DJ Garybaldy - The Only sound you need

One of the BIGGEST bug bears I have about SAM Broadcaster Pro is that when something goes wrong it goes BADLY WRONG. When SAM goes Boom & Bust you have to prat around uninstalling and reinstalling the software just to get it to function. Almost ready to go LIVE again SAM Broadcaster reinstalled Database rolling and adding music files & Jingles AGAIN I witnessed SAM Broadcaster do a disappering act many a time in my 10+ years of using the software. Because SAM Broadcaster Pro doesn't come with a database backup tool you have rebuild your song database and categories. Googling the error suggests a Delphi problem SAM is written in Delphi The fact it is still happening in the 2021 versions should be sounding alarm bells to anyone thinking of purchasing SAM. This little nugget was recently shared on the Spacial forums: SAM Broadcaster Pro crashed after four hours of use Just for the record the record Uptime for Radio...

I recently saw a post on the Spacial Audio SAM Broadcaster Forums SAM Broadcaster Pro won't open after reboot! When I restart my computer SAM Broadcaster won’t open SAM Broadcaster going wrong is nothing new its been an issue for over 20 years. In the past I've had to uninstall and reinstall SAM Broadcaster after the program went wrong. What causes SAM Broadcaster and it’s program files/database structure to become corrupted during a reboot of the computer is anyone’s guess. This has happened on different operating systems from XP to Windows 10 Another SAM user said it turned out to be an issue with the core or GUI XML being corrupted by an improper shutdown of the software. The SAM Broadcaster database tables became corrupted after a reboot of the computer which required a reinstall of the software. I was having to reinstall SAM Broadcaster at least once a Week The problem was even worse if your PC was s...

Saw this in amongst the search terms on Google analytics recently… SAM Broadcaster Product Activation Offline The Spacial Audio activation server fell over recently which in turn left users struggling to get SAM Broadcaster activated. Users having issues getting SAM Broadcaster activated are nothing new. The activation system says that SAM Broadcaster is activated on 3 PC’s When the user has deactivated the software before they went to reinstall The activation servers have been causing users grief ever since Spacial Audio changed how people have to unlock the software. Before users just needed a key code to unlock all the features in SAM Broadcaster Spacial Audio introduced Software Activations in September 2009 to cut down on the amount of pirated versions. Activation errors have meant some radio DJ's missing their regular online shows. Things like that should NEVER happen with radio playout software. It’s j...

As the title of the post SAM Broadcaster Pro suffers with Memory Leaks. More so If you are running PAL = Playlist Automation Language Scripts. Memory Leaks are an inherent problem of how the PAL engine is designed If you design bad PAL scripts you get memory leaks It's easier to design a bad PAL script than to design a good one It's not like Memory Leaks were an unavoidable problem They've had years to get the code in SAM Broadcaster Pro BUG FREE give or take a few GUI changes its the same as it was 20 years ago. When I first tried running PAL scripts in 2002 SAM would regularly do a disappearing act or it would stutter and FREEZE. This is a from a user who is having issues with the latest 2021 version. [CORE] Unhandled exception (Out of memory while expanding memory stream) I stopped some of the scripts and the problem still occurred The memory leak PAL Script crashed SAM Broadcaster The PAL Scripting inter...

A user recently put in a feature request on the SAM Broadcaster Forums. I'm using Sam Broadcaster and I am getting very tired eyes from the White background of the interface. I Would appreciate a DARK MODE The interface of SAM Broadcaster Pro has always been hard on the eyes. I couldn't stare at the Interface for long periods myself without getting a headache. This where RadioDJ is better because in the 2.x.x. versions you can change the colours of the Interface. This is a theme I came up with a dark barkground with Geen and Red I don't find myself getting eye strain and can look at the RadioDJ interface for longer than I ever could SAM. The user complaining about eye strain won't be getting a dark skin for SAM Broadcaster anytime soon. Its RARE Spacial Audio introduce new features into their software. They DON'T listen to their user base. So i...

I’ve been accused of lying about the problems that SAM Broadcaster suffers from. I am NOT lying or making anything up things really are as bad as it gets with SAM Broadcaster The problems documented on my Blog are just a few of the reasons as to why I think SAM Broadcaster software isn’t worth the $$$ Spacial Audio charge for it I used the program for over 10 years so I know all of it’s ANNOYING QUIRKS SAM caused me no end of stress. IF SAM was coded properly and was a reliable program then my blog posts about the Issues wouldn’t have needed to be written. The program freezing, encoders buffering, random crashing issues were part of my Imagination? SAM Broadcaster Pro/Studio are as UNSTABLE as people say they are I've tried running SAM Broadcaster on several computers and operating systems over the years. With pretty much the same results everytime we’ve gone to install and use the program. SAM crashes after 10/15 minutes often ta...

I know from watching broadcasting websites that Internetradio station owners don't always have endless pots of cash. SOME Radio software subscriptions can be expensive and sometimes users get taken for a ride by the company. Users buy the software then they find the support is horrible Its among one of the reasons I ditched Spacial Audio and their lacklustre software. I could never get a sensible answer on the Forums or got called rude names by one of the moderators. This is where software such as RadioDJ is miles better than a lot of the paid for automation programs. For starters RadioDJ is 100% FREE and has a great support network on the RadioDJ Community Forums Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many categories & subcategories you re...

As the title of the post suggests it need not be a faff when you want to stream audio on the Internet. IT can seem daunting setting up an Streaming Encoder for the first time. Its not difficult to setup a streaming encoder all you need is a Rocket Broadcaster, Shoutcast or Icecast Server to stream your Audio to. The hardest part is configuring the soundcard and encoder options. Once thats done the world really is your Oyster. I currently use Sound Empire Caster to stream audio and its rare to have an issue. I've certainly not noticed any buffering. I know other users of Sound Empire Caster have only good things to say about it. Sound Empire Caster 1.1.5 Sound Empire Caster 1.1.6 Sound Empire Caster 1.2.7 Sound Empire Caster 1.2.8 How To Configure An Encoder After configuring the encoder you then need to configure the audio from whichever audio source you want to broadcast live. ...

When it comes to Internet radio the hardest thing a radio station owner can do is try and attract listeners to their stream. I found in the past when I was streaming that most listeners only tended to tune in for 1 maybe 2 songs. I would play 2 Classic 80s songs together and then I'd lose a few listeners If those listeners heard those two songs played together on mainstream 80s radio those people would think the DJ was amazing. There is no DJ on most mainstream radio stations most of its Voice tracked, Computerised & Networked from remote Studios. Sadly it seems despite Internetradio station owners promoting their stations people only want to hear what they want to HEAR. Internet radio is losing out big style to Streaming services such as Spotify Spotify wants to KILL Internet Radio as we know it! Yes its nice when you do get listeners sticking around bu...

I've been into Internet radio and streaming for years now. It started out with me tuning into a LIVE365 Station in 1999. In that time I've spent a lot of time using and testing various radio automation solutions. Although my interest in Internet radio had started in 1999 it was 2002 before I had a Broadband connection. Radio automation software offerings back in 2002 were PANTS. You didn't have a great deal of choice. I tried Winamp with DSP plugins to try and stream but I ended up with large gaps of silence between songs so that wasn't ideal. Winamp would casually crash when you least wanted it to. An unstable DSP Plugin was usually to blame for that. Badly written Plugins were common back in Winamp's heyday! A lot of the DSP and General plugins from the Winamp website either wouldn't work or they would cause Winamp to freeze. You also had to change playlists manually and...

This was a question posed by someone on the Spacial Audio SAM Broadcaster forums after their station manager left the radio station. How do I go about transferring our SAM Broadcaster Pro 2021.4 license from our old station manager to a new email account? AFAIK: You cannot swap someone elses registered email address for yours. Its not as simple as that. This is the KICKER! Spacial Audio will most likely tell this user that they need to purchase a whole new SAM Broadcaster licence. Which means paying out $$$ just so they can broadcast with SAM Broadcaster If this user switched their station and DJ's over to RadioDJ then they wouldn't need to pay any money. Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many categories & subcategories yo...

A station owner apologising because the SAM Broadcaster Encoders have taken his station off air with the BUFFERING problem. I have SAM Broadcaster and it will not stream because of buffering errors I know from past frustrations how awful it is when the encoders in SAM Broadcaster decide to start buffering during a live show. I tested an old version of SAM v2.7.9 on a XP virtual machine and I had buffering within 10-15 minutes of firing up the encoder. Buffering happened with many Shoutcast/Icecast hosts & ISP connections The Issue extends to over 28 pages of posts on the SAM Broadcaster Forums Users have been told its THEIR connection at fault when its the software Its another (BUG) that the developers of SAM Broadcaster Pro don't appear to be in a hurry to fix. The SAM (Streaming Audio Manager) encoders have been like this for 20+ YEARS. It's NOT the user's Broadband or Shoutcast/Icecast server at fault...

While RadioDJ is a Windows program a user recently posted on the forums that they had it running on their Apple Macbook. It doesn't appear to be too diffcult if you know your way around a Macbook. Amazing program runs well together with MariaDB on Windows 10 in a Parallels virtual machine hosted on macOS (Catalina) on a Macbook I know from experience RadioDJ behaves in a Virtual Machine Environment as its a method I used on Linux for quite a few years. Virtual machines don't have to be a scary prospect. If in Doubt search G o o g l e Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many categories & subcategories you require RadioDJ is 100% FREE and has ZERO restrictions on what YOU use it for The Database is really stable. Plus RadioDJ comes with a Database Backup To...

Since December 2007 Spacial Audio have required users to activate SAM Broadcaster Pro and all their other software. However the Activation Servers can sometimes have issues with how many active activations a user has. When I try to reinstall SAM I am getting an error message stating I am over the allowed number of activations. I only had it installed on one machine Hundreds of SAM Broadcaster users have had the same issue since the activation requirement was hard coded into the software You are entitled to 1 license for this program 1 licence = 1 registration key which activates the program You are permitted to activate the program on different 3 systems You can only run 1 copy of SAM Broadcaster Pro per licence and you CANNOT run multiple copies. Its another reason that SAM Broadcaster Pro sucks the way Spacial Audio LIMIT usage of their software. The SAM activation server has a nasty habit of locking users out of the software, sometimes as t...

I quite often see new DJ's asking how they stop the sounds from their PC going over onto their stream. This is another good question & it's really quite simple to fix. You need to right click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and choose "Sounds" or use Control Panel>Sound Right click on the sound output you use and choose properties. The sounds tab is where you need to be. In the drop down menu choose "No Sounds" and click apply then you shouldn't hear Windows sounds over your audio. There is another audio setting you should change 1) Find your soundcard in the list of sound devices and right click choose properties. 2) Under the Advanced tab uncheck the tick boxes under exclusive mode and click Apply. TIP: Also do the same for your default recording device and/or Virtual Audio Cables. 3) Under the Communications tab you need to set it to "Do Nothing" Most settings ...

There are certain pieces of software out there that just don't work or interact well with UAC. For anyone else who may come across this topic here is how you Disable UAC (User Account Control) on Windows 10 In order to switch off UAC in W10 you need to go to the Start Menu and search for Regedit & run it as administrator. You need to navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System In the right hand pane you need to find EnableLUA right click and choose Modify and change the value to 0 When you have done this Restart your computer and UAC should now allow you to install software on your Windows 10 PC Important: This tutorial involves changing registry settings so you run the instructions at your OWN RISK I cannot be held liable for any damage or data loss that comes from changing UAC settings.

Running an online Internet radio station can be a fun thing to do. However running one radio station isn't enough for some people they want to run more than 1 station. I know of several users running multiple streams & stations using RadioDJ free radio automation software. It's another reason why why RadioDJ is so great and flexible. You can run as many stations as you WANT without it costing you hundreds of $$$ Did You Know? It costs HUNDREDS of $$$ to run multiple copies of OTHER radio playout software Running 3 stations with SAM Broadcaster would cost $897(USD) I attempted to run two copies of SAM Broadcaster on Windows XP once upon a time, I'll let you guess how that went. Whereas I used to run 2 copies of RadioDJ v1.6.0 together with Virtual Audio cables with zero issues. Obviously there's a limit to how many copies of RadioDJ you can run on one machine but you get the idea!...

Are you a teacher trying to teach your students about radio and how it works? Radio can be a fun thing for your students to learn about & who knows it could set them up for future careers media. You have software that can be used to teach your students the workings of radio streaming and automation. One of the best programs to use is RadioDJ and its really easy to setup and use RadioDJ is like the brains of the studio, Its great for automating music/podcasts/interviews etc... The RadioDJ features list includes: Compatible audio formats: mp3, wav, wma, flac Now playing artist-title exported to file, web or serial (by plugin) Custom number of auxiliary players (by plugin) Audio Processor plugin (with AGC, Compressor, Stereo widening and 10 band Equalizer) Automatically overlap sweepers over start/intro/end Now playing artist-title exported to file, web or serial (by plugin) Auto skip silence from start and end of the tracks Bac...

Did You know: RadioDJ has the ability to take listener requests online? I thought I would do a short tutorial on how to setup RadioDJ Online Requests. To get the request system working with RadioDJ you need to do the following. 1) Make sure you have RadioDJ installed. How To Install RadioDJ Tip: When setting MySQL up choose a strong password with lots of number and symbols and & make sure you write it down! 2) Create a new MySQL user that isn't "root" You can find out how to do that HERE Please try not to use root for requests it won't be as secure. 3) Place the Plugin_Requests.dll and .xml file in the plugin folder within RadioDJ. (The files can be found in the disabled plugins folder) 4) Download one of the RadioDJ request templates. RadioDJ Template 3.0 RadioDJ Template 2.2.3 Note: These scripts are intended as a pointer for you to build your site around. I cannot promise that these scripts ...

As many of you know I take an interest in what goes on in the world of Spacial Audio. I saw a Tweet on Twitter that made me shake my head... This company is so vile. One of the worst on the Internet. Even when you pay for SAM Broadcaster Spacial can decide to revoke your licence. So as much as $299.00 down the drain. Don't buy from @spacial So let me get this right, Spacial Audio are revoking peoples licences for no reason? I've blogged before about Spacial revoking licences when customers complained about the software and its still going on. That's awful espcially when users like the one quoted above have paid $$$ for the privelidge of using SAM. It never ceases to amaze me what the support staff at Spacial Audio do! Spacial Audio have ALWAYS had an awful way of dealing with paying customers It's WRONG when users pay out good hard earned money for software and then they get treated like this. RadioDJ is a great alter...