Do you want to send Now Playing Song Data to CBAA’s Community Radio Plus App, from your Radio Automation System? MetaRadio makes this possible. This article explains the setup of MetaRadio and Community Radio Plus’s API, allowing the current song title and artist to be sent to users of this app.

Sending song now-playing information to this sector-wide aggregation mobile app has clear advantages for your listeners and also your station. Now Playing data enhances the listener experience by allowing them to discover new tracks.

The Radio API used by Community Radio Plus is the same as the AIM Mobile App API and DTS AutoStage API, so if you already send your data to AIM for one of their mobile apps, you may not need to do anything extra to send data to Community Radio Plus.

What is MetaRadio?

MetaRadio is software which acts as a connector for your radio station’s metadata. It enables you to send your now playing data to dozens of different types of systems (including RDS Encoders, Digital Radio, and Community Radio Plus), and also unlocks new opportunities for revenue and promotions by inserting commercial and non-commercial messages between your song data. While many automation systems can send data directly to some of these third party broadcast systems, MetaRadio aims to connect all your systems together and provide advanced features.

MetaRadio takes all the hard work out of connecting your metadata. There’s no need for custom scripting – MetaRadio does everything you need out of the box.

Getting Song Data From your Radio Automation System

Before you can send your song metadata to Community Radio Plus, you must first install MetaRadio and connect it to your radio automation system.

MetaRadio has over 30 different input system – including all the major Radio Automation System vendors. If you don’t have reliable metadata available in your automation system, you may like to consider using radio stream fingerprinting software with MetaRadio.

There is a free trial available of MetaRadio so you can test the entire system before committing to purchase.

Preparing to connect to Community Radio Plus

Before you begin, will need some connection parameters from CBAA’s support team. These are unique to each station. These details include:

  • HTTP Auth Username: Often your callsign
  • HTTP Auth Password: A unique password provided by CBAA
  • Station ID: Often your callsign

Your MetaRadio PC should have internet access, so it can access the API.

Sending Now Playing Data to Community Radio Plus

Now we have successfully configured MetaRadio, our Automation System, and have the connection details for Community Radio Plus – we are ready to connect all these systems together.

All configuration in this step is done in the MetaRadio Configuration App. By default, the MetaRadio configuration app is available by going to http://127.0.0.1:9606/

MetaRadio’s configuration interface lets you control all settings within MetaRadio.

  • The left contains the menu with various options – including the Input and  Output settings.
  • The centre of the screen contains information about your system, including license details, and a summary of the inputs and outputs you have setup.

The options you see available will vary depending on the version you have installed, and the license options you have installed.

In the left menu of MetaRadio, click on “Outputs”. Find your station, and click “Add Output”. Now you can select CBAA CommunityRadio+ from the list, and configure its settings.

Click “Add Output System” under the Community Radio Plus Heading. You can now configure your connection.

You can now enter your access credentials as supplied by CBAA’s support team. The fields you will need are:

  • HTTP Auth Username: Often your callsign
  • HTTP Auth Password: A unique password provided by CBAA
  • Station ID: Often your callsign
  • iTunes Store Country Code: Enter a two-character country code (e.g. ‘AU’ or ‘US’). This will be used when looking up Album Art from the Apple Music database.

Click Save, and then click “Apply & Restart” up the top to restart MetaRadio.

The black MetaRadio window will now display a status update whenever a new messages is sent to Community Radio Plus.

You can check if the data has been received by Community Radio Plus by checking the URL matching this format:

https://onair.radioapi.io/cbaa/<station>/onair.json

If data is not being received, check the following:

  • Check the black MetaRadio status windows for errors
  • Check your network allows connections from your MetaRadio PC to your All In Media’s Radio API
  • Check your Community Radio Plus Radio API is configured correctly.

Connecting Your MetaRadio WordPress Program Guide

You can also connect your MetaRadio WordPress Program Guide to the Community Radio Plus app. The URL for the guide follows this format:

https://www.example.com/wp-json/metaradio/v1/stationguide?station=<station_id>&format=aim

Simply find your AIM Program Guide URL (in the above format) and send it to CBAA for inclusion within the Community Radio Plus app.

Support & Next Steps

Thanks for choosing MetaRadio to manage your now playing song data needs. Make sure you explore all the features, such as station scheduling, message scheduling, and all of our advanced output options. Please get in touch with us if you ever need assistance!

If you have any trouble with this process or it’s not working, please send the MetaRadio log files through to our support team. We’re here to help! You’ll find the support bundle file in MetaRadio’s dashboard.