Without it, they could not afford to pay staff to operate controls all day. In this example, the automation software actually makes the radio station possible. The same idea can be applied to community/hospital/internet radio stations, where large chunks of output can be pre-produced by a small team and played out via the automation software. This makes financial sense for many broadcasters, where overnight listening is very small. The software would play the audio back in a continuous stream, just as though a presenter was there. Radio automation software allowed radio stations to hand control to the computer. In fact, members of our team have had the ‘nightshift’ before. Before automation was common in radio, you would need to have staff working 24/7. Having all of your pre-recorded audio and a playlist/schedule on a computer allows you to do the ‘automation’ part. Equally, many radio automation software systems are loaded with a huge number of advanced features, which you may never need to use. The needs of a talk radio station are different to one where only music is played. When selecting which radio automation software you want to use, it’s important to understand exactly what your needs are. You have all of your pre-recorded content lined up and ready to play at the click of a button!Ĭlearly, each automation software has a different layout and features. When you link systems together like this it makes the job of the presenter easier. The majority of systems would also import playlists from music and commercial scheduling systems. Most radio automation software would allow you to queue up audio (a playlist) and then play this back.