How does CCU's system of distributing music on hard drives work?

[Scott Fybush]

Garrett Wollman wrote:
> <<On Tue, 8 Sep 2009 12:28:52 -0400, Rick Kelly <rickkelly@gmail.com> said:
> 
>> I'd guess (and believe me, it's only a guess) that such information as
>> updates is done over FTP.  Not sure in the case of how an entire
>> format change would be handled, however.  I'm sure one of us knows!
> 
> For a format change, big groups will often ship an entire new audio
> server and RAID array, preconfigured for the new format.  Sometimes
> corporate will send their own installers, too, so the local staff
> doesn't know which station is being flipped until the day of the
> switch.

This is true for format changes - but it doesn't really answer Dan's 
original question about how this whole thing works.

When speaking of "music on hard drive" in the context of CC's Premium 
Choice and similar remote automation systems, the "hard drive" generally 
stays local, within the station's own automation system. (That would be 
Prophet NexGen for CC-owned stations, of course.)

As Rick correctly guesses, the various elements that make up the format 
are simply moved onto that local hard drive via FTP. In the case of the 
music or the liners, they might be loaded onto the local hard drive days 
or even weeks before they're needed; the voicetracks from the remote DJs 
might be FTP'ed to the local drives hours or even minutes before they're 
aired.

What happens after that is really not all that different from a station 
running a satellite-delivered music format...it's just that the elements 
that would be coming off the satellite (the music and DJ voicetracks) 
are instead being played out from the local hard drive where they've 
been loaded.

CC is not the only company doing this - Dial Global recently took over 
the former Waitt Radio Network, which supplies "local" voicetracks to 
stations from jocks located at its headquarters, which I think are still 
in Omaha. You could have one jock sitting there doing tracks for a 
half-dozen or more markets at once. It can sound *very* plausibly local 
and timely when done right.

s