There's many a slip twixt cup and lip!...

...No, folks, I'm not referring to the ease or otherwise of removing a bra with your teeth but that old adage warning about overconfidence before you reach the end of the journey.

It's certainly true for the internet DJ. Just look at all the things that can go wrong and, at some point during at least one of your broadcasts, invariably will. Just look at the elements in the chain which are all required to work 100% for your live show to reach a satisfactory conclusion after 2 or 3 hours of continuous, uninterrupted broadcasting.

I'll start with the inanimate ones. You have to hope for no electricity cuts - OK rare but they happen. You have to hope there are no problems with your internet service -far more common. Sure your computer won't break down or freeze up? After all you've got quite a lot going on while you're on the air. You hope you don't get any problems with SAM or with the MP3 - like it sits on the SAM deck and nothing happens. And one embarrassing disaster which is SO easy to walk into as I did in my early days - Don't reorganise your source music into other folders or files AFTER you have set up your SAM playlist...or the song hits the virtual decks and shoots off again because it can't find the source, leaving you open mouthed and lost...especially when the next one does the same thing! Major major horror!! Oh and of course if you have a tower PC and its under your table, you can guarantee that, at least once, a stray foot will hook round wiring and disconnect something....yep, bin there, done that.

Then there are the animate ones like someone ringing the doorbell when you are in mid show. You can, of course, usually ignore these but just occasionally they are accompanied by cries through the letter box of 'my husband has fallen over and can't get up - please help' as happened once to me. The other one is phone calls so don't have your phone too near your microphone!

These are just the things that can happen at YOUR end. What happens at the really complex end where the server is, heaven only knows. A few things do but Bill loses me in the technical detail whenever I've asked so now I just worry about my end. So watch those encoders like a hawk - something I failed to do last week when the stream faltered !

I'd say one quality the internet DJ needs is a calm, composed temperament in a crisis. Failing that, a pair of reliable incontinence pants!