Take a drive about 100 Km out of Warsaw, follow the Vistula river, and you’ll eventually arrive in Plock, which is the home of Radio RPL FM 88.1. The station plays hits of the 80s, 90s and today, as well as author’s, journalistic and thematic programs. Radio RPL also features news and information from Płock as well as the region of Mazovia. The station is run by the Academy of Journalism and Sound Production. Radio RPL also has studios in Warsaw which interconnect to Plock via a VPN and audio link. The broadcast day is typically divided between Warsaw, for the morning show, and Płock for afternoon and evening programming, as well as newscasts. Radio RPL recently made the decision to adopt RCS GSelector and Zetta, and that’s where our story begins.
The first step in the installation of the new automation and music scheduling software actually took place in the RCS Poland office, where installation engineer Wojciech Wiśniewski configured the station’s DELL Precision workstation as a GSelector and Zetta database server. Then, Wiśniewski completed the database conversion, where he imported songs and links which were previously managed in another system.
The next step was onsite installation and training days. Time was spent with station management, learning about GSelector and Zetta features, which were located on the two on-air machines, as well as three production rooms. The server in the main studio was designated the main Zetta on-air machine, while the one in the other studio was set up as the backup server.
Next up was a focused lab on GSelector and Zetta training for the music programmers and production staff. They learned how to prepare library structure categories, clocks and basic rules. Their first real-life project was creating a schedule for the first 3-4 days on the new system. Wiśniewski also spent an afternoon training DJs and the morning show team on Zetta.
The changeover to GSelector and Zetta flipped at 1 AM on a Friday with the morning team in at 6 AM to go live. There was some apprehension, but the team soon agreed that the new RCS software was simple and intuitive. The entire installation and rollout went off without a hitch.