Manual Scheduling tip! The use of Shift F9

If you're the type of programmer that elects to hand schedule - especially your heavy currents, make use of the Shift F9 key in the editor.  Rather than bringing up a song replacement screen, Shift F9 will select the first song in the category that passes the rules.   If you have unbreakable rules it cannot pass - it will alert you. If you don't have any rules in your category it will automatically bring up the most rested song! 

Happy Scheduling!  -Marianne Burkett

 

Special History Reports

by Paul Ziino

Every so often we get calls from MusicMaster users indicating "...my
BMI report was rejected because they said it's blank." In most of
those cases, the user likely missed a very important step--filling
out the report's Options tab.

There are lots of pre-built reports in the MusicMaster program, all
available under Dataset/Analysis/Special History Reports. Here you
will use the pull-down menu to choose the needed report. Once you've
selected the report, check the needed categories, and set your start
and end dates/times.

Now click the Options tab. The Options tab is where you tell
MusicMaster what information belongs under each header. In general
you'll fill out the top half under Misc manually. It's the Song
Fields section that requires your attention. Double-click in the
space to the right of each field to open the drop-down menu. Here
you will indicate what field in your data contains the requested
information. For example: Artist Name will likely be in the Artist
field, Song Title in the Title field, Performers in the Soloists
field and so forth. If your data does not contain the requested
information, leave that field blank. Once you have the fields
matched up, go back to the Report Setup tab and click Print or Export
to generate the file, then send it to the appropriate agency and you're done!

What's New in MusicMaster?

On a fairly regular basis, MusicMaster developers are busy updating the software.  To get the most recent Service Release of MusicMaster - be sure to check Help/Check For Updates. If you see a new release is available, ask your station IT person to run the software update for you., or if you have full administrative rights - run the update yourself.  After the update is finished you can check Help/Release Notes to see what's new!  Marianne Burkett

 

 

When Copying Clocks....

by Paul Ziino

A quick tip for you when copying clocks.  Make sure to highlight the clock you wish to make a copy of before clicking the copy button in Dataset/Clocks/Format Clocks.  The checkboxes are used for mass Deletion, Printing, Exporting, and Changing. 

So Much to See in Turnover Analysis

by Paul Ziino

There is a ton of information available in Turnover Analysis
(Dataset/Analysis/Analysis, or the blue spinning arrows icon in the
tool bar)! You can see song and slot count, Short and Long Turnover,
and more...just right-click in the upper half of the screen and check
any of the items you wish to add to your view. Things like Suggested
Minimum and Maximum Rest, Average Spins per Day or Week, and Hour
Exposure to name a few. You can change which assignment grid is
being analyzed, too.

In the lower half of the screen you can adjust slot counts to see
predicted rotations with more or less slots in the category, you can
access the auto-burn spreadsheet, view format clock category usage,
and even more!

A Few Simple Rules

by Paul Ziino

If you are a new MusicMaster user starting out with a brand new database, I like to recommend a few simple rules to get things going.

• Day Offset Window, setting of Days=1 and Hours=1...this will prevent the same song from playing in the same broadcast hour two days in a row.
• Artist Keyword Time Separation, setting of 1:10...this will prevent the same artist keyword from playing within 70 minutes of itself.  If you have a large library with a lot of artist diversity, you can go higher.  If you have a very tight library with fewer unique artist keywords, you may want to go lower.
• Minimum Rest, setting is dependent on category rotation...Minimum Rest is the least amount of time required between spins of the same song within a category.  If you run the Rule Wizard (magic wand icon in Rule Tree) you will get suggested minimum rest settings for each category based on the number of items in the category and the number of times you call for that category in your active clock assignment grid.  Accept each of those suggestions as a good starting point.

For more specific rules and rule tree adjustments, visit the training videos section of the client support center on www.mmwin.com, or contact your Music Scheduling Consultant.

Dayparting Options by the Full Hour, Half Hour or Quarter Hour!

 

Most of you are aware that you can daypart a song or promo in MusicMaster by using the dayparting field.  However, were you aware you can also restrict which part of the hour a song card is permitted to play?

Let's create a new restriction today on a song you NEVER want to play in the first 15 minutes of the 5pm hour. Double click on the dayparting field, put an "X" in the 5pm hour - then look to the Pink Pie icon  at the top of the Daypart Restriction box, and click on it twice.  That gives you the quarter hour options.  To restrict a song from opening the hour - just remove the X from the first quarter hour.  Save and Apply. Of course, be sure the dayparting rule is in effect in your rule tree as well!