Extreme radio automation

[jc103]

Hello, I'm not in radio, but I'm writing an article about automation in various fields, and I'm trying to find more information about radio automation. I'm particularly interested in the extreme cases where nobody's home, there's just a computer playing songs, ads, imaging and fake DJs that are just prerecorded voice tracks. Examples of "centralcasting," where a station is controlled from another city, would be interesting, too.

If anyone could help me out by either digging up an article explaining how a station is completely automated, or by giving me something I can Google for more information, like the name of a station, station group, syndicator or software that is infamous for extreme automation, that would be really useful. Thanks!

 

[Chuck]

I don't think it is "extreme automation." It is just the way radio is done these days. If you want to learn about it, I'd suggest Googling "Radio Automation Systems." You'll find a ton of them ranging from very simple and straightforward (Zara Radio) to large business operation systems that coincidentally can play music if there are no commercials to play (Wide Orbit). You can even download demos and free automation systems so you can find out first-hand how they work.

 

[jc103]

What I'm finding is for internet radio stations.

When you say this is just how radio is done now, what percentage of stations would you say employ no local DJs?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

When you say this is just how radio is done now, what percentage of stations would you say employ no local DJs?

Some one would have to create some definitions that we would all agree on before anyone can give you an answer. When a company owns a cluster of 3 to 6 stations in one market, and they have combined the studios (and automation hardware) for all six under one roof, and there is one person on duty... part of the time... how do you count those stations?

The fact a station has even one person on duty eight hours a day, giving the automation machine a manicure or whatever, does not mean there is "a DJ" employed.

 

[jc103]

If that's how most, or even many, stations are now, can you help me find an article or video somewhere that explains how a radio station is automated? I don't want to spend too much time explaining it myself, I just want to list radio as among the industries that are automated, linking to an article or video that explains things further.

 

[K6JHU]

A radio automation system is bascially a high end MP3 player with some specialized software hooked up to a transmitter nowadays (simplifying just a bit).

You might try poking around with the fields at http://radioautomationreview.com/ to find out what some of the bells and whistles are.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

If that's how most, or even many, stations are now, can you help me find an article or video somewhere that explains how a radio station is automated?

Most magazine articles on the subject assume the reader already knows a lot of things, so they picture and write about some bells-and-whistles.. and the article becomes something less than useful for someone like yourself. I get the idea you may be doing something like a "term paper" on the topic and if that is your task, you have a tough task putting into writing a topic that seems tough for us to hand to you in a neat little package.

I'll keep looking.

Maybe this is just one line of work among many that you are collection data on so you can't do "field trips" all over the place. But if you want to understand radio automation, find a station near year, hopefully a stand alone station in a smaller community, and see if someone there will let you come in and see it function, and maybe spend an hour or two watching the person "shovelling coal into the boiler" of the little beast. Then you will be much better equipped to know which magazine article, which equipment catalog or which website to reference in the information you are putting together.

 

[Chuck]

I think you will find that most music oriented radio stations are automated, at least part of the time. For that matter, many talk stations use it too, if for no other reason than to switch between one syndicated satellite feed to another without anyone having to be present.

The usual exception to full automation is during drive times. That's the "Morning Show" and the PM drive home, when lots of people are listening and commercials are more valuable. More money means you can afford to pay somebody who has a pulse. Even those shows may originate from a network satellite feed. The automation computer merely switches the feed on at the appropriate time and returns to full automation as soon as the program is over. Most of these systems are sophisticated enough that they can insert what sounds like local patter into the program, using the same voices that are on the network feed. Those local sounding inserts are just emailed in advance. At the appropriate time the automation plays them in place of the network feed. It sounds seamless to the listener.

Even if these programs are live and local, almost everyone uses computer automation in a "Live Assist" mode. All the music, spots, jingles etc. are stored on a computer's hard drive for instant play at the operator's demand. It is simply easier to do it rather than using CD players, cartridge machines, turntables and tape recorders. Being just a computer, It takes up a lot less space and requires far less maintenance than electro-mechanical devices of the past.

There are many different flavors of radio automation, but basically, all are nothing more than an event scheduling program that has a user friendly interface. The computer doesn't care if it is being asked to play a song, meet a network feed, or turn on the coffee pot. It just does what you tell it to. Various programs have their own "personality" to them, making them favorites of their users, but in their basic state they are all conceptually the same. It is the bells and whistles that separate one from another, and what works well in one situation may be less than optimal in another programming situation.

 

[Fieldtech1]

Most extreme I've seen........I visited a large 8 station cluster several years ago that was running a completely automated classic rock station from a rack mounted pc. No studio, no 'board', no mics. Just a play-out PC into EAS box into processor into STL to tower. Station was just music, liners, commercials, not even voice tracked. PD of cluster-mate country station did the music scheduling by remoting into the play-out PC.

 

[K6JHU]

And I have seen at least one case where the PD was programming the station remotely from his iPod.

 

[Chuck]

One other reason that automation is so universal is traffic and billing. Like it or not, collecting money is really what commercial radio is all about. Generally when you tell a computer to play a spot at a certain time, it will do it, and make a very nice log of when the event happened. Because computers have the ability to generate just about any kind of report you want, it makes it simple for the billing department to send out bills and affidavits. You can also specify start and stop dates for a particular spot, which is a handy feature. There is no point in running spots for events that have already happened.

Since most radio stations are interested in making money, using computer automation makes knowing what you are doing and when you are doing it, a lot easier.

 

[TomT]

Even with live assist, where the DJ's play each event sequentially, but with the aid of the computer in keeping things in order. Same with music.

 

[firepoint525]

I don't know what could be considered "extreme radio automation," but I can give you an example of extremely bad radio automation: WCMT-FM of Martin, TN, back in the early '90s. At that time, we were still running the same automation system that they had been running since (at least) the '70s: the four (floor-to-ceiling) reel-to-reel tape decks, the cart machine carousel, you name it. But at the time, there was still at least one company out there (Broadcast Supply West out of Seattle) who serviced us with new reel-to-reel tapes of music, just to keep the music sounding "fresh." But even to the most untrained ear, the station just sounded "automated." We would voice-track four times per hour, but since we did not know what would play right before (or right after) our voice-tracks would play, we could obviously not make any direct reference to any song that had just played, or was about to play, because we did not know what was about to play, or had just played. Probably would have been better to just do it "jockless."

 

[ProducerGuy]

Find out which stations Clear Channel owns in your town. Ask to come in for a tour, and prepare to be bored to death watching a "DJ" sit behind a computer checking his Facebook while a computer does the "radio".

 

[TomT]

DJ? What's a "DJ"?

Go to your local CC cluster. You may or may not find someone at the main desk. You may see some unhappy looking folk wandering around--they are called "account executives," also known as sales people. Try to find anyone in the studios--those are the dark rooms with lots of equipment, computers and a mike or two.

 

[bossbill]

But at the time, there was still at least one company out there (Broadcast Supply West out of Seattle) who serviced us with new reel-to-reel tapes of music, just to keep the music sounding "fresh." But even to the most untrained ear, the station just sounded "automated."

The company you speak of was BPI, Broadcast Programming International, a spin-off from International Good Music (IGM) which was based in Bellingham, WA. IGM was a large provider of hardware and music service back in the days when you folks didn't even know it was going on. The music tapes included disk jockey voices, and were bicycled all over the country to stations that had IGM automation. IGM began as a way for an FM station in Bellingham to be on the air and profitable back when FM wasn't cool. Rogan Jones owned KGMI, and used his own stuff.

Broadcast Supply West (now Broadcast Supply Worldwide) was and is a major distributor of broadcast and related equipment based in Tacoma, WA. The founder of BSW had been employed at the above-mentioned IGM. When the company split up, Irv Law moved down to the west of Tacoma (University Place) and started a "cart-winding" business behind a restaurant. He later added small equipment sales. The company Irv built is now celebrating 40 years in business, and has only moved twice, first from the back of the restaurant to a huge warehouse and sales operation in UP, and several years ago to a new building in Tacoma.

And a side note. Many years ago, I was driving through Port Angeles, WA, listening to KONP. I was intrigued because I was absolutely sure the station was automated. The more I listened, the more sure I became. Songs played, occasionally a disjointed voice appeared. Imagine my surprise when I stopped by and found an older man on duty playing records.

Later, at KOL in Seattle, our FM format incorporated "music sets", followed by a jock back-announcing several songs. A casual listener may have wondered if this station was automated, but a visit would have found a live body, planning out his/her next music set. There also would have been the smell of marijuana in the room.

Things aren't always as they seem.

 

[TheBigA]

Just want to mention that this is nothing new. When I was a kid, I was a radio geek who loved to visit stations when my family went on vacation. I remember visting an AM-FM combo (before deregulation) in a Top 50 market that was all automated. But because it was the 80s, the "studio" was a big room filled with racks of reel to reel and cart machines. The only humans in the building were the automation operators (part time college students) who loaded the carts and tapes, and the sales folks who brought in the money. There were thousands of similar operations going back to the 60s. The idea that radio was once all live & local is a myth.

 

[bossbill]

When I visited KOIT San Francisco 20 years ago I observed their nighttime "jock". Several racks of CD players. KIXI in Seattle had a voice-tracked overnight show back then as well, using a pair of matched CD changers. We used automation at KOL-FM in the late 60s, and in the 70s.

We expected radio automation in the small markets, but numerous FM stations in major markets used it in the 60s, as previous poster noted.

The difference between automation today and yesterday is that it sounds better today and takes up less space. And the tape reels no longer run out.

 

[Fieldtech1]

A couple years ago I visited a small station in Texas. They were using pre-recorded voicetracked VHS tapes and HiFI VCRs for the 12a-6p shift. I felt had been teleported to the early 90s.

 

[firepoint525]

To add to what I posted earlier, WCMT-FM originally went on the air (in 1968) because WCMT-AM was daytime-only back then, and could not stay on the air to carry high school and college sports live. They had to be aired tape-delayed, until WCMT-FM came on the air. Otherwise, WCMT-FM was automated, which made sense at the time because AM was still the dominant band. The problem came in that WCMT-FM never updated their "sound," even when FM became the dominant band. They never made the needed changes until sometime in the '90s, after I had left them. Then they (sort of) "automated" the AM by putting Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on there.