Format Clocks

Format Clocks

From the Files menu, choose Format Clocks or click the large Format Clocks button.

This section is used to make minute by minute music clocks indicating the time that titles or program events should be played. You also may insert "program notes" (reminders to DJs) at the times you want them to occur. Most format clocks can be used for many different hours on your station. Create a different clock for each specific "hour-type" you may have. (Some stations have only one or two clocks, some have many more).

Select Clocks Screen...

You'll see a browse window listing all format clocks that have already been built.  Notice that those clocks which are scheduled on an "on-air" day-list are marked "On Air" in the right-hand column.  Marked are those clocks which are included in day-lists that are currently scheduled for at least one day a week as on-air day lists. This column can not be changed from within the clock editing screen.

To select a clock for editing, double click on the clock number, or highlight your selection and press {Enter}.  You'll be taken to the Build-Clock screen.

Push Buttons...

Edit Name:
Click Edit Name to change the name or description of the highlighted clock.

Add:
Click Add to create a new format clock from scratch.

Print:
Prints a listing of all clock names, numbers and their "on-air" status.

Delete:
Move the light-bar to a clock and click Delete to remove an existing clock. Be careful not to delete a clock that is used in a day-list for scheduling.

Copy:
You can easily create a new clock that is nearly the same as an existing clock. Move the light-bar to the clock you want to use as a basis for the new one, and click Copy. This copies the highlighted clock to a new slot.

Clock Options:
Select "Visual Clock" to edit in a shaped display which easily shows how things fall in each quarter hour. Select "Detail Clock" for a columnar listing of each minute. (The Detail Clock allows an unlimited number of entries.)
 

Build Clock Screen:

Here you'll see each minute of the hour when a "playlist element" is scheduled. An element could be a:

Detail Style Clock:

Detail Style Clock

Visual Style Clock:

Time, Code:
For each event, enter the minute and seconds that the event should occur. After entering the time, enter the code to play at that time. Enter a rotation code to schedule a song in the slot, or an event code to schedule a program event. (Press {Alt}+{DownArrow} to activate a drop-down list of all valid rotation and event codes on the visual clock; Enter blanks to see a list of all codes on the detail clock). 

Example:
Coming out of news at :05 past the hour, you want:

You add the following lines:

Program Notes:
To enter a program note instead of a music rotation or program event at any minute, press the hyphen {-} instead of a rotation or event code. You'll be given a box in which to enter a memo-line up to 25 characters long. Program notes are used for printed playlists only. They are not exported in the daily log file for automation. To program non-music elements such as voice tracks or jingles for automation, you must use program events. The program note "Stop-Set" has special meaning to the system. When printing the daily playlist, whenever the system finds a Stop Set program note, it adds a line of asterisks to visually break the page into your music segments.

Double Plays:
You may also schedule a special Repeat Title by entering {=} at the rotation/event code box. This is used to program a "double play" or a "block" of one artist. Pay close attention to the Rotation Code before the "Repeat" slot. Be sure it's a category (or has a forced attribute) that will feature only artists that you actually want repeated, and that you have enough library depth to achieve the repeat. After you select the "repeat" feature, you'll be shown a selection box listing all available rotations. Click the check-boxes to select all rotations that are acceptable for the system to use in finding a second title by the artist just played. Click OK after you've selected all rotations. You may also force a Music Attribute for the repeat-artist selection.

Push Buttons...

Both the "Visual Clock" and the "Detail Edit" screens contain the following push buttons:

Force Attribute:
Click Force to allow only particular music attribute traits in the current timeslot. A window will appear listing all available attributes. Move to the one you want to "force" and then input the traits of that attribute. The system will then search for only titles with all of those traits when it schedules that slot.

Example:
You require a medium or up-tempo Power Current song coming out of the news at :05. You enter the rotation code you've assigned to Power Current, then select "Tempo" as the attribute to force. You input "MU" to allow only a Medium or Up Tempo song in that slot.

During scheduling, the system will look only at those titles that match the traits you specify for the forced attribute. Only if EVERY title it looks at fails on EVERY scheduling rule you've specified, will it then ignore the forced attribute. When the system is scheduling a title with a forced attribute, you may allow it to "dig deeper" than normal through the available titles in the rotation. (See System Options).
 

Stats:
View a listing of each music rotation and event category, and the number of occurrences of each on this clock.  Press {Esc} to exit.

Avg. Time:
Provides average song length in each rotation category to help plan music timings as you create clocks.

Print:
Print a list of each item on the current clock.

Save:
Saves the format clock to disk (erasing the old version if there was one) and exits.

Cancel:
Exits without saving your work. Leaves the old version --if one existed-- as it was.

 

The "Detail Edit" clock screen also includes the following push buttons:

Find:
Move to a certain minute on the format clock.

Delete:
Remove the currently highlighted item from the clock.

Add:
Add a new timeslot and playlist element to the clock.

Code (Sort Order):
Click the heading of the rotation code column to sort the listing by event and rotation code.  Events are listed first, then music codes.  This is useful for getting a look at how categories are spread across the hour.  By clustering all of the same codes together, you can quickly see how their times compare.

Time (Sort Order):
Click the heading of the minutes column to sort the clock in normal (time) order.

 

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See Also: Browse Clocks, Day Lists