The Knowledgebase has an article on "Scheduled playlists do not start on time" here:

http://www.centova.com/en/faq/cast3/troubleshooting/scheduled_playlists_do_not_start_on_time

From this it is clear that there is currently no way to get a scheduled show to start at its precise scheduled start time and also stop at an exact time.

Seeing as how exact start/finish times are the lifeblood of radio programming for building audience loyalty via schedules, could this feature be added ?

Our general playlist contains interviews that usually run for an hour. The current sheduled playlist means that shows can start up to an hour late which makes scheduling not helpful for our audience. I suspect that many stations would benefit from this feature in that it creates station loyalty.

Many thanks for listening.

This would be a good feature to have

Hi we play alot of scheduled shows and also program tracks to play at specific times throughout the day it just takes a little tweaking, but it does work and always plays right on time if not off only by a minute or two give or take.  The feature is pretty much available. Though we like to let whatever is playing finish to completion as not to cut a track off in the middle of the song,but you can always use the Yes, terminate if another scheduled playlist is due to begin option to override and start exactly where you want.

Hi Mike -

According to this . . .

http://www.centova.com/en/faq/cast3/troubleshooting/scheduled_playlists_do_not_start_on_time

. . .  what you say is not possible as once a track starts playing, it will always play to the end no matter even if you select the "YES, terminate if another scheduled playlist is due to begin" option.

I play mainly interview shows that run for 1 hour, sometimes 2 hours long. So the scenario I am facing is one of these tracks on my General Playlist starts say 10 minutes before a scheduled show and thereby makes the scheduled show 50 minutes late.

The ideal scenario would be to have a General Playlist as the backbone of the weekly programming with PRECISE PLAYLISTS interrupting that General Playlist at exact times ie 1pm to 2pm then the station reverts back to the General Playlist. This is what I have to do manually at the moment using BUTT.

Would the following work ?

1) Centova has to have at least 1 General Playlist so set one up to run for say 1 hour with exactly 1 hour of audio on that playlist.

2) For the remainder of the week (167 hours) use Scheduled Playlists set to "YES, terminate if another scheduled playlist is due to begin"

The LIVE shows we do and our scheduled repeats take precedence over our general playlist so ending the currently playing track with a new Scheduled Playlist works . . . but as it says in the link above, it would seem that this does not happen as the currently playing track will always play to the end.

Well, I tested using Scheduled lists (3 of them) back to back to back but as the CC Manual says, current track always plays to the end and so the next Scheduled list starts late ie not on the exact start time.

NEWS BULLETINS - these are the main reason I (and I suspect many others) want/need this feature. For example a 10 minute news bulletin repeated at the top of the hour every 2 hours or so throughout the day. Exactly the same functionality as a Scheduled Playlist but with the ability to interrupt the current playing track (which ideally would fade out) and start/end bang on time.

Also, would this feature not make it possible to run advertising spots in a precise way thereby guaranteeing to advertisers that there ad would absolutely run say twice an hour ?



 

So I thought I would bump this thread again as it a wee while since it was started.

I still think the provision of a PRECISE PLAYLIST or title it say an EXACT TIME PLAYLIST would be immensely useful. I currently use Airtime as my base scheduling system to achieve just that and then stream the audio to Centova and on to the audience (Centova stats are excellent and that why I use it).

Being able to start and stop playlists/shows at EXACT times of the day on Centova would enable me to drop Airtime and work exclusively on Centova which would be preferable.

I also think that an EXACT TIME PLAYLIST would make Centova a true radio system - scheduling to the clock is vital for letting listeners know when to tune in.

Please consider adding this. I suspect it would be very popular and if Airtime can do it, why not Centova ?

Hi Pressam,

>I currently use Airtime as my base scheduling system to achieve just that and then stream the audio to Centova and on to the audience (Centova stats are excellent and that why I use it).

we are also looking at this kind of combination, couple of months ago we started trying Airtime, still a bit skeptical but yes it's an option.

Well, this thread has been viewed over 3000 times so would I be correct in assuming that there is a great deal of interest in this feature ?

I place this post here by way of bumping this thread back to life.

I am looking at the possibility of scheduling podcasts as part of my stations daily schedule alongside the auto dj and obviously live shows but from reading previous posts it is not possible to schedule this exactly as the track that is playing on auto needs to finish at exactly the same time as the scheduled podcast is due to begin. I hoped that Centova had the means that i could schedule a prerecorded podcast and the auto service would stop and resume once the scheduled podcast had ended like it does when someone connects to play live.

Looking at the above posts I think to be able to do this easily on Centova would be a benefit to loads of people and listeners.

HMR