A Portfolio comprising an original 12 hour music schedule for a music station, supported by a detailed rationale (1500wds) referencing relevant literature and a survey of the music policy of an equivalent station.

A module that seeks to understand what determines the music radio stations decide to play at any given time. The concepts of playlisting and strip scheduling have come increasingly to dominate music radio. They are planning processes that have been made much easier to implement with the arrival of automated playout from computer servers. You will survey the factors that are likely to drive music policies: station identity, audience research, commercial environment, budgets and centralised company policies. Then you will make a close study of the music programming on a particular broadcast or Internet radio station and analyse it in relation to these drivers. You will be introduced to an example of music scheduling software package. That research, combined with your assessment of the policy study, will form the basis from which you will programme a music schedule for a 12 hour section of your own station, using the software you have learned, and present a justification for your decisions.

This module must be taken with the semester 1 module AM75019-2 Broadcast Audiences and Schedules

Library resources
Music playout software and IT instruction
Internet for radio listening

Barnard, S. 1989 On the Radio: Music Radio in Britain Open University Press
Hendy, D. 2000 Radio in the Global Age Polity Press
Keith, M. 2003 The Radio Station 6th Edn. Focal Press
McLeish, R 1999 Radio Production 4th Edn. Oxford: Focal
Wall, T. 2003 Studying Popular Music Culture Hodder Arnold
Warren, S. 2005 Radio, The Book: For Creative Professional Programming Focal Press

A mix of lecture/workshops, individual research, tutorial and practical IT work. The main issues in music programming are raised early in the module. You are introduced to music scheduling software and the parameters it enables the programmer to apply. You then work on a project basis to carry out your own study and develop your own schedule and rationale.