Using Station PlayList on your station
Using StationPlaylist for a Standalone Station
StationPlaylist is our first choice of playout software for all our radio stations. We use it with our ‘live’ radio stations but we also run a number of Standalone Stations.
We call them Standalone because they run isolated and in full automation. They are usually set up on a Windows Tablet (or laptop) and live in a small box at the back of a church. The tablet is connected to a local transmitter, sometimes only 15w, and they broadcast to the local village or community.
These stations run, sometimes for 12 months or more, before anyone visits to update content.
You can tune in to an example with the “Listen Live” button above.
Music Categorisation
Following is a list of the categories of music we have available to us.
These categories are designed to specifically work with our standalone stations. For stations with live and/or pre-recorded announcer input the needs of the music categories are quite different. Click here for the definitions.
_CHRISTMAS
_CURRENT_regular
_CURRENT_up
_FRESH_music_SPECIAL
_GOLD_regular
_GOLD_up
_Kids
_Kids_Christmas
_PACIFIC MUSIC
_PACIFIC WORSHIP
_story_behind-song_SPECIAL
_WORSHIP_regular
_WORSHIP_up
Heavy tracks
Z_National_Cook_Islands
Kids
Worship
Z_National_Fiji
Kids
Worship
Z_National_Indonesian etc
Music Categories - Definitions
_CHRISTMAS
From the 1st to 25th December (inclusive) we include Christmas music in our playout schedules. As many Christmas songs are performed by various different artists it is important that all tracks in this category are tagged correctly so our separation rules all work. For example there are 7 versions of Silent Night and 12 versions of O Come all Ye Faithful.
_CURRENT_regular
On order to control the ‘sound’ of the station to allow us to have brighter music in the morning than overnight (for example) we have split Gold and Current into two categories.
Whenever we have opportunity we should look to add new tracks to the Current category
Current tracks are releases within the last 4 years (give or take). They will have a slightly higher rotation than tracks in the Gold category due to the category size being smaller. Most, but not all, current tracks will end up in the Gold category as they age.
Regular is for tracks suited to be scheduled at any time of the day or night.
_CURRENT_up
On order to control the ‘sound’ of the station to allow us to have brighter music in the morning than overnight (for example) we have split Gold and Current into two categories.
Whenever we have opportunity we should look to add new tracks to the Current category
Current tracks are releases within the last 4 years (give or take). They will have a slightly higher rotation than tracks in the Gold category due to the category size being smaller. Most, but not all, current tracks will end up in the Gold category as they age.
Up music is for tracks that are faster paced, or heavier and therefore might be a bit too bright for playing at 3:00am
_FRESH_music_SPECIAL
This is a special category designed to work in such a way to enable us to introduce 10 new tracks each month and so give the music mix a ‘fresh’ sound. There is further explanation in the video below.
This category works in concert with the Current_regular and Current_up categories with specific scheduling restrictions placed on every track.
In order to introduce 10 new tracks each month this category will have 120 tracks in it. Each of these tracks will also be found in one of the ‘Current’ categories.
Tracks 1-10 in this category will be restricted to only play in January,
Tracks 11-20 will be restricted to only play in February
etc.
Tracks 1-10 will be restricted in their CURRENT category to only play from February to December
Tracks 11-20 will be restricted in their CURRENT category to only play from March to December
etc
_GOLD_regular
On order to control the ‘sound’ of the station to allow us to have brighter music in the morning than overnight (for example) we have split Gold and Current into two categories.
Gold is the largest category and holds all the ‘good’ tracks older than about 4 years.
Regular is for tracks suited to be scheduled at any time of the day or night.
_GOLD_up
On order to control the ‘sound’ of the station to allow us to have brighter music in the morning than overnight (for example) we have split Gold and Current into two categories.
Gold is the largest category and holds all the ‘good’ tracks older than about 4 years.
Up music is for tracks that are faster paced, or heavier and therefore might be a bit too bright for playing at 3:00am
Folder Structure
This video explains the logic behind our file and Folder structure.
It is good to have a deliberate and logical plan so that others can follow along after you and work with what you have set up.
The old PPPPP applies.
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
StationPlaylist has a built in tool so you can replace paths easily.
Music Categories
We’ve taken a ‘unique’ approach to categorising our music becuase we aren’t adding new music to the playlist every month. Or are we??
Adding Fresh Music Each Month
So we are adding new Music 🙂
And we are adding Christmas progamming and Music into December.
Spot Groups
We use Spot Groups for Spoken Programs as well as Station ID’s.
Sometimes we want the same episode of a program to play twice in one day, eg at 9:00am and repeat it at 9:00pm. Other programs we just want to play a new one each time.
Building Rotations
This is a bit longer so is in 2 parts (2 videos).
You’ll see we have set up 40 rotations for our normal week. But then we’ve made a copy of all 40 and made a tweak to each one so we can add Christmas music and programing into 1-25 December.
Setting Up Schedules
After the complexity of all the Rotations you’ll be pleased to see we only have 3 main Schedules.
1. Monday – Friday
2. Saturday
3. Sunday
Then we also have…
4. December M-F
5. December Saturday
6. December Sunday
And because these videos are generally ‘one take wonders’ the second video explains why the Schedule is actually set up correctly, and I just confused myself as I was recording the first video.
Audio Processing and Buffering
Because our tablets don’t have heaps of spare computing grunt, we want to set the system to not be too resource hungry.
So these are the settings we have found to work well.
Power Settings
We want our radio station on air 24/7. That means we need to adjust the power settings to ensure the computer:
- Can’t accidentally be turned off
- Doesn’t ever go to sleep or power down
- Will automatically turn itself on again once power is restored after an extended power interruption
- Operates with the minimum of internal heat production
Longer Training Videos
The videos below are from training sessions we held with specific UCB groups. Most are over 60 minutes long.
Introduction to Radio Programming – Categories and Spot Groups
This is an hour long training video recorded as our first session with our team at MoH in Nepal.
Specifically we looked at the overall design of the station as it relates to the target Audience. We went on to look at how Station Playlist interacts with music Categories and Spot Groups and what this means for the sound of your station.
Categories and Spot Groups
This is an hour long training video recorded in a session with our team at MoH in Nepal. Specifically we were looking at how Station Playlist interacts with music Categories and Spot Groups and what this means for the sound of your station.
Continuing our Discussion about Music Categories
This is another hour long training video recorded in a session with our team at MoH in Nepal.
Specifically we were discussing how they could use CATEGORIES for their stations to best give them the control they wantover the ‘sound’ of their station.
Their homework had been to come up with some suggestions for Categories and provide a brief description of each.
Using Restrictions
Recorded in a session with our team at MoH in Nepal.
Here we looked at how to use “restrictions” on individual spots (or tracks) to help you Stop and start palying spots or tracks in specific time periods.
Mostly a Recap with things we’ve gone over before
Recorded in a session with our team at MoH in Nepal.
Here we looked at how to use “restrictions” on individual spots (or tracks) to help you Stop and start palying spots or tracks in specific time periods.
Automation of Recurring Processes
Here Steve Monro explains how you can automate the process of inserting the daily news bulletin.
The news is supplied as a YouTube video. We needed a way to download the audio file and play it within Station Playlist automatically.
Since we made this video the process has been set up, trailed and is successfully working.
This method can also be used for other automated processes