Radio programmers either love or hate the idea of packeting songs in a music scheduling system. And there are good reasons for both emotions. Packeting songs is a common (and powerful) tool that provides flexibility in managing a music library. It combines two or more songs into a “packet,” so they act as one song when scheduling the log.
Imagine each song is a card. Each music category comprises a stack of cards, with the most rested song on top. Scheduling software tries to play the song on top of the card stack. If rules prevent it from scheduling, that card is skipped, and the next most rested song is considered. When a song is scheduled, it moves to the bottom of the stack.
Packeting songs is like stapling two or more cards together so they simultaneously move to the bottom of the stack. Each time the packet comes to the top, the most rested of the packeted songs is considered for play.
