Airwave

It is 1993. Channel 9 is last in a five-station market, the carpet smells of coffee, and the board has given you one season to fix it. You start with $500,000. Finish the season with $4.70M in the bank, or start looking for a new job. Buy programmes at the daily market — news packages, series, films and weekend events, 493 fictional titles in the catalogue. Schedule six slots a day, sell the 20:00 ad break, and watch the day play out slot by slot with live ratings. Every slot inherits audience from the one before it, so a hit lifts the rest of the night and dead air poisons the slot after it. Missed an ad spot? The make-goods policy settles it with airtime next week instead of a cash fine. And when a fictional name isn't quite right, the in-game Catalogue Editor lets you rename any programme, rewrite its blurb, change its type, quality and appeal, add a brand-new one or delete one. The free demo is the complete first season — 12 weeks, playable right in your browser. The full game is $5.00 and keeps going season after season from 1994 on.