Modernizing a Legacy Radio Playout Platform

The business problem

The toolset behind the playout (radio) platforms was outdated and built on obsolete technology. The initiative set out to reduce the system's footprint, make it accessible on the web, and deliver a more automated, usable experience inside an intricate, multitasking environment.

Research in the environment, not the lab

Playout is a live, unforgiving environment, so the research happened where the work happens: field interviews and shadowing in studios and station operations, watching where attention broke and where operators compensated for the software. Cognitive load — not feature gaps — turned out to be the dominant constraint.

The approach

UX research informed a role-based platform design applied across all applications, so program directors, operators, and support roles each worked from an interface shaped around their actual jobs rather than a shared, generic console.

Designing for one-to-many

The pivotal design problem was that a single program director had to run many stations at once. We designed for that reality directly — station-level state visible at a glance, bulk and templated scheduling, and exception-first surfacing so directors handled what deviated instead of re-reading what was fine.

Where it was heading

The platform was built to absorb data integrations — automation of scheduling decisions, and performance and audience data feeding back into programming — so the interface could keep getting smarter without another rebuild.

Results

Savings of over $6M a year once fully operational.

• Workforce requirement reduced 50%
• Scheduling time for program directors down 30%
• Dependency on physical studios down 20% in year one
• Hardware costs down 65%
• Anytime accessibility and higher system usability