Exhibiting in the Radio section of the NAB Show, join RCS and other media, entertainment and technology professionals looking to empower one another and exchange groundbreaking technology and content strategies.

The show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from April 7-12, 2018 and will explore the trends shaping the future of entertainment through a range of on-floor programs, attractions and educational conferences.

From cultural themes examining podcast content to business topics dissecting the broadcast industry, RCS looks forward to participating in NAB’s extensive programming. As the show highlights, content is diverse, complex, and transient, and we consider such analyses and discussions critical to our continuation as a leading software partner.

Based in the North Hall (N2524), RCS encourages fellow radio enthusiasts to stop by, say hi, and continue the conversation. Come learn about our latest products in automation, scheduling, traffic, and news and discover the latest tools advancing the world of radio.

As the company that invented computerized music scheduling, RCS is fortunate to work with the most respected names in broadcasting and wants to use this opportunity to share ideas with you.

Whatever your expertise or interest in the radio industry, we look forward to meeting you.

See you there!

If  you work in programming, then you know that radio is all about the music. But here’s the thing. Every format has basically the same core library. You’ve got it, and your competition has got it. So, how do you make your music stand out? The answer has a lot to do with the how that music is scheduled. If you can schedule smarter, if you can schedule better, you win.

GSelector has the toolbox that enables you to do just that. Once you’ve created a station,  designed your clocks and coded all the songs, GSelector can create a schedule based on each song’s natural demand. It will analyze the library to determine the demand for certain attributes, for example, how many fast and slow songs by both core artists and fringe artists. Then, it can automatically spread out plays by fringe artists. On the other hand, if you want to go by the rules, familiar from Selector 12 and 15, then you can program songs by minimum separation and daypart rotation.

GSelector’s native multistation database allows you to schedule multiple stations at the same time. Cross-station protection prevents same song airplay on multiple stations. You can also upload your research scores right into GSelector to improve the sound of your station in minutes.

GSelector’s Format Parent feature ensures that child stations can inherit all the parent’s attributes. This can save time when programming stations with variation on your parent. Say you’re programming a terrestrial classic rock station. You can program a web stream or other outlets with deep cuts, different tracks or different rules, but still having the same attributes as the parent station.

With GSelector’s Schedule Subscription Service, you can subscribe to a published schedule from a different station in the same or a different database anywhere in the world. Perhaps you want to copy the midnight – 5  AM schedule for New York and use it in Los Angeles. There’s no need to export the file to the target station.  It’s perfect for simulcasting overnights or special programming. The entire schedule can simply be time-shifted.

Some recurring programs just don’t follow the clock. For example, segments that occur at sunrise or sunset. Just tell GSelector the rules, and the time will be automatically shifted.

Programming a radio station, or stations, isn’t always a 9 to 5 job. But with Selector2GO, you can log in from your PC, your Mac, or any other mobile device anywhere, anytime to perform tasks such as creating or editing schedules, working on the song library, or doing an analysis of the schedule.

And don’t feel intimidated. Just because GSelector has a lot of tools and flexibility doesn’t mean you need to use everything all at once. Scheduling with GSelector can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. Start small, learn the ropes, then become a power user.

by Keith Williams, Vice President Asia Pacific

RCS Australia was the first country outside the USA to adopt RCS Selector. The model was the same then as it is today: a monthly fee for the software license, which includes all upgrades and enhancements and, uniquely, 24/7 local telephone support. It is a model not sustained by any other software company and part of the success story as to why RCS, after 39 years, remains the largest broadcast software company in the world.

That world was a different place when RCS opened its first AsiaPac international office in Sydney, Australia in July 1990. Communications we take for granted today, such as email, Skype, SMS, facetime audio and video, were non-existent.

It is even harder to imagine trying to operate 24/7 support back then with only one landline telephone and second line for a fax machine. They were the only tools we had to communicate with our customers and escalate our Level 2 support issues to RCS HQ in New York. At the end of each day, RCS staff would compile a list of support issues on individual faxes and off they would go into the ether – hoping there was enough paper in the fax machine the other end.

Overseas phone calls were horrifically expensive then too; not like today where it is commonplace to make free calls using data on your hand-held mobile device. Same for connectivity. Today, using TeamViewer, we can log in from anywhere in the world to any client in the world in about 10 seconds. Instant Support. RCS also installs software locally using the same method without leaving the office or home and conduct video meetings and transfer files at will from the same application.

Using today’s connectivity, RCS has built a massive enterprise support network. If you call or email any one of our 24 offices around the world, a support ticket is immediately raised and flagged across our intranet-based support system. This provides any number of benefits. A transparent system means our support staff worldwide can deal with any issue if need be, at any time. Support is not the responsibility of one person in one office and it means our Level 2 Support Managers can deal with any matter knowing the history of the customer’s previous issues, configuration, specifications and the environment, before tackling an issue.

RCS has a real-time view of all support issues across the entire world. It’s the same deal if the issue is escalated to Level 3 in New York, Ogallala (in Nebraska) or (for Aquira), Christchurch, New Zealand. Everywhere along the chain, the issue is visible.

Next time you call RCS you will have reached the first link in the support chain of transparency and accountability, to find a swift resolution of your issue. Support sometimes even stretches all the way along our worldwide enterprise system to the person who wrote the software code in the first place – if that’s what it takes to resolve your problem. We are the people who make the software AND support it.

You are never on your own when you are a customer of RCS.

By Mike Powell, SVP International Operations & Chief Compliance Officer

Incredibly, next year will mark the 40^th anniversary of RCS opening its doors with the very first version of the legendary Selector music scheduler, as invented by the company’s founder, Andrew Economos.

The impact that Selector had on radio all around the world can only really be understood by those of us who worked in the pre-Selector and post-Selector eras! From crude card index song rotation systems, to – for many of us – our first exposure to computers, and the discovery of a tool so sophisticated that it literally changed the sound of radio stations overnight.

Listeners may not have understood why their favorite radio stations suddenly sounded different, but they sure liked what they heard – and that was reflected almost immediately in audience figures.

Some PDs and DJs feared that control was being taken away from them, but most of them soon realised that exactly the reverse was true. Now a PD could ensure that the radio station in their head, became the radio station that went to air. Now, songs rotated beautifully; there were no ugly clashes between styles, tempos, textures; the whole sound of the radio station flowed like never before.

Wait – rewind. First exposure to computers? Well remember that availability of, what were then called microcomputers, didn’t really begin until 1977. That was the year of the Apple II, the Commodore PET and Tandy/Radio Shack’s TRS-80.

It wasn’t until 1980 that the era of the off-the-shelf personal computer really started and the first IBM PC wasn’t released until 1981. The earliest version of the IBM PC that I ever used had two 5¼ inch floppy disks – with no automatic backup (I shudder remembering some of the horror stories that occurred with that arrangement). Eventually IBM added a 10MB hard drive in place of one of the floppy drives. What on earth were we going to do with that whopping 10MB?

But at this stage, apart from gaming on machines like Atari and ZX Spectrum, very few people had their own personal computers, which is why I point out that in Selector’s early days, for many of us, this amazing tool was not only a way of revolutionizing the sound of our radio stations, but it also allowed us to be pioneer computer users!

It certainly seems funny to think of that 10MB IBM PC hard drive in comparison to the computer power most of us carry in our hands every day now. The storage in a typical smartphone, for example, can between 64 and 128GB. A fairly standard laptop these days, can have half a terabyte or even a whole terabyte of storage on board. And, of course, these statements will also seem amusing 10 years from now!

All along the way, as computer power expanded, RCS was there, ahead of the curve, expanding the capability of Selector exponentially. And where this incredible expanding computer power was perhaps even more useful, was the advent of studio automation – exemplified by NexGen and Master Control, and now the world-beating Zetta system. Zetta is doing “stuff” now that could only have been dreamed of way back then.

Some of our ideas were so ahead of their time that we had to wait for computer capability to catch up. RadioShow, for example, a system to permit synchronous graphics alongside a radio station’s audio output, was born in the days of dial-up modems and only a small percentage of the population even having access to the internet at all!

Since those pioneering days, RCS has continued to push the envelope wherever it can. In the early days we were often referred to as “The Selector Company” – an epithet that reflected where the bulk of our sales came from. An epithet of which we were proud, by the way, as “Selector” became almost a lingua-franca at radio conferences all around the world. If you couldn’t speak Selector, you were on the outer rings of the radio galaxy!

These days RCS products include futuristic mobile and cloud-based solutions and our brands are used in more than 14,500 radio stations, TV music channels, cable companies, satellite music networks and internet stations worldwide. With more than 800 professionals working from 23 wholly-owned offices around the globe, we are proud that RCS has maintained its position as the world’s largest broadcast software company for all this time.

But we will never rest on our laurels. We continue to be passionate – consumed even! – about customer service, quality and innovation. And these days, the RCS family of companies is bigger than ever: AirCheck, Florical Systems, Mediabase, Media Monitors, HitPredictor and Test All Media, all providing unique solutions for the broadcast industry, in whatever form, and whatever platform.

So now the big question is how should we celebrate our 40^th Birthday?

Radiodays Europe (RDE) is just around the corner.

Established as a meeting point for radio and audiophile professionals alike, RDE will take place in Vienna on March 18-20, 2018.

As with the conference’s inception in 2010, RCS is excited to once again serve as a sponsor. We too believe in its mission to bring people together in order to share, challenge, and celebrate ideas that will improve upon the world of radio.

Moreover, as the World’s Largest Broadway Software Company with products throughout TV music channels, radio stations, and satellite music networks, among more, it’s only natural that RCS partakes in this special partnership with Radiodays.

Such collaborations contribute to RDE’s role as the largest global radio conference, which anticipates over 1,500 radio professionals from over 60 countries in attendance. This opportunity for networking also makes it the ideal place to discuss the shifting digital landscape. From analyzing evolving business models and consumption patterns to learning how to best pitch new ideas, it is a space to look ahead, welcome new players, and participate in RDE’s pioneering programming. The latter of which includes over 120 speakers in 55 sessions and over 60 exhibitors showcasing relevant services for broadcasters.

In this vein, RCS’s partnership again makes sense. We have a proud history of innovation and continue to reinvent the way broadcasters operate with new, improved, and reliable award-winning software. From Z100 to KISS-FM, among more, RCS works with the most respected names in the industry, making Radiodays another event to look forward to.

We hope to see you there!