Clockwheels: A Very Important Feature For A Radio Station
I know that this has benn posted before, but I believe that this is a very important feature for a radio station. That feature is called Clockwheels. Clockwheels are a group of playlists that are played in a specified order in a wheel. For example, I would play a top of the hour station ID, a song, another station ID, a song, and so on. Without clockwheels, my station would not sound like an FM Radio Station. I would like my radio station to be 100% professional.
Other services, such as Live365 and LiveWebDj provide this functionality.
Resources
http://support.livewebdj.com/support/solutions/articles/1000073898-about-livewebdj-s-clockwheels
https://support.live365.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006738093-ClockWheels
Comments: 26
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06 May, '20
emiryapici MergedHi! There might be playlist templates like "clocks" in other radio automation systems. By using this feature, user can create a clock template for each hour that contains playlists. Like this:
1st item -> TOH playlist
2nd item -> A song from a playlist
3rd item -> A jingle from jingle playlist
4th item -> A song from a playlist
....
Azuracast can calculate the mean duration of a song in a playlist from total duration. So total duration of a clock could be calculated.
Best Regards -
08 Mar, '21
Buster Neece System"Station clocks" (suggested by emiryapici on 2020-05-06), including upvotes (10) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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28 May, '21
Eddy MergedAbility to create a playlist rotation.
This function would complete the creation of a professional schedule.
It means being able to create a defined playlist sequence, with a user-defined sequence.
Example:
1 Playlist House
2 Jingle Playlist
3 Playlist Pop
3 playlist promotions
4 Latin Playlist
etc. etc...
The selector will transmit the "sequence" with the chosen order ...
Obviously, with the data and departure time function. -
02 Jun, '21
Buster Neece System"Playlist Rotation" (suggested by Eddy on 2021-05-28), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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25 Jun, '21
RadioBijoux MergedAllow "nested" playlists. For instance, I create a "Podcasts" main Playlist. Within that Playlist, I can create Podcast #1, #2, #3, etc.)
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27 Jun, '21
Buster Neece System"Nested Playlists" (suggested by RadioBijoux on 2021-06-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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15 Jul, '21
Buster Neece System"Nested play list" (suggested by Jro on 2021-07-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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20 Jul, '22
DenilsonThat would solve some of my problems, as well as make the radio much more professional. I would love for this new feature to come out in the next version.
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16 Nov, '22
J.J.Currently with SAM broadcaster. This would go a long way in helpin me switch. Should include repeat protection for title/artist as well as various modes: random, least recently played, etc.
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26 Dec, '22
Corey HarkerIt would be super helpful to automatically import .pls or .m3u files generated by Music1 or MusicMaster scheduling software hourly. It would be easy to adapt and upload the output playlist files to AzuraCast. Just need a sync or watch function that will update and ingest the playlist every hour.
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18 Feb, '23
Moonbase59I used to do this manually befor in LiquidSoap. Having the ability to generate clockwheels within the GUI would be a great addition (and surely require nested playlists).
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27 May, '23
J.J.I wonder if this could be achieved by having another program cue through the Azuracast API?
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30 Jan, '24
Vladimir ChubarovWe solved this task using the standard capabilities of azurecast.
Created playlists:
01 - DISCO Hit
Song-based Once per Hour (at 1)
03 - Disco
Song-based Once per Hour (at 2)
06 - House
Song-based Once per Hour (at 5)
09 - Deep
Song-based Once per Hour (at 9)
12 - Latino
Song-based Once per Hour (at 12)
15 - Disco
Song-basedOn-Demand Once per Hour (at 15)
18 - Jazz
Song-based Once per Hour (at 18)
21 - Disco
Song-based Once per Hour (at 21)
24 - House
Song-based Once per Hour (at 23)
27 - Gold hit
Song-based Once per Hour (at 27)
31 - DISCO Hit-2
Song-based Once per Hour (at 31)
34 - Disco
Song-based Once per Hour (at 33)
36 - House
Song-based Once per Hour (at 36)
39 - Deep
Song-based Once per Hour (at 39)
42 - Latino
Song-based Once per Hour (at 42)
45 - Disco
Song-basedOn-Demand Once per Hour (at 45)
48 - Jazz
Song-based Once per Hour (at 48)
50 - Disco
Song-basedOn-Demand Once per Hour (at 50) -
17 Sep, '24
Ced0xIt would be great to have this function, it would be really useful for a morning show with recorded microphones. I hope it happens soon :)
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04 Nov, '24
AndrewDear Developer,
I kindly urge you to prioritize this feature request. Without the ability to create playlists from categories and folders—similar to traditional radio stations—AzuraCast offers little distinction from basic streaming applications like Winamp. In the ’90s, enthusiasts uploaded thousands of tracks, hit “shuffle,” and considered themselves legitimate broadcasters. This reflects a significant misunderstanding and a lack of professionalism.
I strongly encourage you to implement this functionality soon. You might even consider a fundraising initiative to support it. Set a budget, and those of us who need this feature would gladly contribute to raising the necessary funds.
This request has been pending since 2020, yet there has been minimal progress.
With great respect for you and your product,
Andrew. -
03 Dec, '24
Emilian Robert Vicol (ByREV) MergedScheduling playlists on time intervals, valid within each station, individually.
It is a very good way to automate a radio station, especially when the genres/style is of the "VA" type.
- in the morning a lounge/coffee playlist,
- during the day something more exciting,
- after 5pm something party,
- and at night chill-out.
Basically a variant of creating groups-lists of custom-named intervals, like:
- Coffee Time [7-10 AM],
- Day [10AM-54PM],
- WarmUp [5PM-7PM],
- Time 4 Party [7PM-00AM]
- Sleep Time [Monday-Friday:00-7AM]
- Trance-aliens [Saturday:00-2AM, Sunday:00-2AM]
etc...
and in each defined interval multiple playlists can be assigned where they can be activated/deactivated, mixed, etc.
Possibly each playlist can be active on certain days, Monday-Friday... and on Weekend (Friday after 5pm, Saturday, Sunday) other Playlists that are not active during the week. -
06 Dec, '24
Buster Neece System"Scheduling Playlists Groups on time intervals" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2024-12-03), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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12 Feb, '25
Speedy CharlyWe have 10 to 12 hrs of live broadcast every day on our station. Such a feature would nevertheless be useful for off-hour AutoDJ operations. It would solve many of the problems we encounter when using the "once per X" system that we actually have.
You may want to pair this with a better crossfade protocol [including a 'no cross on short media' option and a 'truncate leading/ending silence' routine] to make this clockwheel as smooth as glass... -
10 Aug, '25
ArmandoDo we have an update regarding this feature? If so, when will this feature be available?
I understand that it takes time to develop features for a product. This is an important feature, especially for a radio automation software. -
12 Aug, '25
Buster Neece AdminIt's something we want to do, but we've yet to have anyone offer to sponsor the time needed to invest into the work.
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22 Sep, '25
Mason D MergedAdd group attribute to playlist objects. This would allow disabling/enabling playlists in a group via the API (think: seasonal playlists)
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22 Sep, '25
Vaalyn System"Playlist groups" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2025-09-22), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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28 Sep, '25
MartinMy station has 3 types of Playlists - House and Dance, Rap Hip hop
I want to be able to play:
Jingle
House
House
House
Jingle
Dance
Dance
Dance
Jingle
Rap & Hip Hop
Rap & Hip Hop
Rap & Hip Hop
Jingle
loop....
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Otherwise it doesn't sound good when sometimes it goes from House to Rap & Hip hop... they can't mix together, please add this feature -
05 Jan
Sean> May I also suggest adding in some sort of truncating feature (called "BackTime" in other automation systems) to accompany clock wheels? This would allow for over-scheduling an hour and the dynamic removal of tracks from the end of an hour's track list based on its runtime so that the beginning of another hour is as close to the :00 minutes mark as possible. In my experience, even expensive automation systems exhibit some form of creeping in terms of where a static number of scheduled positions fall in an hour, either continually earlier or continually later, unless the number of tracks in a given hour is dynamically updated.