Thursday, February 25, 2010

Why Switch?

By Marianne Burkett

You know what they say… “You are stuck in the 80’s”. Many of today’s Program Directors, VP’s and Consultants began their radio careers in the 80’s. During that decade a lot of changes took place. We moved from spinning vinyl on turntables to Carts and Cart Machines to Compact Discs and Compact Disc players that loved to skip. Then the 90’s came around and with the 90’s came Automation software. Can you imagine sitting in a studio to do a shift now – without music on a hard drive and automation software? It might be fun for a day, but so much to do! Stack the CD’s or Carts for your show and put them all back, stack the first hour for your replacement jock…clean the CD’s… so on and so forth. Technology is truly a wonderful thing.

The 80’s also brought us Music Scheduling Software. No longer did we need to keep a Card Catalog of songs in the studio and trust our staff to adhere to the “front to back rule”. While the 80’s did produce several great Music Scheduling software products, they were all programmed in DOS. One window at a time – save this, leave the window, go somewhere else, come back, make changes, shut the window, go to analysis, come back, make your change, save your change, shut the window…. you get it. It wears me out just thinking about it!

Please understand – MusicMaster for Windows was designed to make life easier for you. The transition from the old DOS way to the “new” MusicMaster for Windows way – takes very little effort. It’s simple. I like to tell my new clients during their first training session, that they might be a little uncomfortable for 2 weeks…that’s it! Your personal Music Scheduling Consultant will walk you through the differences in the software…online and at the comfort of your desk. We know you know how to program radio. We can show you – with little effort on your part, how you can save yourself a considerable amount of time everyday programming the station or stations you oversee using MusicMaster for Windows.

Drag and drop options, right click to delete, Edit/Undo… Copy/paste. You can’t do any of that in a DOS program. MusicMaster for Windows has so many mind blowing features – like the Rule Tree Wizard or the Artist Keyword Separation Wizard! Ask the Wizard what is wrong… and he will tell you exactly why you are getting unscheduled positions! Of course, you may have a female wizard, in which case “she” will advise you gently of changes you might want to make. \sarcasm

Always remember, making the decision to change is sometimes the hardest part. Here at MusicMaster, the team is dedicated to excellence, customer service and your continued success in radio programming.

No comments: