Create Playlist

From the Schedule menu, choose Create Playlist or click the large Create Playlist button.

This is where the system generates your daily music schedules.

If you want to Print the playlist when scheduling is complete, Click the Printer check-box. To automatically create a schedule file for automation click Log File.

Enter the dates to schedule. You will be asked for a start and end date. Schedule one day, the weekend... or week... or whatever. The system will suggest the next date for which no playlist has been completed. Click Schedule. The system will then inform you that it is loading day-lists and format clocks that you have designated. It will then schedule a title for each format clock slot of each hour of the day.

Note to Scott Studios users:
Remember that if you are planning to use the Scott "Reconcile Playlist to Air" feature, it doesn't make sense to schedule too far ahead. When you reconcile, you will want to be able to quickly reschedule deleted or jumped titles and avoid added titles.

How the Playlist Is Created...

Several things can affect which title the system will select to schedule in each time slot:

• Attribute protections in Scheduling Rules
• Schedule Order in Rotations
• Previous Days separation rules in Rotations
• Search-Depths in Rotations
• Forced attributes in Format Clocks
• Artist separation rules in Scheduling Rules or Inventory (including separation from "Associated Artists" assigned in Inventory)
• Title separation rules in Scheduling Rules or Inventory
• Packet cycling
• Artist double plays assigned in Format Clocks
• Daypart exclusions in Inventory or Events
• Kill dates and day of week exclusions in Events
• Obviously, everything is controlled by the number of titles in each rotation category and the number of times each category is scheduled per hour

You can watch an on-screen presentation of what the computer is doing as it attempts to schedule the most perfect titles for each time slot. You'll may find it interesting to see how the computer is dealing with the scheduling rules, protections, search depths, and attribute forcing that you have established, and which ones are causing titles to be rejected.

As scheduling of each title is attempted, you'll see the Artist, Title, all Music attributes, a message indicating why the title is rejected (if it is rejected) and a number indicating how deeply into the rotation (starting with the "most rested" title) the system is digging.

Active Keys During Scheduling:

{1-9}
Depending upon the processor speed and memory of your computer, the titles listed may fly by too quickly to read. If you would like the computer to pause whenever a "failure" occurs, press any number key (1 through 9). The system will pause for the number of seconds of the key you pressed each time it is unable to place a "perfect" song based on your rules.

{T}
After setting a number (see above) of seconds for pausing at failed titles, press {T} to also pause at time-jog failures. Pressing {T} again causes not stopping at time-jog failures.

{S/F}
If you would like to pause at every song that is scheduled, after pressing a number-key, press {S} (for "schedule"). To return to pausing only at failed titles, press {F}.

{0}
To return to uninterrupted scheduling, press {0} and pausing will cease.

{P}
Press {P} to pause the scheduling process until you press any key to continue.

{Esc}
During scheduling, you may press {Esc} to cancel the scheduling process. You'll be given a chance to verify that you really want to interrupt the scheduling. If you do, the system erases the playlist that it was working on and "rolls-back" the system to the state it was in before scheduling started.


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See Also: Playlist Report, Format Clocks, Day Lists