Creating a Blackout

To create a blackout:

1.On the Blackouts page, click the Create Blackout(s) button.
The Create Blackouts dialog appears.

2.In Blackout Name, enter a unique name for the blackout.

3.In Station, select the station you want to add a blackout to.

4.In Status, select Active or Inactive.
Active blackouts begin at a designated time (or upon a designated trigger), while inactive ones do not. Even if the trigger code is sent, if the blackout the code is for is set to inactive, the blackout will not occur.

5.In Blackout Type, select Trigger or Scheduled.

oA Scheduled blackout begins and ends at specific days and times.

oA Trigger blackout is triggered by code from your automation system.

6.If you selected Scheduled:

a.Select the Blackout Start Times and Blackout End Times from the calendar (this uses station local time in a 24hr format) or click Now.

b.In Hour and Minute, use the slider to change the time.

c.Click Done. Continue to step 8.

7.If you selected Trigger:

a. In Blackout Start Code, enter the code.

b.In Blackout End Code, enter the code.
Triggered blackout codes can only be alpha numeric and any spaces must be replaced with underscores.

Example: START BLACKOUT would be START_BLACKOUT

Note: For a triggered blackout, you must first schedule a cart in your automation system with blackout_trigger in the Artist field and your custom trigger code in the Title field.

c.Continue to step 8.

8.In Alternate Content, select an Audio File, which is a piece of audio that will repeat for the duration of your blackout. This file should be no longer than 5 minutes. This is usually a small clip explaining why you are in a blackout.
Optionally, you can select one of your stations to deliver during the blackout. If you select a station, that station stream will be delivered to your audience during the blackout. Note that you still need to have an audio file selected if you do a station stream.

Note: When the blackout completes, the user will continue to receive the alternate stream until they reconnect.

Note: The maximum length of the audio file is 90 seconds.

9.In Targeting, select either DMA, Country, City, or Source.

a.If you select DMA, click DMAs to move them to or from the Receives Alternate Content column.

b.If you select Country, click country names to move them to or from the Receives Alternate Content column.

c.If you select City, select Alternate Content or Original Stream and enter a city in the City field. Optionally, set a radius.

Note: If you don't add a radius, then an IP address resolving inside the city will receive the alternate content. If you select a radius, IP addresses resolving within that radius from the city center will receive the alternate content.

d.If you select Source, select Alternate Content or Original Stream and enter source values in the text field.

10. Order matters when selecting blackout targets. Blackout Targets can be reordered by dragging and dropping the rows in the Blackout Target table. To make sure the blackouts are operating as intended, please follow the following guidelines for target ordering.

Blackout Targets are executed top to bottom
The first target that matches a stream request will cause the blackout to be fulfilled. This is true for both ALLOW and DENY rules and applies to ALL target types
In general when using multiple Geo Blackout Targets, start with narrower rules at the top and broad rules at the bottom
A request that is not captured by any of the Blackout Targets will be Allowed or Denied based on what is selected in the Original Content For All Unselected Geographic Targets toggle.

11. In Exceptions, click the box next to devices you want to accept. By default all devices are rejected.

Note: Exceptions only apply to the Receives Original Stream column.

12. To finish, click Create or Add Another.