Playlist Generator Pro : Advanced Category Variations Directly in the Rotation Window

[JeanXeb]

Hello Dmitry, RadioBOSS team,

Several years ago, I had suggested two improvements for the Playlist Generator. One of them "the globalized categories" was implemented, and I want to sincerely thank you for that. It has made daily work much easier.

Today, I would like to bring back the second part of that original suggestion, because with more experience using RadioBOSS, I’m convinced it would be a major improvement.

Category Variations Directly Inside the Rotation Window​

Currently, when we want different variations of the same category (for example: different tempo levels, male/female alternation, language balance, tag boosts, etc.), we must duplicate the same category many times, even when using globalized categories.In some cases, this means creating 10, 15, or even 20 copies of the same category just to adjust small parameters.

This becomes difficult to maintain and makes the Categories screen heavier than necessary.

Proposed Improvement​

Inside the Rotation window, under each category entry, we could have the ability to:

• Include or exclude specific tags
• Increase or decrease tag weight
• Adjust tempo or energy level
• Fine‑tune alternation rules (Male/Female, languages, etc.)
• Boost or reduce specific attributes (e.g., +10 weight for “Boost” tag)

All of this without having to create multiple category duplicates.

Example​

Instead of creating:

• Reggaeton 1 (high energy, female)
• Reggaeton 2 (high energy, male)
• Reggaeton 3 (lower energy, boost tag +10)
• Reggaeton 4 …
• Reggaeton 5 …
• etc.

We would have one single “Reggaeton” category, and inside the Rotation window we could define:

• Reggaeton > Rotation 1 → very dynamic, female
• Reggaeton > Rotation 2 → very dynamic, male
• Reggaeton > Rotation 3 → less dynamic, +10 weight for “Boost” tag
• Reggaeton > Rotation 4 → different alternation
• etc.

This would give us much more precise control over the hourly rotation while keeping the category list clean and simple.

• No more dozens of duplicated categories
• Faster rotation design
• More flexibility for programmers
• More accurate and dynamic scheduling
• Perfect for stations with many formats or sub‑genres

Thank you again for your continued work on RadioBOSS — this feature would be a powerful addition for many users.

 

[djsoft]

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm not sure it'll work.

This is a source of many conflicts and complications. Each category has its own set of settings (as it is now), and then some of them can be overridden in the rotation. For instance, you edit a category and change some filters - you expect this change to work. But you forget/don't know that this filter is overridden somewhere in the rotation (and maybe in a different template, if you edit a global category), so the change doesn't have an expected effect. Things will get out of control quickly, and would be hard to manage also - now that there's no single "source of truth" for a category.