MetaRadio 2.3 is now available! This update contains a variety of new features, including new Data Rules actions, Weather Data input, seven new input and output systems, and a new WordPress Song History Block.

This update is available free of charge to all MetaRadio users with an active support & maintenance agreement. Customers who purchased MetaRadio prior to 12th December 2023 will need to renew their support and maintenance subscription in order to access MetaRadio 2.3.

MetaRadio is the best way to manage your station’s now-playing metadata. We help you connect to more radio broadcast systems than any other metadata system on the market – around 100 input and output systems are supported.

New customers can sign up for a free trial now, or purchase MetaRadio online.

Weather Data from OpenWeather

Many radio stations wish to display local weather observations and forecasts on their RDS RadioText. We have added a new input for OpenWeather, which allows you to access the following merge fields in MetaRadio:

  • Weather_Now_Text
  • Weather_Now_Description
  • Weather_Now_Temp
  • Weather_Now_Humidity
  • Weather_Now_WindSpeed
  • Weather_Now_WindGust
  • Weather_Tomorrow_Descriptions
  • Weather_Tomorrow_TempMax
  • Weather_Tomorrow_TempMin

We recommend setting up the Weather input without any attached outputs. Then, use these merge fields in your existing outputs (attached to your automation system). You can see the available merge fields by clicking “View available merge fields” in your Output settings. Look for the heading ‘Other System: openweathermapapi‘.

An example merge code is {openweathermapapi_2:WEATHER_NOW_TEXT}. In this example, ‘openweathermapapi_2’ is the System ID for your Weather input.

You will need to sign up with an API Key from OpenWeather in order to access their data. At the time of writing, the Free API Plan is suitable for most users.

As with all data inputs, you will need an additional input in MetaRadio to use this system. If you need to upgrade your license to include more inputs, please contact us.

Data Rules

We are continuing to add additional actions to Data Rules. It’s worth reminding you that only one Data Rule will be matched per-track. Use the Order field to change the evaluation of your rules.

Overriding Text Messages

Text messages for your RDS and Digital Radio outputs can be setup in the output itself, and also in the Message Scheduler. However, how can you set the text message specifically based on incoming data? We have had workarounds available for a long time, but this new Override Text Messages action makes it much easier.

The best example for this action is displaying a specific message during a sponsor/advertiser announcement. Simply setup a criteria to match the ad’s cart number (or title/artist), and then override the text with the sponsor’s chosen message.

This Override Text Messages action will override all other messages – including the Message Scheduler messages.

Enabling and Disabling Systems Dynamically

While we have supported Input System Scheduling for some time, some of our customers would prefer to enable/disable input systems on the fly. We have added new actions to Data Rules to achieve just this.

You might have your condition set to detect specific title text (e.g. SATELLITE_ON), and then perform the action to turn your Satellite Input on in MetaRadio.

Converting Uppercase to Title Case

Some automation systems have their title, artist and album text entered in UPPERCASE. This doesn’t look very aesthetically pleasing, particularly on the web. We have added an option to force all incoming text in the title, artist and album fields to Title Case.

Random Messages from Text Files

Some of our customers have text files with a large quantity of messages to display on their RDS. These messages may be dynamically changed by third-party systems, or they may be manually updated by a team member.

When you setup a Generic File, TCP or HTTP input with the TXT format, you can now use the “Random_Lines” merge field. Using this merge field will randomly select one of these lines each time it is due to display on RDS.

New Systems

MetaRadio adds a variety of new systems.

  • Xdevel X-Automation. Connect your X-Automation system to MetaRadio as an input.
  • CasterX. Connect your CasterX streaming system as an output.
  • Genesys. Connect to the Genesys MySQL database as an automation system input in MetaRadio.
  • Custom RDS ASCII Output. We have added a Custom RDS ASCII output, which allows you to specify your own commands for RadioText and Dynamic PS.
  • AxelTech DJPro. Connect your DJPro automation system to MetaRadio as an automation system input.
  • Solidyne RDS. Connect your Solidyne RDS encoder.
  • Studiio. Send song data to the Studiio.io cloud-based talkshow and messaging system.

WordPress Enhancements – Track History Block

Our MetaRadio WordPress plugin continues to receive updates. We are currently focused on re-designing all widgets and converting them to Block Editor Blocks.

The MetaRadio Track History feature has a new design and is now available as a Block.

The Table layout has also been refined.

There are also a number of other options and enhancements:

  • An Apple Music link is now presented with the cover art.
  • Sort Options – Choose to sort by time ascending or descending.
  • Album – option to display the album name.
  • Filtering to a specific station/day/time now loads dynamically (without a page refresh).

To use this new Song History Block, simply add the ‘MetaRadio Track History‘ block to your block editor page. The block sidebar contains all the relevant settings. The old shortcode is still available for backwards compatibility.

Additionally, the WordPress Program Guide editor now pre-loads the default guide when you go to edit a specific date. This makes it much easier to customise your program guide for a specific day, without having to start from scratch.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements

As always, we are committed to improving MetaRadio. Here are some of the key bug fixes and enhancements in this release:

  • 2wcom RDS: Use DYNRT command for fallback text & fix duration field
  • AIM, DTS AutoStage, & CommunityRadio+: Fix a bug with daylight savings.
  • DTS AutoStage: Allow Message Scheduler on this output.
  • DAB ODR PadEnc: Added an FTP Upload mode, enabling compatibility with ITEL DAB/DAB+ encoders.
  • iMediaTouch: Fix Allowed Asset Type field.
  • RDS UECP: Fix error message when shutting down in transient mode
  • Simian IP: Add Date/Time Format field
  • SS32: Allow shorter messages to be received
  • StreamS: Fix various bugs
  • TuneIn: Allow sending messages, in addition to basic title/artist
  • TuneIn: Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
  • WideOrbit: Time Offset – allow fractions of hours
  • WordPress: Track History Edit – Fix date validation on this screen
  • Track History (JSON/XML) output: Add Timezone option

How to Upgrade

When you buy a license or sign up for the trial, you receive an email. This email contains the download link and license file. You can run the installation on your PC, provide the new license key, and you’ll be up and running in no time. You can also read the full installation instructions for new installs.

If you are an existing customer, you can request your download and license from this webpage, using the same email address you used to purchase your product originally. If your support & maintenance subscription has expired, this email will contain a link to renew it for another 12 months. Once renewed, you can download and install MetaRadio 2.3.

Make sure you take a backup before you upgrade. If you are using a VM, we suggest taking a snapshot before upgrading.

About the new Support & Maintenance Subscription

MetaRadio has always been sold as a once-off purchase (the price has remained at US$199 per input system since we first launched in 2016). We have offered free upgrades and ongoing support to all users since our first release.

When MetaRadio 2 was announced in August 2023, we announced updates would only be free for the first 12 months after your purchase. To help all our amazing customers upgrade to the latest version and take advantage of all the new features, we granted everyone a free 12 month subscription – for MetaRadio 1 customers, this expired in August this year.

To continue receiving updates after this, we have set the renewal price at US$99 per input per year. We believe this is a fair price, and hope it will ensure MetaRadio can continue to be developed and supported for years to come.

While we would love to continue providing free support and upgrades, it is not economical. To make upgrades ‘free’, we would either need to increase the purchase price, lock new features behind a higher price tier, or move to a subscription pricing model.

MetaRadio remains a buy-out license, so if you don’t want updates and support after your initial 12 months, then you don’t need to pay the annual subscription. We are proud to continue to offer powerful tools at an accessible price for all broadcasters, and are pleased we can continue to offer MetaRadio without a mandatory subscription attached.

Support

If you run into trouble and need support, please contact us via email for assistance.