Maths, Art or Magic?

After 40 years at RCS, Robin Prior explores the philosophy of music scheduling "magic"

By Nick Langan -

Published: May 29, 2025

There are many ingredients that go into a truly successful radio station - personalities, imaging, community presence and crisp audio quality - just to name a few.

But a program director knows a deftly positioned song that fades into another - or a gold cut you haven't heard in years, scheduled right at 4:45 p.m. on a Friday - keeps listeners coming back.

Some might call it magic.

Or maybe not, says Robin Prior. He spent 40 years at RCS Sound Software, providing training and support for the Selector and GSelector music scheduling software, including across Africa.

His book outlines core philosophies he shared while training programmers to use Selector, GSelector and their underlying databases.

Maths, Art or Magic?

Prior's experience includes teaching the RCS suite to Africa's state broadcasters like the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. That drove his motivation to share his knowledge.

Robin Prior, for 23 years, was the Radio Computing Services - Africa Vice President, and worked for RCS ( the worlds largest Broadcasting software manufacturer) for over 40 years in Africa and Worldwide, including serving a seven-year stint in the USA, serving as Support Manager, Digital Audio Production and Playout system Product Manager and then Internatioinal Vice President. As International VP he was responsible for the management of all the RCS branches outside of USA. Before joining RCS full time he was a Director and the Project Managerof the largest African turnkey Broadcasting Systems Integrator and Installation supplier. He was responsible for major projects including the South African Broadcasting Corporation TV and Radio studios, the Thoyandu Broadcasting complex, and the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, as well as many private stations and music studios.