Radio Broadcast Software Compared

I’m very fortunate that I’ve worked with some high-end radio software, and also some not so high-end glamorous radio software.

I’ve tried to use ZaraFree Radio software, and it’s pretty much a fancy Windows Media Player, and I got frustrated and lost, because there just weren’t any features.

I’ve come up the ranks using Master Control, NexGen, and also Zetta (which I have to say is my favourite of the expensive softwares), and even used Player101 too.

More recently, I’ve been working with StationPlaylist as well and deploying that across multiple locations as stand alone installs – and they work really well. It’s a budget friendly system that serves it’s purpose very well.

All of these radio softwares have different strengths and weaknesses, and all have a different target market. Some are free, cheap, others are expensive, and some the middle of the road.

Here is a little comparison of the basic features. Hopefully it helps you make the right choice. (Apologies for the formatting)

 

Feature	Zara Free	Zara Studio	Master Control	NexGen	Zetta	Player101	Station Playlist	RadioDJ
O.S.	Windows	Windows	Windows	Windows	Windows	Windows	Windows	Windows
Automation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Crossfade	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multipoint Crossfade	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Advanced Crossfade1	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes2	No
Native VT	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IVT	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Uses Multi-channel Audio Cards	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time Stretch and Squeeze	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited	No
Visual Cue Editor	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Type of Servers required	None	None	MSSQL	Windows Server	MSSQL	None	None	MySQL/ MariaDB
Recommended Computers required	Stand alone	Stand alone	3+	2+	3+	Stand alone	Stand alone	1+
On Air Redundancy	None	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	None	None	None
Network use	None	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	None	Yes7	Yes
Full Control over network	None	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	None	None	Unknown
Designed for Radio	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hotkey Carts	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Basic Scheduling	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Advanced Scheduling3	None	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Auto Playlist Creation	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Support	None	Unknown	24/75	24/75	24/75	24/76	Within 24hrs	Unknown
Support	None	Unknown	Phone/ Email	Phone/ Email	Phone/ Email	Phone/ Email	Email or Yahoo Group	Forum
Cost	Free	$	$$$$$4	$$$$$4	$$$$$4	$$$	$$	Free
Cost Method	Free	p/lic.	p/seat	p/seat	p/seat	p/seat	p/lic.	Free
Licence Type	Free	Buyout	Annual	Annual	Annual	N/A	Buyout	Free
For sale	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	EOL	Yes	No
Typical Market	Small	Small	Major	Major	Major	Small/ medium	Small/ medium	Small
Typical ‘Maintenance’ For Best results	Minimal	Minimal	Daily	Daily	Daily	Weekly	Minimal	Minimal
Feature Set	Very Low	Minimal	High	High	Insanely High	Medium	Medium	Minimal
Country Of Origin	Spain	Spain	USA	USA	USA	USA	NZ	Romanian
Latest Release	2006	2016	2017 July	2018 March	2017 November	2008 August	2017 October	2018 May
Version Number Release	1.6.2	3	15.3	2.17	4.3	1.6	5.3	2.0.0.3
Overall Rating	*	*	****	****	*****	**	***	**
Sold by	Kero Systems S.L.		RCS				StationPlaylist	radiodj

¹ Ids of songs and VTs ducking crossfading.

² StationPlaylist Pro

³ Full Day part and hour restrictions.

⁴ If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.

⁵ Immediately

⁶ Immediately with an optional support contract

⁷ Scheduling can happen on a separate computer, over a network.

⁸ All Workstations can connect and alter the live program.

There is also Rivendell broadcast software too that is worth a look that is open source that runs on linux, which could be classified as a NexGen clone.

If you would like to buy Station Playlist, support me, and purchase from here. If you buy more than 1 copy, you’ll get a discount too!