AudioRack Suite is an open-source radio broadcast automation and live assist system. I started writing AudioRack in 2002 after my experience using a commercial automation system at our local community radio station, KURA. At the time, the system required constant attention as it would crash often, and I was not very pleased with the constraints that the system placed on automation. Initially, I used AudioRack as a file player running alongside the existing automation system at KURA to do my weekly show. This allowed me to build my playlists at home and move everything over to KURA. At the same time, I was also using iTunes and some apple scripts to run automation for an internet radio station that I was running on the side. After starting development, it became apparent to me that the AudioRack project was an opportunity to build a stable, scalable radio automation system from the ground up that would handle all of the things that I wanted: Portable playlists that could be moved with associated media between locations, network access for remote management and control, shared music libraries, software based mixing system to eliminate the need for an external mixing console, and an organic, interactive automation system that adjusts to programming material inserted by live DJs. Pre-generated rotations are not the friend of the live DJ!