces in the day part or day in question.

Also, you may want to verify that the grid you think is supposed to be active, actually is (look for the one with the clock that is yellow).

It doesn’t need to be checked to be active. However, if the wrong grid is active you can correct this by clicking on the correct grid and then selecting ACTIVATE in the lower right hand corner.

3. Check your Gold Recycling pick up and drop off periods, as well as Recycle Attitude. Make certain if you have “hard” recycling attitudes set (i.e. “Schedule only from the recycling pool”) that there are records to be picked up. In the example, below there would certainly be a scheduling issue for all categories set in this manner.

Our hope is that this summary will help you self-diagnose this issue should it occur for you. If none of these areas above seem to be relevant to your specific scenario, please get in touch with your Music Scheduling (or “sleuthing” as the case may be) Consultant to help solve the problem. We love helping with puzzles like this!

Welcome to MusicMaster

WZTI-AM – Milwaukee, WI; Krush Talents; Antenne Vorarlberg – Bregenz, Austria; JACK FM – Berlin, Germany; Drechtstad FM 95.7 – Dordrecht, Netherlands; Omroep Zeeland – Oost Souburg, Netherlands

Industry Event Calendar

There are industry events and conventions every month around the world. We always appreciate meeting our customers and finding out how MusicMaster is working for them. If you’re planning on attending any of these events, let us know. We’d love to meet with you if possible.

• June 18-21: Broadcast Asia – Singapore

NAB Recap

Las Vegas was the host of another great convention and MusicMaster 5 fans came out strong. Thank you for all of the great and overwhelming responses. We hope to find even more people enjoying the latest version after so many stopped by our booth wanting to upgrade or become a MusicMaster.

We also look forward to this great event every year because of all the great people we get to meet for the first time, being able to see so many old acquaintances, clients, and our very own European MusicMaster team. The location isn’t too bad of an incentive to participate either. It’s Vegas, Baby!!!  The events surrounding the convention were amazing this year from the Tim McGraw and Friends taping at the MGM to the NAB after parties.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas isn’t necessarily true this year because optimism is what was heard from many exhibitors compared to the last few years. Many taking with them plenty of positive leads which are definitely a good sign for our industry, its economic recovery, as well as that of our great nation which allows us to participate freely as creative individuals and voices of opinions in the great industry we call broadcasting.
Above, from left to right: Kevin Hopkins (On Air Digital Project Manager), Joe Knapp (President and CEO), Max Mueller (On Air Digital Head of Administration & Finance) and Jesus Rodriguez (Music Scheduling Consultant)

MusicMaster Pro-Team: Keith Cunningham

Jacobs Media is the nation’s leading rock consultancy firm. Fred Jacobs created the Classic Rock radio format in 1983. Since then, Jacobs Media has expanded its services to include Rock, Alternative (“The Edge”), and Public Radio.

With a commitment to innovation and customized strategies, the Jacobs Media team of consultants keeps clients aware of new trends, using nationwide online polls, focus groups, and ethnography, going beyond the numbers and observing real people in real life situations. Station services include strategic development, cluster strategy, music management and architecture, production and positioning, personality coaching, and promotional, contesting, and tactical concepts and execution. Jacobs Media’s SmartSuite analytics package helps programmers better understand their stations’ music design and on-air presentation, as well as tracking the competition.

You can contact Keith at 310-452-7126 or keith@jacobsmedia.com.

The MusicMaster Pro-Team is comprised of experienced broadcast consultants and programmers who are available to assist MusicMaster clients with programming advice. Their services are available under this cost effective program with no long term commitment required, and can be added to your existing software support plan. Information on each MusicMaster Pro-Team member is available below. If you would like to retain the services of one of the MusicMaster Pro-Team members or have questions about the specifics of the program contact Joe Knapp, President/CEO at +1 (262) 786-6519 or JoeKnapp@A-Ware.com.

See the complete MusicMaster Pro-Team Roster.

Quick Tip: Drag a Query into the Editor

Did you know you can drag any query you’ve created into the Editor to fill or change a position? Queries show up on the Query tab of the InfoBar under the music note tab. Left-click and drag the query into the Editor. A single red line means the query will insert a song; a double red line means you’ll overwrite the position. Once you let go of the mouse click, the query will process. If you happen to use a Prompted Query, check out the bigger dialog box that now includes edit helper buttons for Keyword, Attribute and Date type fields.

Recent Feature Articles From the MusicMaster Blog

MusicMaster Enterprise and Changes in 5.0
By Drew Bennett

What is Enterprise? Enterprise is the name for the MusicMaster system that allows you to manage one library of music, but schedule that music in several other scheduling databases. Think of Enterprise as your music library and your scheduling databases can import that music based on parameters you choose and then schedule it. A great example of using Enterprise might be that of a large music network that curates all its music in one MusicMaster Enterprise database and then assigns music based on format to its satellite scheduling databases. Those scheduling databases export logs to the music network’s vast selection of channels or stations. (Read more.)

Looking for Unscheduled Positions and the Manual-Assist Scheduler
by Paul Ziino

After you’ve run the Automatic Scheduler, many programmers will look for the unscheduled positions in their log—positions the Auto-Scheduler was unable to fill due to unbreakable rule violations, lack of options, or manual clock positions.  There are several ways to do this. (Read more.)

Music Master of the Month

Allan Gidyk
Operations Manager
Classic Hits, Coast 101.1
St. John’s, NL Canada

“I’ll be first to admit I was kicking and screaming to avoid moving to Windows-based music systems in the early millennium. A speed demon MD in DOS with six logs for two stations to do in advance of a long weekend had no time for click, close, click again. MusicMaster for Windows was my first Windows based system and I love the combination of mouse activity and keyboard shortcuts. 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 customized artist sep on all artists is great at keeping the artists with fewer tracks separated. I was happy to see MusicMaster 5 offer the ability to run a projected turnover and schedule density on an attribute like a Sound Code. Very useful in a variety based format. Adding ‘Category Plays’ to the Auto-Platoon function instead of only ‘Move Date’ is another useful MusicMaster 5 addition for me.

“I’m very happy with MusicMaster and the support team. The transition was smooth, complete with custom written files for song imports with what I wanted. An excellent program backed by a great team.”

We have three new videos playing on our homepage now available for viewing: an interview with A-Ware’s Joe Knapp and On Air’s Rainer Eichhorn, a talk with the folks at Power 106 about why they love MusicMaster, and a look at how MediaTouch RealTime Interface works with MusicMaster.