Advanced Tab – Format Control™
Policies
Policies allow for the set up of different scheduling controls in different times of day or in different days of the week
Policy Grid
The Policy Grid editor is where policies are assigned for each hour (or even half-hour) of a week. Many policy grids may be created but only one is active at any given time.
Time Periods
Time periods are used by the song circulation controls. There may be any number of time periods. There are six time periods defined by default. The time period grid assigns each time period to a block of hours.
Usually the hours making up a time period are contiguous, but they do not have to be.
These are the default time periods:
TP 1: 10pm – 2am
TP 2: 2am – 6am
TP 3: 6am – 10am
TP 4: 10am – 2pm
TP 5: 2pm- 6pm
TP 6: 6pm – 10pm
Time Period Grid
The Time Period Grid editor is where time periods are assigned for each hour (or even half-hour) of a week. Many time period grids may be created but only one is active at any given time.
Dayparts
Dayparts restrict ‘dayparted’ songs from playing in certain hours of day in different days of the week.
How To Use a Daypart
Once a daypart is created, any number of songs may use it, each being restricted out of the same hours of a week. Dayparts may be assigned from either the song editor window or from the Library. Each song may have one daypart for each folder instance.
Using two opposite Dayparts, for example, a song could easily be set up to be in a “Power” category at night and in a “Secondary” category in the day.
At stations targeting two different demographic groups of listeners depending on the time of day, Dayparts do the job of targeting the right songs to the right listeners at the right times. In most cases, Dayparts are simply used to keep songs that are perceived to be “night” songs out of the day, and songs perceived to be “day” songs out of the night.
Block Programming
Block Programming is an option where the week can be broken up into different programming blocks that are somewhat isolated from each other. If the week was broken up into Day and Night blocks, for example, when scheduling or editing in Day hours, songs scheduled in Night hours would be invisible and would not cause violations, and vice versa.
Optionally, some hours of the week may be left blank, without any Block assigned. In those unassigned hours, all plays in all hours are visible.
Block Programming Grid
The Block Programming Grid editor is where time periods for block programming are assigned for each hour (or even half-hour) of a week.
No Repeat
No repeat hours are hours within a day where no songs are permitted to play more than once.
No repeat hours are not required to be back-to-back hours. No repeat hours only apply within the 24 hours of any given day; they do not apply across days.
The no repeat grid is seven days by 24 hours. The No Repeat rule is automatically unbreakable, and no songs are permitted to play more than once in the no repeat hours of a given day.
Show Grid
The Show Grid feature is great for stations which have high profile or celebrity programming at key times.
For example, a station employs a high profile presenter on a Saturday morning. The station enjoys a high reach at this time of day and the air talent is especially noted for their fine selection of music. Listeners tend to have good recall over two favored or specific time periods. That is why Powergold already includes the Friday to Monday song offset protection to ensure commuters do not hear the same songs on Monday, which they last heard on Friday even though a whole weekend of programming had passed between the two days. The same ability to recall such song and artist plays stands good for special talent shows.
The idea is that specific shows are defined in the show grid, then one of two specific rules can be applied to provide protection for artists or songs, which may have appeared in the schedule at an earlier time.
These rules are:
Song Same Show Separation
Artist Same Show Separation
Talent Manager
The Talent Manager is a database record for the air talent, full-time and part-time. Easily assign weekly work schedules for the air talent in the grid, and print out a work schedule. Talent names can optionally be printed in the music logs.
The Talent Manager is also a useful place to keep a record of staff contact details.
In the Talent Manager, a 7-day period of time is shown at a time with the days of the week across the top, and the hours of the day down the left side.
The Talent Manager can also track, in 30 minute increments, the number of hours worked by station talent. A printable report tracks the hours worked by each member of the broadcast staff.
Advanced Scheduling Settings
The System Settings window allows for configuring of various system settings to suit taste and needs. This is an important area where many Powergold behaviors can be changed.
Here there are three sections or tabs: General, Scheduling, and Environment.