FesterHead SAM Plugin v1.0.1: Attractive Now Playing Display & Request Mechanism for WordPress Sites

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For Immediate Release

Station Admin announces the release of FesterHead’s SAM Plugin v1.0.1, a free WordPress plugin that connects SAM Broadcaster Pro to WordPress, giving internet radio stations a live Now Playing panel, a full playlist browser, and an interactive song request interface on their websites.

The plugin was originally developed by Steve Kunitzer (FesterHead) and has long been a favourite tool among internet radio operators running SAM Broadcaster Pro. Station Admin has taken over maintenance and distribution, completely rewriting the plugin for modern PHP and WordPress environments.

What the plugin does

FesterHead’s SAM Plugin adds shortcodes to WordPress that pull live data directly from the station’s SAM Broadcaster Pro MySQL or MariaDB database:

  • [fhrsamNowPlaying] — displays the currently playing song with title, artist, album, year, genre, duration countdown, Coming Up next, current show name, album artwork, and lyrics; visible to all visitors.
  • [fhrsamPlaylist] — a full playlist browser where visitors can browse by artist, album, or title and submit song requests directly through the website.
Song request browser showing album track list with Req buttons
Live screenshot — song request browser showing an album track list with Request buttons

What is new in version 1.0.1

  • PHP 8.x compatibility — detects the PHP version at runtime and adjusts accordingly; tested on PHP 7.4 through 8.x.
  • WordPress 7.0 compatibility — works with both classic themes and Full Site Editor block themes.
  • MariaDB 12 / MySQL 8.0 compatibility — database connections use the utf8mb4 charset required for full modern database support.
  • Song request browser fixed — a missing function call that prevented album track lists from displaying has been resolved; numbered track lists now display correctly with aligned numbering.
  • Amazon PA API v5 — the Amazon buy-link feature has been rewritten from the deprecated PA API v4 to the current PA API v5 with AWS Signature Version 4 authentication.
  • Security hardening — all output is escaped, all inputs are sanitised, all form submissions use WordPress nonces, and all admin actions are gated with capability checks.
  • Automatic updates — the plugin checks for updates every 12 hours and surfaces new releases through the standard WordPress update mechanism.
  • Removed Flash — the deprecated song preview feature (Flash Player, end-of-life since 2020) has been removed.

Who this is for

Any internet radio station running SAM Broadcaster Pro that wants to show listeners what is playing and let them request songs through their WordPress website — without paying for a hosted service.

Availability

FesterHead’s SAM Plugin is free to download with no licence key or account required. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.

Download and full documentation: https://stationadmin.com/downloads/fhrsam/

About Station Admin
Station Admin builds practical tools for internet radio operators, including SA Tag Manager, SA Re-Streamer, SA MetaSync, and the FesterHead SAM Plugin. All products are designed to work with SAM Broadcaster Pro and related broadcasting software. Website: https://stationadmin.com