If you are a Radio or TV Analyzer subscriber and you haven’t explored the Competition Tab here is a quick overview on how you can quickly see station competition listed by revenue.

After executing any search, click on the Competition Tab. This tab displays all the stations in a market ranked by revenue. The top station in a Market is listed at the top of the list.

At the bottom of the window, the buttons allow you to export the fields displayed in the window into an Excel spreadsheet. To do this function, click the Export Competition Table to Excel button.

If you want to see a graph view of the market competition, click the Market Group Revenue Shares button. This view nicely shows which owner has the bigger piece of the pie in the Market.

See examples of these export options below.

Excel Export

Group Revenue Share Chart

Many of you frequently use the Quick Search option in MEDIA Access Pro (MAPro) to find data you want quickly. What you may not know though is that this search offers you the ability to do more detailed, custom searches. One example is a multi-criteria search, meaning the stations you are looking for must meet certain criteria to show up on your results tab.

Let’s look at an example. The stations I want to find must meet the criteria below:

• Stations must be Sports
• FM stations only
• Generate 2 million or higher in Revenue in 2020
• Located in Markets 25-50

To do this search, start by clicking New Search. This brings you to the Selection criteria tab. On the left side, you will see a long list of fields available to search by. Add each line item to your criteria box using the steps shown below.

1. Select the field you want to add to your criteria. In this example, we are searching on Format.
2. Select the condition. The format we are looking for must Equal.
3. My Value will be the Value of the Format we are searching for. In this example, it shows I am looking for all Sports formatted stations.
4. Once you make the selections, press the Add button to add each line to the criteria box.
   • After adding each line, the system automatically adds and AND statement. This is normal and next week I will go over working with the OR statement.
5. Click the Proceed button to execute the search.

After adding your first line of criteria (format equals sports) move on to the next criteria line. For the example above, I am requesting that all stations be FM only. You will continue adding each line of criteria to your search.

Please note: The Conditions are what controls most of your criteria. For example, the last line in the screen shot, Lic. Market Rank is Between 25;50. The condition is between controls the output. In MAPro, all values are separated with a semicolon (;), therefor you will see a semicolon separating 25;50 and the condition of Is Between is letting MAPro that you wish to see all Markets that are between 25 and 50.

I will show you how to add information into your criteria box but this time we will be using the OR statement as our statement separator. Last week we created a list of all FM Stations with a format of Sports, in markets 25-50 and these stations had to generate more than 2M in revenue.

I have included last weeks screenshot as a reminder. If you note at the end of each line, it has the AND statement.

This week we are going to work with the OR statement. A good example of using the OR statement separator would be if you are searching for multiple CALL Letters, Multiple Formats or Markets. For today’s example I will search on Multiple Markets. Using the above number sequence, I will ask MAPro for 4 different Markets.

After you add each line to the criteria box the system will default and add the AND statement separator, after adding all Markets, go back on the control keys (highlighted in Yellow) and change each line containing the AND statement separator to the OR statement separator (highlighted in Blue). Once you click Proceed and your output should look something like this:

MEDIA Access Pro has a hidden function that is very rarely used. I get the same response when I show users how this feature works and how much time it saves. We call this the “unique” Filter. Once I show you how it works you will use it all the time.

Let’s say you want to see total number of stations that makeup each Television or Radio Market. As you can see in my screen shot, I selected the 3 columns that are most important to me in my output fields tab: Market Rank, Market Name, and the Total Station Counts in each Market. New York shows 54 stations that makeup that market. MAPro is designed to search each individual station that meats your criteria, which means if you do not use the Unique filter, you will see New York 54 times with the same 3 fields of information.

Here are the steps you need to take when building your search.

I started a new search, in my search criteria I told the system to only find station that fall into a rated market therefore, the market rank should not be empty.

I then went to my output fields tab to select the 3 specific fields of information that are relevant to my search, those fields for this search were Market Rank, Market name and Total Number of stations in the market and that field is called “total station count”

Lastly, I configured MAPro to sort the data and eliminate duplicates on one specific field name. I added Market Rank to my Sort order, and I accepted the default Ascending order (+). Then I added Market Rank to the unique field box. This is telling MAPro, If you see the Market Rank one time don’t repeat that line, I only wish to see it once.

After I execute the search by clicking Proceed, my results look just like my screen shot. Its listing all Markets that do not have a blank Rank, followed by the Market Name and the total number of stations per market.

Now, here is the great thing. You can make any field unique. If you are searching on specific data about an owner and you do not wish to see the same detail listed multiple times your unique box would include Owner, that way if MAPro finds the owners name once it wont duplicate it.

This field also comes in handy when you are exporting personnel (emails) from MAPro, and you do not want to see the email address duplicated in your output.

That’s it, form here all you do is Export to Excel and the data is yours to manipulate any way you wish.

When creating a New Search, the fields list can be a little overwhelming. Well, I have a way to condense your list by adding your most frequently used filed names to your Favorites tab.

Adding specific fields (the field used most often) can make your field selections so much more manageable. Below are the steps you will take to add your most frequently used field names to your favorites tab.

• Click the New Search Tab.
• From the list of fields listed alphabetically on the Index Tab, make your selection. For this example, I will choose Calls-Current

• After making your selection from the Index Tab, click the Favorites Tab to the right of Index.
• You will note Calls-Current displayed on my Current Selection Window.
• Now, Click the Add Button to the right of the Current Selection Field Box
• This will Add that field name to the list of favorite fields.

That’s it, from this point you can continue to add your most frequently used fields to your favorites box and completely customize the field names you see making it a little easier that scrolling up and down so many field names. Keep in mind, you can also Delete (Remove) any field names by selecting the Field name from the list of Favorites and clicking the Remover button.

MAPro has so many fields of information, upward in the thousands of fields. How does one remember all those field names?

I will show you how to search on a field name even if you can’t remember that specific field name.

Get into the program, start to build your search using New Search function. The program defaults to the Index tab. Just under the words “show only items containing” type in the word you wish to search.

For this example, I will type the word SHARE then click the GO button. The index list will update and pull up any field name that has anything to do with the word Share or any word that it finds that contains the word share in it. From there you can scroll up or down to find the field you wish to work with, once you are done you can click ALL, and everything will default to the original list of fields.

To see the distance in miles from one station to the other (distances are calculated from tower to tower) Also if someone wants to plot 2 or more stations on a map to see if they overlap one another based on their coverage area. This search is available to Radio and TV Analyzer users. These are the steps you would need to take.

• Click Saved Search button on the opening page, in the Overview Tab scroll down alphabetically till you find the search called Distance Sample Search.
• Once that search is selected in the list of Saved Searches, click on the Selection Criteria Tab. Once one this tab you will modify or add your 3 sets of criteria.
  • Call letters of the main station (please note, you can also use Zip Code or Lat/Long if you prefer
  • Next, plug in the distance in miles you wish the program to search
  • Click ADD once you have defined your search Criteria

For this example, I am searching for all stations that are 1-25 miles from station WENY

• From this point you will click the proceed button at the bottom of the Selection criteria window.

Her is one of the reasons I like this SAVED SEARCH so much. The program automatically builds the output fields for you. It displays all the stations with the mile market as part of your output.

Let’s look at the Change, Delete and Append Buttons.

These buttons do exactly what their name indicates.

Change button. Will change (replace) and existing highlighted line in the criteria box.

Using the Change Button

Before:

Making sure the criteria line is highlighted, change your value, then click Change:

After:

Delete Button: Will Delete (remove) an existing line in the criteria box.

Using the Delete button

Before:

Making sure the criteria line is highlighted, then click Delete:

After:

Note: don’t forget to remove the AND/OR statement at the end of the line that remains in the criteria box.

Append Button. Will Append an item to the end of your existing criteria line. This button is best used when working with the condition Is in the list.

For example, say you want to search on multiple CALL signs: KAWE, KUTV and KTEJ. Begin by adding the first line to your criteria, as shown below:

Step 1- Select the second call letter from your drop-down value list.

Step 2- Click Append

Your Criteria line will now look like the image below. Both CALL letters separated with a Semicolon (;).

Do steps 1 and 2 above again, adding the next set of CALL letters from your drop-down Value list.

Note: there are some limitations to the number of characters per line. A good rule of thumb is to add about 10 CALL letters per line, then begin a new line (with an OR separator)

MEDIA Access Pro has the ability to create custom mapping. The mapping program allows the end users to see station coverage, owner coverage, market coverage and what makes this program so unique is the ability to customize your maps.

Learn about the Properties window. This window allows slight modifications to the orientation of your pint job, modifying the export properties, which contours to turn on and off, saving layers and what detail to display on your contour names.

Now, how do you get to Properties? Easy, Go to File (on your menu bar) and select properties to display this window below.

1. Paths – This section only needs to be modified if your company is planning to install the mapping program on a network server. Since most users are using MAPro and Maps online this section does not need to be changes.
2. Printing Options – Allows you to set the print direction, Portrait or Landscape, for your map output. Landscape is the installed default.
3. Exporting Options – This section sets the parameters for exporting graphic images of the maps you create.
   • Height – Set the default height of the map image you export. When you do, the width is automatically adjusted to provide you with a proportional image of the map you export. Width – Sets the default width of the map image you export. When you do, the height is automatically adjusted to provide you with a proportional image of the map you export.
   • Export Format – Select your preferred graphic image format for output. Built-in formats from which to select include: wmf, bmp, gif, JPEG (the default), TIFF, PNG, PSD
   • Export Scale – 1 = regular output, 2 = doubles the size, 3 = triples the size of your graphic, etc.
4. Contour Display – When checked, the appropriate Contours (Primary or Secondary or Digital) for Radio or Television stations (digital not displayed for Television) will display on your map. Within this box you can also set the default width of the contour lines for the Primary and Secondary Contours (1=Narrow and 4=Thick).
5. User Layers – If you have modified specific layers in the mapping program and wish to save them, you will click the Save User Layers box to save your settings. I will cover modifying your Mapping Layers in the weeks to come.
6. Station Selection – Eliminating stations from your maps along with the labels that display on your contours: Licensed, Construction Permit, Special Temporary, its best to leave this section types ON so that you see all station types on your map.
7. Display alongside Contour: Turn on or off which ever you would like to see alongside of your station call sign. See detailed list below along with codes:
   • Status that the contour portrays:
     • LI or L=Licensed
     • CP or C= Construction Permit
     • ST = Special Temporary Authorization
     • FCC service of the station
     • AM = AM Radio
     • FM = FM Radio
     • TV = Analog Television (NTSC)
     • TX = Television Translator
     • CA = Class A Television
     • DT = Digital Television (ATSC)
     • DS = Digital Special Temporary Authorization
     • ST= Special Temporary
     • LP= Low Power
     • Contour level: This will display the dBU level, 60, 70, 65 (Radio) and 51, 41 36 (Television)

Once you know how to do to find all the stations that fall within a 25-mile radius. You can plot out those stations on your map in the order of distance from the main searched station.  The results delivered from the saved search allow you to see the distance (tower to tower) between the main station (WENY) and the next station sorted by distance.

As you can see WENI-FM is 2.96 Miles from WENY-AM and so on. We will now plot these stations on our mapping program. Here are the steps you need to take to plot these out by distance.

Click the MAPS Tab to the far-right side of your screen

Step 1- Choose Selected Stations

Step 2- Search Results Order

Step 3- Build Map

After clicking Build Map a second application will open, MapX Viewer and you will note the stations listed on the left side of your screen are all in the results order that was displayed on your Results tab.

This is helpful if you want to see how close or far stations are from the main station (WENY). My affiliate people love this search because it allows them to see if a station falls within a 50-mile radius to allow a station in the same market to carry programming. The map below shows how I plotted 2 stations on my map and the best part, if I use my ruler bar (image below) I can click hold drag my mouse across my map to plot out the distance in Miles.

Ruler Bar on the task bar shown below.

Measurement in distance is displayed on the lower left side of your screen and it moves up or down as you move your mouse. Note: you must click hold and drag your mouse to see the measurement.

Using WTOP- FM in Washington DC as an example. (Note: keep in mind the functionality works the same in TV as it does in Radio.) Do a quick search of WTOP, click the Maps Tab and then build your map on Selected station.

When the mapping program is launched, you will turn on or select the station(s) of the contours you want to display by putting a check mark in the box to the right of the station and turning this contour on.

If you want to change the color of your contour to something other than the default, simply Right mouse click on the call signs to open a color pallet box in which you can choose any color and then click OK. I will change WTOP from the default Red to Black.

If you want to shade the Market areas of your map (the radio/tv markets that are served by the station/stations), select the market to Shade. For this example, I will choose Washington D.C. and the Winchester Market areas,

After clicking on the Market name, a region style window will open. The only changes you will need to make are at the top of the Fill Window. Select a Pattern and then Select a Foreground color. For my example, I will select a pattern and a green for Winchester and a different pattern and purple for Washington D.C.

Once you have made all your selections, click the Reload Button. This will pull your changes into your map.

Below you can see my sample map. It shows WTOP in a Black Contour color and the two market areas are shaded in the green and purple patterns. By doing color selections, you can see that WTOP definitely has listeners in the Washington DC area, and it also shows how close the signal is to the Winchester, VA Market.

Properties – Open the Properties box by selecting this icon. This will be covered in more detail in the weeks to come.

When you click on the Market #1 Tab you will note a button at the bottom of the window Other Stations In Market this button will quickly display all other stations that fall into that specific market.

The nice thing about this pop-up window is you can see a listing of all the other stations that fall into that market, plus additional details for each station, like total number of stations in that market and the total number of different owners in the market. You can simply view the details on your screen or print this detail to your printer or a pdf format.

One last thing on this screen is you can quickly pull an owner list by clicking the ? box to the right of the owner. This will not just pull up all the stations owned by that specific owner in that market, but it will pull all of the owner holdings across the US.

If you cannot find a station the first place to look is the pop-up box Search Only the following stations that are. This box will occasionally be accidently turned off and a one or more categories might have accidently been turned off.

The easiest way to make sure all station categories are turned on is to click on Quick Search button.

Make sure the Search Only check box is turned on. This will open the window Search Only the following stations that are. From this point you can turn on or off specific station that fall into whatever category you wish to see, or not see.

Below is a screen shot of the Radio Search Only box:

Below is a screen shot of the Television Search Only box:

If you think the database is missing a station start here. Chances are you might have accidently unselected a category.

Using quick Search

• Click the quick search button
• Select the fourth radio button
• Using the drop downscroll down alphabetically until you find the field name called FCC ID Number
• Clicking the Display Pick List (image below) will pull a list of ALL the FCC ID Numbers we have available in the system. You can certainly scroll down to locate the FCC ID number you are looking for or simply manually enter the FCC ID Number into the empty Filed box

• Once you Click Search, the program will search the entire database for the number you specified.
• One of 2 things will happen, the results tab will show your station in the list OR, if that number cannot be found you will get a message stating that the “Search String Cannot Be Found” meaning that FCC ID number was not located.