When I click on a tile on your home page, your player doesn't launch.

The player launches but music doesn't play.

The player launches but all that happens is that a bunch of CD covers fly by.

The player launches and starts playing music, but it stops after a few songs.

I get an error message: "Runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to Debug?...'1' is null or not an object" What should I do?

I use "personal firewall" software, and I can't listen to AccuRadio.

AccuRadio makes annoying clicking noises between songs. How can I make it stop?

Why do you keep asking for my e-mail address?

Why can't I save my artist deselects?

I get too much buffering. What can I do?

Why can't I choose to listen to a particular artist or song?

Why can't I save your music on my computer?

Why don't you post a playlist for the entire day on your site?

I am having trouble unsubscribing from your newsletter. Can you help?

May I request a song?

There's too much repetition! How can I hear a wider variety of songs?

How can I buy the music I hear on your site?

How do I favorite / un-favorite a channel?

I am an artist (or represent a record label) and I'd like you to play my music on your site.

I love AccuRadio! What can I do to support you and help you stay on the air?

First, let's check to make sure your computer is capable of running AccuRadio. Here are our Technical Requirements:

Windows PC

• Windows XP, Vista, or 7
• Internet Exporer 6 (or higher), Firefox 3 or higher, Safari 4 or higher, Google Chrome
• Flash 8 or higher, 10 recommended

Mac

• OS X 10.5 or higher
• Safari 4 or higher, Firefox 3 or higher, Google Chrome
• Flash 8 or higher, 10 recommended

Linux

• Firefox 3 or higher recommended; Konqueror has some rendering issues
• Flash 8 or higher, 10 recommended

Other general requirements:

• Javascript must be enabled
• Pop-up blockers must allow AccuRadio to launch on your mouse click
• Cookies must be enabled for deselects to work

If all of those criteria are true and the AccuRadio player is still not launching, our best bet is that you have a "pop-up blocker" installed on your computer that is preventing the player window from opening. (Try holding down the "Ctrl" key while you click on a tile to see if you can defeat the blocker.) This could be a feature of your Norton or McAffee software (if you use them), a feature of a toolbar within your browser, or a feature from another source. Hopefully with this knowledge you can track it down and turn it off.

The other most-likely possibility is that the "security settings" on your browser may be set too high to allow necessary AccuRadio features to work properly. See this "Technical Update" for details.

Our best bet is that you have a firewall installed on your system that is preventing our music from playing. See this answer for details on how to fix it.

Another possibility is that you somehow mistakenly have Javascript turned off in your browser. (Many websites, including ours, use Javascript to function properly.) Excellent instructions on how to turn it back on, on the website of a firm called Mississippi Envision, are here. (You'll need to know which version of Internet Explorer you're using. To find out, in the Internet Explorer menu, select "Help... About Internet Explorer" and you'll see a version number. By the way, "5.x" means any version number that begins with "5.", such as "5.1," "5.2," "5.4.034239," etc.)

We don't know! We have heard about this complaint from several listeners but can't replicate the problem here. Help us figure this out -- send us an e-mail with as much detail as you can about your situation (including the version of Windows you're running, version of Internet Explorer you're using, version of Windows Media Player you're using, etc.) to TechHelp@AccuRadio.com.

If the problem happens only occasionally:

• Try hitting "Stop" and then "Start" on the player, and then see if the player continues on as normal.
• Try "restarting" the player by hitting the "F5" key on your keyboard, or by right-clicking somewhere on the player (but not on a graphic) and selecting "Refresh" from the menu choices offered. You'll hear a totally new stream of the channel you selected when you first launched the player.

If the problem happens constantly, or happens on some channels but not others:

• We could be having a very busy day in terms of listenership, particularly if you are seeing this problem in the early afternoon on a business day. One possible workaround is to try listening to a different channel, which might give you better performance during the busy period.
• Also, you could s end us a note at feedback@accuradio.com. Please be specific about the problem you are having in your message.

We get a very high volume of e-mail every day here at AccuRadio, and, much as we'd like to, we don't have the resources to respond to each problem personally. However, if you send us a message, we will make a note of it and we will definitely work towards solving the problem. Gathering as much information as possible about a particular problem is very useful for us, so, please, send us a note if you're having problems!

The short answer is: click "No" and you can keep listening.

To eliminate seeing the error message entirely, take the following steps:

In Internet Explorer:

1. Select "Tools... Internet Options"
2. Click on the "Advanced" Tab
3. Under the "Browsing" heading, you will see a selection called "Disable Script debugging". This should be checked.
4. In addition, you may see another option underneath called "Display a notification about every script error." If present, this should be unchecked.

If that doesn't work for you, or if you do not want to turn off error reporting, you can report the error to us using our feedback system.

That "click" is the noise that Internet Explorer can be set to make when you perform an action like clicking on a link or going forwards and backwards on a page. You can turn it off by following these directions:

Windows 95, 98, ME & 2000:

1. Click the Windows "Start" button at the bottom of your screen
2. Go to Settings... Control Panel...
3. Click on "Sounds"
4. Scroll down to the "Windows Explorer" section and in that category click on "Start Navigation."
5. In the "Sound" section of the window, click on the drop-down box and select "(None)."
6. Click "OK."

Windows XP:

• Hit the "Start" button at the bottom of the screen
• Select "Control Panel"
• If you're in "Category View" (it will say "Pick a category" at the top of the window), click on "Sound, speech, and Audio Devices," and then click on "Change the sound scheme;"
  OR
  If you're in "Classic View" (you will just see a list of icons like "Accessibility Options," "Add Hardware", etc.), double-click on "Sounds and Audio Devices," and then click on the "Sounds" tab.
• Scroll down to the "Windows Explorer" section and in that category click on "Start Navigation."
• In the "Sounds" section of the window, click on the drop-down box and select "(None)."
• Click "OK"

Most current personal firewall software should work with AccuRadio with their default settings. However, because firewalls can be configured in so many ways, they can be difficult to troubleshoot.

Both questions have the same answer:

AccuRadio uses a common and generally-accepted technique of downloading a tiny file on your computer called a "cookie" to remember who you are, so we can avoid asking you the same questions repeatedly.

If you're having either of the problems described above, you probably have the "Accept cookies" feature turned off in your copy of Internet Explorer. There are many website with good instructions on how to turn cookies back on. Try this page from CyberCoders.com, for example, or this page from the Internet Association Corp. (To learn which version of Internet Explorer you're using, go to the "Help" menu of your browswer and select "About Internet Explorer." You will see a version number.)

If you're on a dial-up connection, AccuRadio will work best when you're not listening to AccuRadio AND doing other things that use your Internet connection (looking at big/complex web pages, downloading or uploading files, etc.).

If you're on a broadband connection, see the answer to this question.

Currently, every Internet radio station in the U.S. must abide by guidelines set forth in a federal law called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which places certain restrictions on what we can offer our listeners. (If you're interested, you can view the text of the DMCA in PDF format here. The section that regulates Internet Radio is listed under Title IV, Sec. 405, "Scope Of Exclusive Rights In Sound Recordings; Ephemeral Recordings" on page 33 of the file.)

The webcasting license we operate under only allows "limited personalization" of our channels. This is why we only allow listeners to deselect a limited number of artists they don't want to hear, rather than allowing listeners to pick specific artists or specific songs they do want to hear. (As far as copyright holders are concerned, allowing listeners to choose the specific songs they want to hear when they want to hear them might discourage those listeners from buying CDs.)

Hopefully we've found a solution that everyone will be reasonably happy with.

That would be a copyright violation under the terms of the DMCA. See above. We hope to be able to offer legal downloads of individual tracks (perhaps priced, like Apple's iTunes store, at 99 cents per track) sometime next year.

Because with AccuRadio, every listener gets a different playlist! The AccuRadio player actually generates a random playlist for each listener. (This is how we can enable our "skip" and "artist deselect" features.)

Easy! Just click on the cover of the album you'd like to buy, and you'll be taken to Amazon.com (or occasionally another partner site that sells the music). Any music you buy through this link supports us and helps keep us on the air, so if you can, buy the music you hear on AccuRadio.com through one of the links on the AccuRadio player!

You can "bookmark" channels by setting them as Favorites on AccuRadio. You can find them easily again later at this page.

To do this, simply click anywhere you see a star icon. They're found in the player window at the top-left and on parts of the website in the channel tile. Once you choose a favorite, the star should turn gold.

To unselect, or "un-favorite" a channel, simply click the star again. It should change from gold to gray. It's that simple.

Unfortunately at this time we can't sync your favorites from computer-to-computer, or across different devices. That's coming soon!

AccuRadio is different than broadcast radio stations in that every listener gets a different mix of songs (based on their "artist deselects," if any, etc.) so we can't play a specific song at a specific time. If there's a song or album you think is not on our playlist, and you'd like to recommend that we add it to our playlist, please write us using our feedback system. We keep a list of popular requests and try to add as many as possible, although it may take us a few weeks to acquire the appropriate CD.

Try listening to a SUBCHANNEL of the channel you're listening to. Click on the tab in the upper-left corner of the player labeled "Subchannels." Often these subchannels have a much wider variety than the main channel!

Email us:

• artist-contact -at- accuradio.com

Or you can mail your CDs and promotional material to:

AccuRadio
400 N. Wells St. Suite 408
Chicago, IL 60610