At WUMD, we load new music (releases) into the system every Monday. They remain a “new release” for eight weeks, then they get moved into core. For example, alternative new releases load into category ANR, and are later moved into the core category ALT. This helps the DJ’s to find the new releases (which they are to play several times each hour) easier. Categories ending in NR are always new releases, BNR is Blues new releases, JNR is Jazz, etc. We also have a series of categories for new releases that are not in rotation, xDJ as in ADJ, alternative new releases that the DJ must preview for FCC friendliness before playing.
When the cuts are loaded the “active date” is set to the Monday of the current week. What we needed was a report that would tell us when the eight weeks were over for any cut, giving us a list of cuts to be moved into core. OMTNR was born.
OMTNR produces several files and reports.
One report is a list of new releases which have been played. For our station purposes, we’re only interested in cuts played M-F between noon and midnight, which is likely a live DJ and not automation. So, we scan the out logs for the past two weeks for any cuts played from the xNR or xDJ categories. These cuts are then output to a text file, and also output in a CSV format file.
Another report is a list of all cuts in the database that have been in a new release category for more than eight weeks. This is output as text, appended to the played NR report. We use this report to move cuts from the new release category to the core category. The ANR category is moved to ALT, ADJ moved to DJA and so on.
Additionally, a CSV file is generated with a list of all the xNR and xDJ new releases. This file is used by the web site script to display the sorted list of new releases for use by a live DJ.
And finally, the last report is a list of any cuts played from the DJx categories. This is also appended to the text report. These cuts can be moved into the core rotation categories on the assumption that they are FCC friendly. A live DJ will report any unfriendly cuts for deletion.
The full report is run every Monday morning, then used to move cuts are appropriate. The web site can display the text file report for Monday. The new releases list is generated every six hours, because the web site can also display whether it has been played or not, giving the DJ additional information.
Probably the next program I should write is one that will use the above information and automatically move the cuts to the new categories, but for now, it all gets done by hand.
