Inevitably, a production schedule will be interrupted by a holiday. This usually means that the production team will be producing or reworking a program for a future release. For example, when Christmas is on a Tuesday, the team may need to create that program during the previous week, and release it to broadcasters early for inclusion in their air streams.
Producing a program for a future holiday fill is good practice, but inserting that into your POD cast stream early is not. The program must either be inserted into the stream at the proper moment, or made available in a different feed.
An example may help to clarify the problem, let’s say that the daily (Monday-Friday) program FSRN (Free Speech Radio News) has produced a “future” program for a holiday fill. Normally, each week day they post the program for that day in their POD cast feed. Automated pod grabbers for automated or automation assisted stations download the program daily and automatically insert the program into the air stream. This normally works well, is efficient and hands-free. So on Monday, FSRN posts their Monday program, but they also post the following week’s Tuesday Holiday fill program. Oops!
POD grabbers grabbing the latest post from the feed will grab that holiday fill program, will not know that the program is a future one and not the current day’s audio. What results is the future fill program is aired on the wrong day.
But, you say, the pubDate attached to the feed item is in the future. Nice try. Most POD grabbers don’t use the pubDate to control the access to the content. Also the pubDate field, even in the RSS 2.01 [1] specification, is OPTIONAL, so POD grabbers might or might not use it. As a POD caster, you need to cater to the lowest common standard.
The best practice is to schedule the release to post on the correct day, the future Tuesday in the above example. Use some scheduling task manager, or check with your web master on how to schedule a post for future release.
The next option is to create a second feed. This additional feed is used for future holiday fill programs, but also any other special programs that may be produced and published. Most stations will not automatically grab these POD casts daily, but will use them when needed, such as when you notify your subscribers that a program is available.
Whichever method you use, a ‘heads-up’ message to your subscribers is recommended, so that broadcasters are aware of the special case.
You might want to read these other articles concerning other problems that can be created by inconsistent and unreliable product publishing.
How to PODCast for Automation-Part 1 [2]
How to PODCast for Automation-Part 2 [3]
Advisory Board [4] and DeveloperWorks [5].