MetaRadio is the best way to send now playing data to your broadcast systems, such as RDS Encoders, Digital Radio systems, Streaming Servers, Websites and more! This article explains how you can use Merge Fields in MetaRadio.

Merge Fields allow you to mix data from your Input systems with your own text.

A very basic example would be “NOW PLAYING: {TITLE} – {ARTIST}“. When sent to the Output system, this would turn into “NOW PLAYING: Love Story – Taylor Swift“.

Many different fields in MetaRadio support using merge fields. All fields that support merge fields say “This field supports Merge Fields”, with a link to an example of all the fields available. These examples only start populating after you start sending data from your Input system.

The two most common fields where you’d use merge fields are:

  • Now Playing Text Format
  • Default/Fallback Text

This guide assume you have already installed MetaRadio, and connected it to your Automation System and Output Systems (e.g. your RDS Encoder).

Common Merge Fields

This table explains the most common merge fields available in MetaRadio:

FieldExplanation
{TITLE}The title of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message won’t be displayed at all.
{ARTIST}The artist of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message won’t be displayed at all.
{TITLE:OPTIONAL}The title of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message will still be displayed.
{ARTIST:OPTIONAL}The artist of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message will still be displayed.
{ALBUM}The album of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message will still be displayed.
{ALBUM:MANDATORY}The album of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message won’t be displayed at all.
{YEAR}The year of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message will still be displayed.
{YEAR:MANDATORY}The year of the currently playing track. If this field is used but the data is empty, your message won’t be displayed at all.
{PLAYOUTID}The Playout ID (Internal ID) of the currently playing track. This is often an internal identifier or filename.
{ITEMCODE}The External ID or Item Code of the currently playing track. This is often the ID you used for scheduling from a third party music or advertising scheduling system.
{CATEGORY}The Category of the currently playing track.
{ISRC}The ISRC of the currently playing track.
{CR}This sends a Carriage Return character – the equivalent of \r in some systems.
{LF}This sends a Line Return character – the equivalent of \n in some systems.

The ‘:MANDATORY’ suffix is available on most merge codes.

The Title & Artist fields are the only fields considered mandatory by default, but this can be overridden by the ‘:OPTIONAL’ suffix.

Supported Systems

Many different fields in MetaRadio support using merge fields. All fields that support merge fields say “This field supports Merge Fields”, with a link to an example of all the fields available. These examples only start populating after you start sending data from your Input system.

In general, the systems supported are ones where MetaRadio can send the full text (rather than being restricted to sending a separate title & artist field).

  • RDS
    • Pira (IP)
    • Pira (Serial)
    • Deva (IP)
    • Deva (Serial)
    • BWBroadcast (IP)
    • StereoTool (IP)
    • Audessence (IP)
    • Audessence (Serial)
    • Inovonics (IP)
    • Inovonics (Serial)
    • BreakawayOne
    • Omnia9xe
    • Omnia9sg
    • Omnia7
    • Omnia
    • Omnia9 Stream
    • Ecreso (IP)
    • Ecreso (Serial)
    • Nautel (IP)
    • UECP
  • Digital Radio
    • Paneda DAB+
    • Fraunhofer ContentServer DAB+
    • HD Radio
    • Sirius XM
  • Streaming
    • Telos Z/IP Stream
    • Orban Opticodec
    • Icecast
    • Icecast (Streamguys format)
    • Shoutcast
    • CirrusStreaming

Merging Data Between Systems

The examples we have shown up until now take the data from one input and send them to one output. MetaRadio has always had a model where the Outputs are tied directly to one Input.

However, MetaRadio 2 now allows you to mix merge field data between systems.

This means you could have input data from an Automation System and a Program Guide API merge together into one RDS Encoder output.

Merge fields follow this basic format:

{SYSTEM_ID:FIELD}

As an example, if you had an Input System with ID ‘rcszetta_1’, the field to grab the title would be ‘{RCSZETTA_1:TITLE}‘.

A list of the currently available data is shown when you click “View available merge fields”.

Accessing Raw Data in Merge Fields

You can also access the raw, unprocessed XML data from most input systems. A list of the currently available data is shown when you click “View available merge fields”.

Raw data merge fields follow a format like this:

{SYSTEM_ID:RAWINPUT/FIELDNAME}

You can traverse through nested XML tags by using additional slashes.

{SYSTEM_ID:RAWINPUT/FIRSTFIELD/SECONDFIELD}

Fields with multiple instances use a zero-index array syntax. e.g.:

{SYSTEM_ID:RAWINPUT/FIRSTFIELD/0/SECONDFIELD}

Please remember, whenever you make a change, you must restart MetaRadio.