The Show Builder is where you assemble a programme out of segments and put it on the schedule. A show takes over your station's stream for as long as its audio lasts, then hands the stream back to rotation.
Read Station Breaks, Ad Spots, and the Clock alongside this. This article is about building and scheduling a show; that one is about breaks. The section below on collisions is where the two meet, and it is the part that surprises people.
Building the show
A show is an ordered list of segments. Each segment is one audio file: an intro, a track, a voice break, an interview, an outro.
- Open the Show Builder and create a show.
- Name it. The name is what listeners see while it is on air.
- Add segments in the order they should play.
- Upload audio to every segment.
- Set the schedule (below).
Two rules about segments that decide whether your show airs at all:
- A segment with no audio is skipped. It stays in the list, it just makes no sound.
- A show whose segments have no playable audio is skipped entirely, and the station falls back to rotation. If a show did not air, check the segments before you suspect the schedule.
Prepare the audio before you upload it. Voice recorded at a different level from your music is the most common reason a station sounds amateur, and a listener cannot turn one segment down without turning the whole station down. See Preparing Audio for Your Show.
Length is decided by the audio, not the Duration field
A show runs for exactly as long as its segments' audio. The stream adds up the segments that actually have playable audio and returns to rotation the moment that total runs out.
The Duration field is a label for listeners. It does not extend or shorten the broadcast. A show with four segments totalling 23m16s occupies the stream for 23m16s no matter what the field says.
This matters when you are working out what else can be scheduled, so know your real total.
Scheduling
A show has a real start date and time, and repeats one-time, daily, or weekly from that moment.
Every time is UTC. Not your local time, and not timezone aware. A station is one synchronised stream, so the schedule is anchored to a clock everybody shares. If you are UTC-6 and want 4:00 PM local, enter 22:00.
Two consequences:
- Daylight saving shifts your show. The UTC time never moves, so a show that runs at 4:00 PM in summer runs at 3:00 PM in winter. If it must hold a local hour year round, adjust it twice a year.
- To test a show right now, set the start time slightly in the PAST. A show scheduled in the future does not air until that moment arrives, so a future time looks like "nothing happened".
An occurrence that began more than 6 hours ago is ignored, so a long-past start does not suddenly seize the stream.
Shows take priority
A show has the stream to itself. While it is on air, station IDs and ad spots stand down, so a programme is never interrupted part way through. That is automatic and matches how a live show works on any station.
The thing to plan is the other side of it: a spot whose moment falls inside a show does not play, and it does not queue up for afterwards. It waits for its next scheduled occurrence instead. So the stretch a show occupies is time the rest of your schedule should leave alone.
Know the show's real length. A show runs for as long as its segment audio, not its Duration label. A 23 minute show starting at 17:32 holds the stream until 17:55, and anything booked inside that window sits out.
Leave room at the start too. If a 70 second jingle begins at 17:30 it is still playing at 17:31, so a show starting then cuts it off mid phrase. Begin the show at 17:32 and both play in full.
The simplest way to think about it:
Spots keep a rhythm. Shows take a time. So move the show, not the spot.
A spot on a cadence is meant to recur evenly all day, and shifting it to dodge one programme changes its spacing everywhere else. A show already sits at one chosen moment, so it is the easier of the two to move.
One spot per moment
A moment on air belongs to one spot. The scheduler gives every station ID and ad spot its own place on the clock, the same way a broadcast traffic log carries one item per slot.
So you do not have to keep a map of what is booked where. Set a spot to a time, and if another spot already holds that moment it takes the next free one and tells you where it landed:
Moved to :05 so it does not clash with Station ID.
- Spots on a cadence are spaced in five minute steps through the hour, which gives you twelve places for repeating spots. One at :00, the next at :05, and so on.
- Spots at set times are spaced by the length of the spot already there, rounded up to the next minute. If a 70 second jingle holds 17:30, the next spot lands at 17:32, which is the first moment the stream is free again.
You are always in charge of the final arrangement. The +5 min button moves any cadence spot along the hour whenever you want it somewhere else, and the whole rhythm moves with it, so a spot nudged to :05 plays at :05 past every hour.
In the rare case that all twelve places in the hour are already spoken for, the schedule is still saved and you are told that two spots are sharing a moment, so you can decide which one matters.
Why a show or break did not air
Work down this list:
- No audio. A break with no file, or a show whose segments are all empty, is skipped silently.
- Not enabled. The On air switch. Off keeps the schedule and the audio and simply does not play, which is the right way to park a seasonal ad instead of deleting it.
- Scheduled in the future. Nothing airs until the moment arrives. For testing, start in the past.
- Swallowed by a show. The moment fell inside a show's real run time. Check the show's actual audio length, not its Duration label.
- Lost to another break. Two breaks on the same boundary; one wins, the other is dropped. Stagger them.
Checklist before you walk away
- Every segment has audio, and the audio is loudness-checked
- Start time entered in UTC, converted from your local clock
- You know the show's real length (sum of segment audio), not the Duration label
- Nothing is scheduled inside that stretch
- Any break near the show starts at least its own length before the show begins
- Multiple cadence breaks staggered so they do not share a boundary
- On air switch on