Radio Station let's you build and manage a Show Schedule for a radio station or Internet broadcaster's WordPress website.
Contributors: tonyzeoli, majick
Donate link: https://www.patreon.com/radiostation
Tags: dj, music, playlist, radio, shows, scheduling, broadcasting
Requires at least: 3.3.1
Tested up to: 5.3.2
Stable tag: trunk
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Radio Station by NetMix is a plugin to build and manage a Show Schedule for a radio station or internet broadcaster's WordPress website, including podcasters. It's functionality was originally based on Drupal 6's Station plugin, reworked for use in Wordpress and then extended.
The plugin adds a new "Show" post type, schedulable blocks of time that contain a Show description, a Show shifts repeater field, assignable images and other meta information. You can also create Playlists associated with those shows, or assign standard blog posts to relate to a Show. It also supports adding Schedule Overrides for specific dates and times, and adds the ability to associate users (given a role of "Host" or "Producer") to Shows, so they can be displayed for that Show and to give them edit access.
A schedule of all Shows can be generated and added to a page with a shortcode (or simple page selection in the Plugin Settings) which has a number of Layout and display options. Shows can be categorized into Genres and a Genre highlighting filter appears on the embedded Schedule view. Each Show has it's own dedicated page to display all the Show details in a responsive layout.
The plugin contains a widget to display the on-air Current Show linked to the Show page, with various widget display options, and further widgets for displaying Upcoming Shows and current Playlist tracks. Shortcodes are available for these widgets, as well as for displaying archive lists of any of the plugin's custom post types.
As there is a lot you can do with Radio Station, we've made an effort to provide complete Radio Station Plugin Documentation. You can also find a Quickstart Guide there, as well as in the section below. You can see some example displays from the plugin via the Screenshots section, and full live examples are available on the Radio Station Plugin Demo Site.
We are actively seeking Radio Station partners and supporters to fund further development of the free, open source version of this plugin via Patreon and are also in the process of developing more exciting features and functionality for a future Radio Station Pro upgrade.
Since 2.3.0, the first major feature update since plugin takeover in July 2019, Radio Station has incorporated a whole bunch of enhancements (see the changelog for a full list)... but here is a shortlist of the main new features:
- an Updated Show Page Layout (based on Content Filters not Templates)
- Responsive Schedule Views (with integrated Override support)
- Revamped Schedule calculations (with Show Shift Conflict Checking)
- Producer and Show Editor Roles (for improved Show management)
- Language Taxonomy Assignments (for Shows and Overrides)
- Admin Plugin Settings Page (with a plethora of new options)
- ...and a Radio Station Data API via the WordPress REST API!
If you have been using Radio Station prior to version 2.3.0 and want to update, it is recommended that you read the blog post for the 2.3.0 release. As there is quite a lot of refactoring and changes in this version, you will want to check the details of the new changes with your current usage - especially if you have been using any custom page templates in your theme or other plugin-related custom code on your site. As these are probably the most significant changes that will ever be made to the plugin in a release, we have worked hard to maintain backwards oompatibility and test the new features thoroughly, but it's important you know what is going and test things out yourself in the update process.
We are grateful to Nikki Blight for her contribution to creating and developing this plugin for as long as she could maintain the codebase. As of June 22, 2019, Radio Station is managed by Tony Zeoli with Tony Hayes as lead developer and other contributing committers to the project.
For free version plugin support, you can ask in the Wordpress Plugin Support Forum. Please give 24-48 hours to answer support questions. Alternatively (and preferably) you can submit bugs, enhancement and feature requests directly to Github Repository Issues.
If you are a WordPress developer wanting to contribute to Radio Station, please join the team and follow plugin development on Github and submit Issues and Pull Requests there. You can see the current progress via the Projects tab. Or if you would prefer to get involved even more substantially, please Contact Us via Email and let us know what you would like to do.
Once you have installed and activated the Radio Station Plugin on your WordPress site, your WordPress Admin area will now have a new menu item titled Radio Station with submenu page items. If you are trying to do something specific, you can check out the FAQ for Frequently Asked Questions as you may find the answer there.
Firstly, you can visit the Plugin Settings screen to adjust the default Options to your liking. Here you can set your Radio Timezone and Streaming URL (if you have one) along with other global plugin settings. Also from this Settings page you may want to assign Pages and Views for your Program Schedule display and other optional Post Type Archive displays.
Add a New Show and assign it a Shift timeslot and Publish. Then check out how it displays on a single Show page by clicking the Show Permalink. Schedule Overrides work in a similar way but are for specific date and time blocks only. Depending on your Theme, you may wish to adjust the Templates used. You can also assign different Images to Shows (and Schedule Overrides.) Then have a look at your Program Schedule page to see the Show displayed there also. Just keep adding Shows until you have your Schedule filled in! You can further Manage your Shows and other Station data via the WordPress Admin area.
Next you may want to give some users on your site some plugin Roles. (Note that while the default interface in WordPress allows you to assign a single role to a user, it also supports multiple roles, but you need to add a plugin to get an interface for this.) Giving a Role of Host/DJ or Producer to a user will allow them to be assigned to a Show on the Show Edit Page and thus edit that particular Show also. You can also assign the Show Editor role if you have someone needs to edit all plugin records without being a site Administator.
There are a few Widgets you can add via your Appearance -> Widgets menu. The main one will display the currently playing Show, and another will display Upcoming Shows. There is also a Current Playlist Widget for if you have created and assigned a Playlist to a Show.
Then there are also a number of other Shortcodes you can use in your pages with different display options you can use in various places on your site also. There is the Master Schedule, Widget Shortcodes, and also Archive Shortcodes for each of the different data records.
Radio Station has several in-built Data types. These include Custom Post Types for Shows, Schedule Overrides and Playlists. There are Taxonomies for Genres and Languages. You can override most data values and display output via custom Data Filters throughout the plugin. We have also incorporated an API in the plugin via REST and/or WordPress Feeds, and this data is accessible in JSON format.
This plugin is under active development and we are continuously working to enhance the Free version available on WordPress.Org, as well as creating new feature additions for Radio Station Pro. Check out the Roadmap if you are interested in seeing what is coming up next!
Love Radio Station and ready for more? As the free version develops, we have also been working hard to introduce new features to create a Professional version that will "level up" the plugin to make your Station's site even more useable and accessible for your listeners! Click here to learn more about Radio Station Pro.
- Upload plugin .zip file to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory and unzip. - Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in the WordPress Admin
- Alternatively search for Radio Station via the WordPress admin Add New plugin interface and install and activate it there.
- Give any users who need access to the plugin the role of "Host", "Producer" or "Show Editor". Assigning These roles gives publish and edit access to the plugin's records.
- Create Shows, add Shifts to them, and assign Images, Genres, Languages, Hosts and/or Producers.
- Add Playlists to your Shows or assign posts to Shows as needed.
- Go to your admin Appearance -> Widgets page to add and configure Current and Upcoming Show Widgets, and any other desired plugin widgets.
- See the QuickStart Guide above for more detailed instructions of what else is available.
The latest documentation can be found online at NetMix.com. Documentation is also included with for the currently installed version via the Radio Station Help menu. You can find the Markdown-formatted files in the /docs folder of the GitHub Repository and in the /docs folder of the plugin directory.
Simply create a new show via Add Show in the Radio Station plugin menu in the Admin area. You will be able to assign Shift timeslots to it on the Show edit page, as well as add the Show description and other meta fields, including Show images.
In the Plugin Settings, you can select a Page on which to automatically display the schedule as well as which View to display (a Table grid by default.) Alternatively, you can use the shortcode [master-schedule] on any page (or post.) This option allows you to use further shortcode attributes to control the what is displayed in the Schedule (see Master Schedule Shortcode Docs )
Did you remember to check the "Active" checkbox for each Show? If a Show is not marked active, the plugin assumes that it's not currently in production and it is not shown on the Schedule. A Show will also not be shown if it has no active Shifts assigned to it.
If you have a one-off event that you need to show up in the Schedule and Widgets, you can create a Schedule Override by clicking the Schedule Override tab in the Admin menu. This will allow you to set aside a block of time on a specific date, and when the Schedule or Widget is displaying that date, the override will be used instead of the normally scheduled Show. (Note that Schedule Overrides will not display in the old Legacy Table or List Views of the Master Schedule.)
Try re-saving your site's permalink settings via Settings -> Permalinks. Wordpress sometimes gets confused with a new custom post type is added. Permalink rewrites are automatically flushed on plugin activation, so you can also just deactivate and reactivate the plugin.
The default styles for Radio Station have intionally kept fairly minimal so as to be compatible with most themes, so you may wish to add your own styles to suit your site's look and feel. The best way to do this is to add your own rs-custom.css to your Child Theme's directory, and add more specific style rules that modify or override the existing styles. Radio Station will automatically detect the presence of this file and enqueue it. You can find the base styles in the /css/ directory of the plugin.
The following Widgets are available to add via the WordPress Appearance -> Widgets page: Current Show, Upcoming Shows, Current Playlist. Radio Clock and Streaming Player Widgets will also be available in future versions. See the Widget Documentation for more details on these Widgets.
See the Shortcode Documentation for more details and a full list of possible Attributes for these Shortcodes:
[master-schedule]- Master Program Schedule Display[current-show]- Current Show Widget[upcoming-shows]- Upcoming Shows Widget[current-playlist]- Current Playlist Widget[shows-archive]- Archive List of Shows[genres-archive]- Archive List of Shows sorted by Genre[overrides-archive]- Archive List of Schedule overrides[playlists-archive]- Archive List of Show Playlists
Note old shortcode aliases will still work in current and future versions to prevent breakage.
I need users other than just the Administrator and DJ roles to have access to the Shows and Playlists post types. How do I do that?
There are a number of different options depending on what you are wanting to to do. You can find more information on these in the Roles Documentation
The avatar is whatever image is assigned as the Show's Avatar. All you have to do is set a new Show Avatar on the Edit page for that Show.
You did remember to assign the Host or Producer role to the users you want, right?
The only Hosts and Producers that can edit a show are the ones listed as being Hosts or Producers for that Show in the respective user selection menus. This is to prevent Hosts/Producers from editing other Host/Producer's Shows without permission.
Then you'll need to install a plugin that lets you add a different image to your Host/Producer's user account and edit your author.php theme file accordingly. That's a little out of the scope of this plugin. I recommend Cimy User Extra Fields
Right now:
- Albanian (sq_AL)
- Dutch (nl_NL)
- French (fr_FR)
- German (de_DE)
- Italian (it_IT)
- Russian (ru_RU)
- Serbian (sr_RS)
- Spanish (es_ES)
- Catalan (ca)
You may translate the plugin into another language. Please visit our WordPress Translate project page for this plugin for further instruction. The radio-station.pot file is located in the /languages directory of the plugin. Please send the finished translation to info@netmix.com. We'd love to include it.
- Major Update including many new features, enhancements and fixes!
- https://netmix.com/radio-station-2-3-0-release/
- Revamped Templates, Master Schedule Views, Shortcodes and Widgets
- Added Admin Options, REST API Routes and Shift Conflict Checking
- Added Show Producers, Language Taxonomy, Timezones and Countdowns
- Improved User Roles, Show Images, Post Type Supports + much more!
- Stable version before major update, including many fixes from 2.2.0 onwards
- Fix to remove strict type checking (introduced 2.2.6) which fixes DJ can't edit Show
- WordPress coding standards refactoring for WP 5 (thanks to Tony Hayes @majick777)
- Compatibility fix for Wordpress 4.3.x - Updated the widgets to use PHP5 constructors instead of the deprecated PHP4 constructors.
- General code cleanup, 4.1 compatibility testing, and changes for better efficiency.
- Major code reorganization for better future development