Fallback program

The fallback program feature fills any gaps in the radio schedule with automatically scheduled media-sources. This is an easy way to avoid dead air, serving you with a convenient radio programming experience.

The fallback program can be used to

Play random music from the fallback music pool
Broadcast a set of evergreen episodes
Signal announcements in times your station program is off-air

In the calendar view the fallback program is visualized in form of a white-yellow striped background.

Calendar week view with fallback program timeslots.

Calendar day view with fallback program timeslots.

Configuring the fallback program

As long you have configured the fallback program, the calendar displays a warning.

The fallback program is based on a dedicated fallback show, which is configured in the radio station settings. In the show list the fallback show is indicated by a fallback program badge.

Fallback program vs. default media-source

The fallback program feature should not be mixed up with the capabilities of the default media-source feature. While the former is meant for filling up empty slots in the timetable, the latter is aiming for providing hosts some scheduling convenience by setting up defaults.

Read up the details in Media management > alternative media sources

Dynamic timeslot behaviour

As mentioned, the fallback program automatically fills gaps between scheduled episodes.

Example of some dynamic fallback timeslot

Once another episode is scheduled in that area, the dynamic fallback slot shrinks in size.

But this also works the other way round. Deletion of scheduled episodes automatically extends the range of the fallback slot.

Example of some dynamic fallback timeslot expansion

Media source

The fallback show, does not provide any default show media-source settings. Instead audio is retrieved from the pre-configured fallback configuration in your playout setup.

This is configured by administrators upon first installation of AURA. There is currently no user interface to modify its contents.

Future music library integration

Music library management is on our roadmap and currently scheduled for AURA 1.1. Until then, you need to manage music pools with your existing, 3rd party services. Please get in touch, if you need support with integration.

Pro-active fallback timeslot overrides

Since the fallback show is based on an ordinary show, it can also be used to create active schedules.

Simply click on an empty slot and choose the configured fallback show for setting up the schedule.

Example of some dynamic fallback timeslot override

This schedule overrides any dynamic fallback slot, and behaves like any other schedule. Therefore media-sources can be set on a schedule and episode-level again. Only show default media-sources are not available, since this would conflict with the fallback behaviour.