Radio Computing Services
| Industry | Broadcast automation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | White Plains, New York, United States of America |
| Products | GSelector, Selector, Linker, Zetta, NexGen Digital, Master Control, Aquira, RCSnews |
| Parent | iHeartMedia |
| Website | www.rcsworks.com |
RCS, originally called Radio Computing Services, is a provider of scheduling and broadcast software for radio, Internet and television stations. The company was established in 1979 by Dr. Andrew Economos. On January 26, 2006, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) purchased RCS as a subsidiary company.
The first product developed by RCS was Selector, a music scheduling system. The original Selector was developed on a PDP-11/03 under RT-11 and was programmed in Fortran and FMS-11. The goal of Selector is to help music directors of radio stations to handle day-to-day operations such as daily schedule generation, maintenance of music library and format hours (also known as clocks). As of 2013 RCS has approximately 10,500 clients worldwide.
RCS also provides a scheduling system for non-musical elements (jingles, promos, etc.) called Linker, a digital automation system for broadcasting from PC called Master Control, a commercial (spot) trafficking system known as Airwaves and software for radio newsrooms called RCS News.
In April 2006, RCS introduced new music scheduling software for radio, satellite, DAB, HD and internet stations called GSelector. The original Selector system used Rules to determine what songs can be scheduled at given schedule positions: do not play two rock songs in a row (Sound Code rule); do not play a Beatles song in less than 2 hours (Artist Separation rule); do not play certain songs in the morning (Daypart Restriction rule) and many more. In GSelector, music director sets goals (hence the GSelector name) of what should happen; instead of rules the system provides a set of controls allowing to easily adjust (increase/decrease) balance and demand of a variety of music attributes: tempo, energy, mood, artist occurrence, etc.
Apart from goal-based scheduling GSelector also offers a new approach to music libraries. Unlike the previous system which maintains one library per database (whereas database usually refers to a single station), GSelector allows to operate individual stations (with individual schedules) that share one music library within a single database.
NexGen is a digital automation system originally developed by Prophet Systems, Inc. Prophet Systems was founded in 1989 by Ray & Kevin Lockhart of Ogallala, Nebraska to develop a system that would run their radio stations. Prophet Systems went on to become a subsidiary of Capstar Broadcasting Partners(which eventually became iHeartMedia) in 1998. On January 19, 2007, Prophet Systems and RCS merged.
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