Controlling Media Playback: When Media Ends

When scheduling broadcast events in Radio Cult, you can attach media files to play during your event in the form of playlists or pre-records. But what happens when your attached media is shorter than the duration of the scheduled event? The "When media ends" setting gives you control over this scenario.

Understanding the Setting

The "When media ends" setting determines what happens when the attached media finishes playing before the scheduled event ends. Therefore, this setting only applies when the media duration is shorter than the event duration.

Where to find the setting

This setting lives in the Advanced section of the Media Panel when creating events or updating an exiting event.

Available Options

Loop Media (The default)

When this option is selected, the attached media will repeat until the scheduled event ends. This ensures your event never has dead air, even if your media file is much shorter than the event duration.

Best for:

• Smart / dynamic playlists
• Large, static playlists

Switch to Default Playlist

When this option is selected, once the attached media finishes playing, Radio Cult will automatically switch to your station's default playlist for the remainder of the event.

Best for:

• Pre-recorded shows where you don't want listeners to hear content twice
• Back to back events where the attached media is a minute or so shorter than the event duration

When to use this setting

This is an advanced scheduling setting. You'll most likely only want to change it from the default setting of Loop Media to Switch to Default Playlist when broadcasting content like podcast episodes, pre-recorded shows and mixes. In these scenarios, you do not want the content to loop and for listeners to hear repeated content.

Switch to Default Playlist can simplify your scheduling. Imagine the scenario where you have multiple 1-hour shows back-to-back. It's likely that your hosts have sent files that are not the exact length. Maybe the files are 58 minutes and 16 seconds long, or 59 minutes and 5 seconds long. You could pad out the content by adding and Intro and jingles but you can just easy easily enable Switch to Default Playlist and let us handle filling the remaining time with your Default Playlist. This lets you keep your events as 1-hour long and means you don't have to waste time with padding out the end of the shows.

The default option of Loop Media is what you will want for large playlists or dynamic playlists (where the content can be endless).

Important Notes

• This setting is only for Playlist and Pre-record events
• If the attached media is longer than or equal to your event duration, this setting has no effect
• You must have a default playlist configured for the "Switch to default playlist" option to work properly
• Shuffled playlists will always loop
• This setting is applied on a per-event basis

Troubleshooting

My event has silence after the media ends

• Check that you have a default playlist configured
• Ensure your default playlist contains active, playable media

Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble with media playback settings, contact our support team through the help widget in your Radio Cult dashboard.