The PlayIt Software Users Facebook group provides a much faster response to questions. Please consider joining.
Start a new topic
Discussions PlayIt Live Questions

Playing Top of Hour Newscast

I wish to play the top of the hour newscast from Fox. It has a link that remains the same except the hour (in military) changes. Here is how it’s done in Station Playlist- ********** I can help with part of it. First, the filename changes each hour. Here is the 2pm cast: File1=http://ak.podcast.foxnewsradio.com/news/05minpodcast14-111418.mp3 So: create a blank text file, and name it Fox.pls open this pls file in notepad, and copy in this exactly: [playlist] File1=http://ak.podcast.foxnewsradio.com/news/05minpodcast14-111418.mp3 Title1=FoxStream Length1=300 Preload1=10 WebFile1=0 NumberOfEntries=1 Version=2 Save this file, and insert it in SPL, it will play the 3pm newscast. It doesn't have to download it, it streams it. you will need to change the 14-111418 each hour. I'm sure there's a way to automate that, but I'm not sure how to do it. btw: there will be a bit of dead air as the fox stream loads. best to have it follow something with a fade... or if it has to be a cold intro, here's a hint - as a VT with the segue point about 1.5 seconds early. maybe 2. ********** Now- can this be done in PlayIt Live? How is it done? There must be differences and I’m not sure if PlayIt can demand a link stream by going and getting the link, playing it, and moving on. Thank you, Gerry
16 CommentsSorted by Oldest First
Note: I used the URL option in PlayIt! where you put a url in and drop it in like the Aux utility. It doesn’t work to play the news files. It errors out.

Hello Gerry,


After a bit of guessing how the Fox news file format works with date and time I gave it a go on my test system and it works OK for me.


I just dropped a "Remote URL" into the live schedule and set it like the picture below.


image


I took that screen shot while the first attempt was playing and I was going to drop a second play further down the schedule.


It's a bit of a shame they don't have a constant file name for the newest bulletin (perhaps as an alternative).


Note that I'm in the UK and currently on G.M.T. so I had to find a file name that was available. This is the first guess that worked but might not be the newest for a bit after noon in the UK.


Following on from this and not really relevant to the original question but possibly useful to others, I've found it is possible to use the remote URL function to play a shared file.


I put an audio (MP3) file in a dropbox folder and got dropbox (in the browser) to create a shareable link to the file.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/ <random numbers >/  <file name> .mp3?dl=0


This won't work in the Remote URL 


However changing dl=0 to dl=1 does the job


https://www.dropbox.com/s/ <random numbers >/  <file name> .mp3?dl=1


can be entered into PlayIt Live's Remote URL and seems to work fine.


I'm sure this could be useful to some.


Hi Guys, a bit of a new boy with this, however, I can offer a little bit of advice with this and also need some advice myself. Take a look at FSN. (Link is at the bottom of this)  it comes with a £11.66 a month but you get hour news updates on a url every hour, 30 seconds, 3 minutes or 5 minutes. I have tested it with Playit Live and works great. 


Nowthen, on this, can any of you help me work out how to get the news break to play every hour without having to drag and drop set up a new remote url? 


so basically it just plays?


any help would be great. 


Thanks 


Pete


https://www.featurestorynews.com/


First of all, allow me to say thank you! I am grateful for the link. Yes. I may be able to help you IF the link never changes. You can incorporate the box for the URL, with the link in it, into your clock. Then assuming you simply repeat the clock every hour, your information would be the same. Thank you so much for the link!
Hiya, yes the link stays the same. If had 2 so far both different ones so far off the same link I’ll give that ago shortly 

A quick look at the FSN website suggests that there are two static URLs for their "promotional" bulletins.


http://www.fsnradionews.com/FSNNews/FSNHeadlines.mp3

 

http://www.fsnradionews.com/FSNNews/FSNWorldNews.mp3


Both seem to work nicely in PlayIt Live so assuming their paid service works the same way it should be OK.


image


Hi Guys, ok II have managed to do the above, however, the clock version of the runtime for the URL is a lot longer. I can't figure out how to make it only run for three minutes like it would if I dragged it over to the playout list...,. any ideas, please ?

Peter- thanks again. I like their news so I signed up. For $15 a month, thats a steal. If I only sell sponsorships for two newscasts I have my money back. Everything over that? Well... how appropriate it's Thanksgiving... cause it's gravy!

OK-if you make a change the issue is it will run 3 minutes and stop right in the middle of something, but it can be done. Why would it matter how long it runs, though? If you put in 3 minutes (into URL utility) you are only blocking time out for scheduling purposes. If the file runs 03:12 then it will be 12 sec over. Will that hurt anything? In case you are still determined to cut the news to 03:00 then- 1. Place the URL utility where desired. Set it manually for 3 minutes. 2. Place a hard stop at exactly 3 minutes into the news. It will cut off the news and seque to the next item.
Ahh I see what you mean. It leaves 2 seconds of dead air and the end so was just tying to tighten things up a bit. Ok here’s a question for you, how do I stop the auto play list from playing things like my news jungle intro keeps moving and not at the end of the hour where I want it. I’d like to top and tail my clocks with that as fixed points and can’t wotk this out... any ideas
Everything will continue to move until you tell it to hard stop. By the way- I have noticed the 5 minute news usually runs pretty much to a second or two from hour to hour. I would let that run out. I’m not sure what you mean by your jingle, but let’s say I wanted to use 59:00 to 60:00 for a promo, then have the news start at the top of the hour... I would do this: 59:00 Hard time break 59:00 Promo “XYZ” 00:00 Hard time break 00:00 :10 Legal Station ID 00:10 URL fed News (time taken from the file) Then when the news ends your song, or whatever you have scheduled following, will begin to play. In my case I have recorded regional weather that runs after the news. When you use the hard time break at 59:00 anything past that point will not move. If any extra material/time is running it will be taken off the last event (song, etc) prior to the 59:00 break. Hope this helps! By the way- what’s your station? Webpage?
Hi thanks for that. Playing a gig at the mo but will be back to the studio about 2am. We are FlashbackRadio.co.uk. What’s yours ?
It is: WAAYradio.com. HVe fun at your gig! And a blessed Thanksgiving, bro.
D8E89E42-75DA-42CC-91CC-F5DF98582B12.jpeg
D8E89E42-75D...
(204 KB)
Comments to this discussion are now closed!
More topics in Questions
See all 655 topics