NPR Digital Services Blog

With Composer Pro, you can set up Limited Access Host Accounts so your music hosts can only enter playlists for their programs.

Click Manage Host Accounts, and create a username and password for them. When assigning programs to your host accounts, hold down the CTRL (Control) key to Select more than one program.

They’ll log into the same Composer Pro admin URL (not the portal page), and see fewer options when they log in.

You control passwords and access.

With Composer, you can automatically enter a program that occurs every other week without having to make edits every week.

When entering you program, first go to the date on which you’d like the program to occur. Then choose ‘Every two weeks’ for the recurrence option. The program will then automatically display every other week from that date.

Is it bad to have 9 conflicts? How do I resolve a conflict? Add a special one-time program? How do I edit my program grid? Find out at the Composer Pro webinar:

New Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

We’ll focus on reviewing how to create and edit your program guide, demonstrate program change scenarios, share best practices with you, and answer questions you may have. If you have specific questions, please share them with us ahead of time. And yes, it’s free to our clients.

Space is limited!
Please (Re)Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/394915913 (new link)

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

As promised, a Composer Pro Webinar is now scheduled for:

Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

We’ll focus on reviewing how to create and edit your program guide, demonstrate program change scenarios, share best practices with you, and answer questions you may have. If you have specific questions, please share them with us ahead of time. And yes, it’s free to our clients. Tell your friends!

Space is limited!
Register now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/937986585

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

The Now on Air Widget
Feed info about the program on air, next 5 programs coming up, previous program on air, and up to the last 9 songs aired with our JavaScript widget.

Link to the most recent playlist:
This link will always bring up the most recent playlist, regardless of program. Substitute your Station ID: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/netradio/guide.guidemain?action=viewMostRecentPlaylist

Last 5 playlists RSS:
Feed links to the last 5 playlists for a program. See the right rail here.
HINT: You’ll need the program ID – contact us to find that.  Use with the RSS wizard.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/xxxx/.playlistfeed?apiKey=pizp3ci4l4p1k3ykp3zk&programID=15597

Today’s Playlist:
With this link, you can see all the songs played in the last 24 hours in one big playlist. You can add this new link to your site. To see yours, just substitute your Station ID:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/netradio/guide.guidemain?action=viewSongs

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kumd/guide.guidemain?action=viewSongs

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wfcr/guide.guidemain?action=viewSongs

“Now On Air” Widget

Easily feed information about the program now on air and up next from your Public Interactive Composer to your home page. Display program information, host, playlist links, time, and up to the last nine songs played using our automated JavaScript.

• Note: If you do not stream with us, set parameter 6 to 0 instead of 1.
• Include up to last 9 songs aired
• If you use Amazon or Arkiv, include buy now link
  
• Examples of the “Now On Air” Widget: WEXT, KUMD

Full instructions for the “Now On Air” widget are available in the Composer tools index. Select the option Setting Up Your Program Guide Widget.

For those of you who are building your playlists in real time and searching the database for songs during your show, we’ve added a fancy new button called ‘Use Song & Add Time’.

This new button does many things at once:

• Adds the song to your playlist
• Adds the current time as the start time
• Includes the duration (if available)
• Auto calculates the end time based on duration

All in one click!

To see it, go to Playlist Manager, Search for a song, and click the ‘Use Song & Add Time’ button to add it to your playlist.

In Composer Pro, you might see the word ‘conflict’ when editing your program guide.

This lets you know if programs are overlapping. Is this bad? Not necessarily, some conflicts, such as today only edits, or temporary short term edits are intentional conflicts.

Sometimes, however, program conflicts are not good and should be resolved.

• The most recently added (or most recent) program, the one you see, is the displayed on your grid.
• To resolve a conflict, click on the edit or delete icon. If you’re not sure what to do, the easiest way to resolve a conflict is to put in an end date for the program you aren’t currently airing.  NOTE: To preserve a program’s playlists, we recommend that you edit the program’s end date, rather than deleting it.
• Temporary edits are listed as conflicts, however, since that should be intentional, there is no need to resolve the conflict.

A few Composer Pro updates today.

• End Time: Either end time or duration is now required. Yes, it’s kind of a pain. But, this is necessary for us to be able to provide accurate SoundExchange reports. The upside is that this makes some nice feature upgrades possible, in particular the ability for you to insert and reorder songs more easily. Think drag and drop song ordering.
• Biweekly Program Recurrence: A new option.
• Other background things to prepare for the ability to add breaks. Any thoughts on that, please let us know.

And, Composer Basic users can now assign different episodes of syndicated playlists as well.

Changing your program schedule? Don’t delete that program!

For best results with Public Interactive Composer Pro, and for more accurate SoundExchange reports, always edit programs instead of deleting them.

It is always best to edit programs and add a program end date to stop a program, rather than deleting it. When a program is deleted, playlists associated with a deleted program are orphaned, and historical data needed for SoundExchange reporting is lost. This is not good.

Here’s what we recommend:

• Program ending: Edit the program, choose recurring edit, and then add an end date for the program. The program will stop, and you’ll see the option to add a new program on your grid.
• Program changing time slot permanently: Edit the program, choose recurring edit, and add an end date for the program. Then go to the new time slot, and add the program same again.