diff --git a/README b/README
index 3b4f0147f..657998cc5 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -48,3 +48,4 @@ Forums and mailing lists: http://forum.sourcefabric.org
 Bug tracker: http://dev.sourcefabric.org
 Source code: http://github.com/sourcefabric/Airtime
 IRC chat: #airtime on Freenode
+
diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/ApiController.php b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/ApiController.php
index bf520dd86..d2685bfa6 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/ApiController.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/controllers/ApiController.php
@@ -395,13 +395,13 @@ class ApiController extends Zend_Controller_Action
         $media_id = $this->_getParam("media_id");
         Logging::debug("Received notification of new media item start: $media_id");
         Application_Model_Schedule::UpdateMediaPlayedStatus($media_id);
-        
-        $historyService = new Application_Service_HistoryService();
-        $historyService->insertPlayedItem($media_id);
 
-        //set a 'last played' timestamp for media item
-        //needed for smart blocks
         try {
+            $historyService = new Application_Service_HistoryService();
+            $historyService->insertPlayedItem($media_id);
+
+            //set a 'last played' timestamp for media item
+            //needed for smart blocks
             $mediaType = Application_Model_Schedule::GetType($media_id);
             if ($mediaType == 'file') {
                 $file_id = Application_Model_Schedule::GetFileId($media_id);
diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/services/HistoryService.php b/airtime_mvc/application/services/HistoryService.php
index c8ac571bc..73821ce92 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/services/HistoryService.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/services/HistoryService.php
@@ -560,6 +560,9 @@ class Application_Service_HistoryService
 		try {
 
 			$item = CcScheduleQuery::create()->findPK($schedId, $this->con);
+			if (is_null($item)) {
+			    throw new Exception("Invalid schedule id: ".$schedId);
+			}
 
 			//TODO figure out how to combine these all into 1 query.
 			$showInstance = $item->getCcShowInstances($this->con);
diff --git a/airtime_mvc/tests/README.txt b/airtime_mvc/tests/README.txt
index 6c7256799..a469027d0 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/tests/README.txt
+++ b/airtime_mvc/tests/README.txt
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@ To get the Airtime unit tests running:
 
 1) Install PHPUnit 
 
-We explicitly install PHPUnit 3.4 because that's as a new of a version
-as is supported by Zend Framework 1:
+We explicitly install PHPUnit 3.4 because that the most recent version
+that's still supported by Zend Framework 1:
 
 sudo pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de
 sudo pear channel-discover pear.symfony.com