Traffic and billing for stations running StationPlaylist

Cartwright radio traffic software works with StationPlaylist Creator and Studio. It writes the traffic log Creator imports, reads back what Studio played, and bills your advertisers from that.

Cartwright is made by Martian Creative, LLC and is not affiliated with StationPlaylist, which is named here with its permission.

How does Cartwright get a traffic log into Creator?

Through a folder, the way Creator expects. Creator watches a traffic import folder, and Cartwright writes each day's log there in the format Creator's importer reads.

1. Build the day. Cartwright places the day's spots into breaks from your orders and clocks, and you approve the log.
2. Deliver it. The log is written into the folder Creator watches. Cartwright never writes into StationPlaylist's database.
3. Stage the audio. Produced spots are copied into your audio folder with the Live365 “Ad Break” tag already written.
4. Creator merges. When Creator builds that day's playlist, it merges the log into the commercial breaks.
5. Studio plays it. Studio airs the playlist and records what played.

If Creator refuses a log, When a log will not import explains Creator's import result line by line.

When should the log be sent?

Before Creator builds the day. Creator merges traffic at the moment it generates a day's playlist, not continuously, so a log that arrives after that day is built is not merged. The playlist plays without those spots.

If that happens, rebuild the day in Creator and it picks the log up. The easier habit is to keep Cartwright's logs a few days ahead of Creator, so each log is already waiting when its day is built.

Do Creator's clocks have to be set up twice?

No. Cartwright can import your clocks from Creator, so the breaks it schedules into are the breaks your playlists actually contain.

That matters because a log row needs a break in the playlist to merge into. Import the clocks and the two stay lined up.

How does the as-run get back from Studio?

Automatically. Every few hours, Cartwright reads Studio's play history and matches each spot in the log against what actually played.

• Aired: the spot is proven, and it bills.
• Missed: the spot becomes a makegood owed to the advertiser, and stays on the list until it is rescheduled and actually airs.

Invoices are built from that result, so an advertiser pays for spots that went out rather than spots that were only scheduled. Spots you owe back covers what happens next.

A break in a StationPlaylist hour runs wherever the songs before it finish, so its real air time drifts. Cartwright treats a break's time as a label for which break a spot belongs in, not a promise of the minute; Breaks, and why times move explains why.

What about live reads and sponsorship billboards?

They stay in Cartwright. Nothing goes to the automation for them, because there is no audio to play: the presenter reads the words live.

The copy appears on the Liners screen in the studio. The presenter marks each read as it is done, and that mark is the proof it aired, in the same way a line in Studio's play history is the proof for a produced spot.

What does Cartwright do besides the log?

The log is the part StationPlaylist sees. Around it, Cartwright runs the rest of the station's business: orders, flights, dayparts and pacing; invoices from what aired; contracts with e-signature; and a CRM with pipeline, companies, contacts, leads and tasks.

It installs on a Windows computer at the station, and other computers on the station network use it in a browser. Your data stays at the station. One price per station covers every feature, with no seats or modules: monthly is $79 a month, and annual is two months cheaper.

Setup and training are free with your first subscription. We point Cartwright at the folders Creator and Studio use, bring in your clocks, and walk your staff through their first log, by phone or screen share. Support calls reach the people who build it, not a call center.

The quick start walks through setup, and Automation systems lists where Creator and Studio keep each file. Weighing traffic systems in general? What radio traffic software does, and how to choose covers what to judge any of them on.

Common questions