Most Radio Automation systems send MetaRadio the current date and time in a specific format. This format is sometime standardised (such as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS), but others are based on your Windows time settings. This article shows you what the ‘Datetime Format’ setting is for, and how to set it up.

You need to specify a Datetime format for the following automation systems:

• RCS Zetta
• mAirList
• RCS NexGen
• StationPlaylist Studio

If this field is required for your station, it’ll show up in the MetaRadio Config Editor app whenever you edit the station.

The datetime format string MUST match your Windows system, or the format output by your automation system. For example, if your Windows time setting is set as “28/03/2018 02:58:02 PM”, you would tell MetaRadio to use the format “%d/%m/%Y %I:%M:%S %p“.

In Windows, the most commonly used datetime fields are “Short date” and “Long time”:

Don’t understand any of this? First, try the “Common Formatting Strings” at the bottom of this page. If that doesn’t work, please contact us for assistance.

Accepted Parameters

The following formatting parameters are accepted and recommended:

These parameters can be mixed and matched with certain other symbols, such as dashes, colons, and slashes.

Common Regional Formatting Strings

Output format

Once MetaRadio has successfully parsed the input format from your automation system, it converts it to standardised “YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS” format. This makes it easier to parse dates in third-party software, such as your website.