Weather & Announcements
AutoCast pulls real-time weather data from the National Weather Service and puts it to work in several ways — displaying current conditions on screen, providing a full forecast on demand, and automatically playing pre-recorded temperature and time announcements at scheduled points in your broadcast.
Setting Up Weather
To enable weather, go to Settings → Weather and enter your station's ZIP code. AutoCast uses this to locate the nearest National Weather Service observation station and begin fetching data.
| Setting | What It Does |
|---|---|
| ZIP Code | Your station's ZIP code. Used to find the nearest NWS observation station. The default is 54153 — change it to your actual location. |
| Temperature Unit | Fahrenheit or Celsius — affects both on-screen display and the # TempAnnounce command. |
After you save your ZIP code, AutoCast geocodes it, finds the nearest NWS station, and begins fetching current conditions. If there's a network issue at startup, AutoCast retries automatically every 30 seconds. Once it has data, it refreshes periodically throughout the day.
The WeatherPad Display
The WeatherPad sits in the upper-right section of AutoCast's center column, next to the transport buttons. It shows:
- The current time, large and updating every second
- A weather conditions icon (sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc.)
- The current temperature in your configured unit
- A short sky condition description — "Partly Cloudy," "Windy," "Light Rain," and so on
This display updates continuously as new weather data arrives. You always have current conditions at a glance without switching to another app or tab.
The Full Forecast
Click the weather icon in the WeatherPad to expand a full multi-day forecast in the Message Pad. AutoCast pulls the NWS text forecast — typically covering Today, Tonight, and the next several days — and displays it in a clean, readable format.
This is handy for any time you want to mention tomorrow's weather during a break without leaving AutoCast to look it up. The forecast is right there, already loaded.
If the forecast isn't available (network issue, NWS data gap), the Message Pad shows a plain error message. AutoCast retries in the background.
Time-of-Day and Weather Backgrounds
AutoCast can automatically change its background image based on the time of day, the current season, and weather conditions. To use this feature, enable it in Settings → Backgrounds and place appropriately named image files in Misc/System/Wallpaper/TimeofDay/ inside your Station Folder.
Images are named using this pattern: [season]_[timeofday].jpg
| Filename Example | When It Shows |
|---|---|
summer_morning.jpg | Summer mornings |
winter_day.jpg | Winter daytime |
fall_afternoon.jpg | Fall afternoons |
spring_night.jpg | Spring nights |
Seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter
Times of day: morning, day, afternoon, night
For weather-condition overlays, add a weather suffix to the filename:
| Filename Example | When It Shows |
|---|---|
summer_day_rain.jpg | Summer days with rain |
winter_night_snow.jpg | Winter nights with snow |
When precipitation stops, AutoCast reverts to the standard time-of-day image automatically. If a matching image file isn't found, AutoCast falls back to whatever background is currently set.
You can also set a custom background at any time by dragging any image (JPG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC) directly onto the AutoCast window.
Automated Temperature Announcements — # TempAnnounce
The # TempAnnounce command plays a pre-recorded temperature announcement using the most recently fetched weather data. Schedule it in your program log wherever you want an automated temperature break:
# TempAnnounce
AutoCast determines the current temperature in your configured unit (°F or °C) and plays the appropriate pre-recorded audio file from your temperature announcement library. The audio files should be organized by temperature value so AutoCast can select the right one.
Temperature announcement audio files need to be recorded and placed in your Station Folder before # TempAnnounce will work. This is a one-time production task — record a file for each temperature value you expect to announce, name them accordingly, and drop them in the configured folder. After that, AutoCast handles the selection automatically.
Automated Time Announcements — # TimeAnnounce
The # TimeAnnounce command plays a pre-recorded time announcement. AutoCast determines the current time and looks for a WAV file named in 24-hour HHMM format:
| Filename | Time It Announces |
|---|---|
0900.wav | "It's 9 o'clock" |
1445.wav | "It's 2:45" |
0630.wav | "It's 6:30" |
# TimeAnnounce /Station/Misc/TimeFiles/
If a folder path is provided, AutoCast looks for the appropriately named WAV file there. If no path is given, it uses a default location within the Station Folder.
Like temperature announcements, time announcement files are a one-time production task. Once you've recorded and placed them, the automation runs itself.
You don't necessarily need files for every minute of every hour. If your station only does time checks on the hour and half-hour, you only need files for :00 and :30 of each hour. AutoCast plays whatever file it finds for the current time; if no file matches, the command is skipped silently.
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