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TuneTracker Automation
Chronicles of Radio Automation: History
and Uses
We live in the "Golden Era" of radio automation, when
radio stations can do almost anything imaginable on an automated
basis. In this article, we'll cover some of the benefits and
uses of radio automation, but first let's go on a little
archeological expedition to see how far we've come.
In the late 1950s, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, the first
few great automated beasts began to appear on the radio landscape.
These large, dumb, balky creatures were as likely to collapse under
their own weight as to amble smoothly along.
Early radio automation systems evolved very little in the first two
decades of their existence. They consisted of an array of big
reel-to-reel tape decks and cartridge machines, sequenced using
thumb dials or toggle switches, and were triggered using metal foil
markers stuck to the recording tape, or with recorded "subaudible
tones" at the ends of songs. Early tape-based automation
systems were fun to watch, with all their blinking lights and
wagging VU meters, but they were also frighteningly expensive, a
pain to maintain, and large enough to cover an entire wall.
In the 1970s, radio automation's Cretacious Period, automation
behemoths were still every bit as cumbersome, but were gaining a bit
more intelligence. Primitive little computers, accessed by a
keypad or other simple input device, took the place of toggle
switches and thumbdials. Commercials were still keyed-in by
hand, one at a time. Automation was gaining acceptance in the
radio industry as a way to cost-effectively "automate the
FM" while station staff handled air duties on the AM station.
Then came the great asteroid. In the early 80s, he
FCC relaxed its licensing requirements, and new stations began
popping up everywhere, each of them dispatching their account
representatives into the community to graze. Where once, great
leafy green advertising dollars sustained full radio announcing
staffs at a limited number of stations, now the advertising
landscape was increasingly trodden and bare due to overgrazing.
Many stations were left with little choice but to lay-off air
staffers and rely on automation. The need was great, and the
timing was right for a new, "evolved breed" of radio
automation products.
The early 80s emergence of the "personal computer" greatly
improved the brain side of the creature, without doing much to
improve its "body." Automation in that era was still
encumbered by physical tape media, with all its inherent problems
and cost. Some dubious crossbreeds that attempted to interface
computers with other audio playback devices like cassettes and VHS
tape decks crawled onto dry land during that period, but quickly
went extinct. The ultimate creature was yet to be born.
In the late 1980s, some brave pioneers were experimenting with the
idea of containing an entire radio automation system within a
computer and playing some or all of a station's programming directly
off the hard drive using digital audio files. No more hissy,
troublesome tape: a great notion! But in an era when a 16 megahertz
computer was considered a "screamer," and the
average hard drive contained about 80 megabytes of storage capacity,
it was miles from being practical. Ten more years were to
transpire before PCs had enough brains, memory, and agility to
realistically run a complete radio station directly from the hard
drive. But when we reached that threshhold, I believe the
"Golden Age" of radio automation began.
Yet another ten years have passed since the start of radio
automation's "Golden Age," and computers have increased
their speed another tenfold! Hard drives big enough
to store the average contents of a dozen radio stations cost half as
much as you would have spent in the mid-80s for a drive that would
have had room for two or three songs. And while you could
easily have spent $70,000 for a clunky, stumble-footed monster in
the 80s, today $1300 will buy you a system (with hardware) with
infinitely-greater capabilities, storage, speed, and audio fidelity.
Imagine. A fifty-fold reduction in cost, and an inestimable
increase in quality.
What's the Point of Radio Automation?
While its shape, cost, and quality have evolved over time, the basic
reason for automation is pretty much the same as its always been; to
save money while maintaining the most entertaining,
audience-holding, "live-sounding" programming possible.
The success it attains in those areas is in direct proportion to how
well the radio automation system is designed, and how well the
station uses it.
How Much Should We Automate?
While a lot of the guilt has gone out of radio automation since its
"forced inevitability," in the 1980s, there is a
healthiness about self-evaluation in the area of automation. Truly
live programming in a small community with
"local-sounding" announcers referencing local names,
events, and locations can have a charm for listeners that is
difficult to fully duplicate through automation. But there are
kudos to that.
Even small town announcers need to do their utmost to be
professional when they're on the air live. Back during the
vinyl days, I was Operations Manager for a radio station where a DJ
forgot about the record he was playing while he was talking to his
girlfriend on the telephone. With the speakers turned down all
the way down, and the record appearing to be playing fine, he
quickly lost all track of time, until he was jogged back to reality
by a caller who said the record had been skipping over and over on
the air for the past 20 minutes. At a competition station
across town, years earlier, a young woman working an early morning
shift fell asleep on the floor, to similar on-air effect. When
too much of that sort of thing happens, or announcers without the
experience to realize they're being cornball aren't reality-checked
by their superiors, it's my opinion that station is better off
running automated 24/7.
Automating "Live-Sounding" Programming
About the only kinds of local programming that don't lend themselves
easily to automation are live, local call-in shows and local sports
play-by-play coverage. Neither makes much sense if it's
pre-recorded. But with the sophistication available in modern
radio automation, nearly any other sort of programming can simulate
live programming well. DJ shows can be voice-tracked, either
by local announcers or remotely-located jocks who voice-track for
stations all over the place. You supply then with your program
log and they record the voice-track files that will be heard between
songs. Remote broadcasts can easily be automated by having
your remote announcer feed through clusters of "reports"
from the fair or advertiser's place of business, and scheduling them
to run later in the hour or next hour. If you're short-staffed
and can only afford an hour at a festival, buzz down with a
recorder, do a bunch of quick interviews complete with wrap-arounds
and call letters, bring t!
hem back to the station, dub them in, and broadcast those reports
all day long, or all weekend long! News, sports, and weather
reports can easily be pre-recorded and automated, complete with time
and temperature announcements if your automation supports them, to
make things sound very live and local.
Another "live" form of programming comes from radio
networks who supply talk shows. The hosts are normally live as
you hear them, and reference the things happening that very day.
Have the hosts record custom liners and bumpers for you so the host
uses your call letters and slogan when transitioning to and from
local breaks and news. To automatically engineer programming
from a network, you'll need a satellite receiver as well as a
switcher-equipped automation system that can respond to trigger
signals from the network when it's time to cut away for local
content.
What's Live Assist?
Live Assist is a best-of-both-world's situation. It allows you
to pop-in live anytime you want, do some live programming, then
return to automation again. If you plan a situation where you
might want to do anything live, whether it's a quick DJ comment, a
newscast, or a full-fledged talk show, make certain your automation
supports live-assist capabilities. A great accompanyment
to live-assist is a touchscreen, which gives the experience a very
hands-on, intuitive feel. I highly recommend it if you'll be
doing any significant amount of live-assist programming.
Another highly desirable feature for your automation system to
include is a "cart wall" or "sound board" that
lets you randomly select audio clips for use as sounders,
opens/closes, bumpers, contest beds, joke effects, sweepers, etc.,
at-will.
Why Every Station Needs Automation
These days, every radio station needs to be equipped with some
degree of radio automation capabilities. Even a fully-staffed
station will need it sometimes, if only as a means of playing back
their program log's contents between spoken segments and providing
random-access to audio tracks. Hard drive based audio also
allows DJs to instantly find any song in the station's music library
during request shows, an enormous time-saver over the dreaded
"flip-flip-flip" method long associated with
request-finding.
The days of doing without such a system are over forever. They
can be used to do as little or as much as you like, and unlike the
"dino days of yore," they have awesome capabilities at a
price any station can afford.
TuneTracker
Systems, 612 McDonald
Street, Oconto, WI 54153 (920) 273-0543
TuneTracker
Systems (clickable link)
is perfectly suited for community broadcasters. It lets
even the smallest stations, with the smallest budgets, stand toe-to-toe
with anybody in their market and fully compete.
TuneTracker Command Center gives you the important functions you need
and expect, like time-corrects, fades, exact-time starts, configurable
silence-sensor, live network joins, live-assist for dj'ing, music-selection
software, background (delayed broadcast) recording option, Traffic
log integration, professional time-announcements, a built-in streaming
server for broadcasting over the Internet, unlimited format design,
and a clear, user-friendly control interface. For a tiny fraction
of what you're used to spending, you'll get a solid, professional radio
automation system for over-the-air as well as webcasting, complete with
outstanding customer support. Systems are available with switchers
and touchscreens as well.
If You Can Dream it...
...TuneTracker radio automation software can do it! Design
format clocks for every unique hour in your programming lineup,
and full, daily master logs which can be changed and edited
at-will. Prepare holiday logs, sports logs, block programming,
special music shows, news segments, and other special
programming hours, and combine them however you like. Edit the
current-day's program log while it is being broadcast, without ever
missing a beat.
Great for Inexperienced Staff...
Despite the horsepower beneath its surface, all the elements of the TuneTracker
Radio Automation System have been designed for ease-of-use, making
it a breeze to teach to newcomers, part-timers, volunteers, and students.
Caring Assistance, Now and Later...
TuneTracker Systems' caring customer service, both before and
after the sale, is another thing that sets them apart. Much of
it is free, the rest is inexpensive, and it's all top notch.
Call right now on the pre-sales support line, and speak directly
with a TuneTracker expert who will discuss your
situation with you and whether TuneTracker System is a
good match for your operation. Odds are, it is! 920-273-0543 And
be sure to mention you heard about it from CCB.
Visit the web site at http://www.tunetrackersystems.com.
Or use this Contact
Page for more information.
PRICES - Approximate (June 2008)
$1299 Command Center 80 Station
in a Box or
$2359 Touchmaster CMX Station in a Box (Touch screen) (includes
instructional DVD) or
$2549 ChannelCaster 8 Station in a Box (eight channel switcher
system)
OPTIONS
$ 300 TuneBacker Hard
Drive Backup System
$ 80 TunePrepper Music Preparation Software
$ 80 TT Anywhere Remote Administration Server
$ 100 FastTracker Learning Series DVDs, full set
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