Latino
Radio Service (LRS)
General
Status
The Latino Radio Service (LRS) began
operation on January 3, 2005. We refer to this as "beta mode"
because (a) the broadcast computer was a slow 350 MHz machine with only 128 MB
of RAM, (b) only one person (the station manager) had access to the broadcast
computer and is regularly monitoring the broadcasts (and only while
awake), and (c) the broadcast schedule was still under development.
Regular operation of LRS began on with the
installation of a new broadcast computer on February 25, 2005. The new
computer greatly reduced the time needed (to a few seconds) to switch between
programs and eliminated the "stutter" of the station ID played played
one minute before each hour. The old computer remains connected to the
transmitter as a backup.
In May 2005 changes were made to the
computer program that automates the broadcasting of programs from the
Internet. The program now recognizes error messages caused by server outages
and network traffic and automatically plays Radio Netherland's live stream
whenever an error occurs that prevents broadcasting a scheduled program.
This should reduce silent periods and broadcast interruptions.
In April 2006 ZaraRadio 1.6 was installed to
replace System Scheduler and RealPlayer to automate the station's operation.
This has resulted in dramatically improved performance with virtually no dead
air. This is because ZaraRadio can automatically replace the live Radio
Bilingüe stream if it goes down with the live Radio Netherland's stream. And if
any other program fails to play, a music playlist will automatically play until
the next scheduled program. If the Internet connection fails, the internal
music playlist will also automatically play until service is restored. System
Scheduler was never designed as a radio station automation system, but we used
it because ZaraRadio could not play live Windows Media Player streams which we
need to play Radio Bilingüe. The new version of ZaraRadio 1.6 released on
March 12, 2005 can now play WMP streams.
Current
Status Log (latest on top)
2007
- 2007/04/22 07:30 It appears
that we are now broadcasting current programming from Radio France in Spanish.
There still appears to be a problem, however, with Radio France's
Portuguese-language programs in that an old news program continues to be
repeated.
- 2007/04/09 12:30 We are having
a problem with Radio France's programming as we keep keep hearing a repeat of
the news of March 25. Attempts are being made to locate and repair the problem.
- 2007/04/09 12:20 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is now back as a regular part of our
programming. The backup computer is still in use for
broadcasting as the main computer has not yet been repaired.
- 2007/04/06 09:00 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is down. It's
programming is being replaced by a Radio Netherland's live stream or
station identification. Radio Bilingüe is expected to remain down until at
least Monday 2007/04/09 because their streaming server is not normallly
serviced during the weekend. The backup computer is still in use for
broadcasting as the main computer has not yet been repaired.
- 2007/03/14 09:15 The main computer used to provide programming has
lost its connection to the Internet. The problem seems to be due to a
faulty network component within the computer itself. The backup computer
is providing programming until the main computer is repaired. This may
result in periods of "dead air" as the backup computer has
no music library to be played whenever there is a problem obtaining a scheduled
program via the Internet.
2006
- 2006/06/17 06:00 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is down. It's
programming is being replaced by a music playlist or Radio Netherland's
live stream. Radio Bilingüe is expected to remain down until at least
Monday 2006/06/18 because their streaming server is not normallly serviced
during the weekend.
- 2006/04/04 06:30 Due to labor unrest in France, Radio France
Internationale has not been reliably produciing its Spanish- and
Portuguese-language news and information broadcast and has been replacing
many of them with music.
- 2006/04/02 10:30 We are now using ZaraRadio 1.6 instead of System
Scheduler and RealPlayer to automate the station's operation. Once any
programming bugs have been eliminated, this should result in dramatically
improved performance with virtually no dead air. This is because ZaraRadio
can automatically replace the live Radio Bilingüe stream if it goes down
with the live Radio Netherland's stream. And if any other program fails to
play, a music playlist will automatically play until the next scheduled
program. If the Internet connection fails, the internal music playlist
will also automatically play until service is restored. System Scheduler
was never designed as a radio station automation system, but we used it
because ZaraRadio could not play live Windows Media Player streams which
we need to play Radio Bilingüe. The new version of ZaraRadio 1.6
released on March 12, 2005 can now play WMP streams. In addition to making
a dramatic improvement in LRS's reliablity, ZaraRadio will also make the
station manager's life a lot easier, eliminating the need to constantly
monitor the station and take corrective actions of a program cannot be
played via the Internet (I may even start to sleep again at night!).
- 2006/03/31 08:30 The LRS transmitter is back on the air now that
power has been restored to the server room. The air conditioning
unit had failed during the night, raising the temperature in the room
which shut off the electricity to protect the equpment from overheating.
Radio Bilingüe is still down with Radio Netherland's live stream replacing
it.
- 2006/03/30 22:00 The LRS transmitter is not functioning so
LRS is off the air. Earliest resumption possible is the morning of Friday
2006/03/31 when the room housing the transmitter becomes accessible.
- 2006/03/30 05:45 Radio Bilingüe's stream will not be available for
a few days while the streaming server is moved. Radio Netherlands
live Spanish programming will replace RB's programs until further notice.
- 2006/03/28 06:00 Radio France International is on strike and
playing music instead of its regular news and information programs until
further notice.
- 2006/03/19 06:00 LRS will be intermittent until 12 noon due to work
on UIUCnet
- 2006/03/05 09:30 Things appear back to normal.
- 2006/03/05 06:30 The Latino Radio Service is currently experiencing
degraded operation due to apparent campus network problems. Expect
frequent interruptions of service until campus network problems are
resolved.
- 2006/02/16 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's webstream is down. We are
replacing RB with Radio Netherland's live stream until RB is restored.
- 2006/01/28 09:45 LRS is back on the air with regular
programming.
- 2006/01/28 08:30 LRS is off the air due to a problemm in the audio
connection between the broadcast computer and transmitter. (The trouble
was bringing the audio to the client computer on Remote Desktop instead of
leaving it local.)
- 2006/01/07 21:25 LRS is back on the air with regular programming.
- 2006/01/07 10:00 LRS is off the air due to computer problems. It is
expected to be back around 21:00 (9:00 pm).
- 2006/01/03 to 2006/01/07 The station may experiences periods of
down time due to travel of the station manager.
2005
- 2005/11/13 16:30 LRS is back on the air with regular programming.
- 2005/11/12 18:00 LRS is currently off the air due to computer
problems. Because the station manager is travelling, the station may well
remain off the air until sometime Tuesday morning, 11/15.
- 2005/11/05 17:00 The station manager will be travelling until
2005/11/15 without usual access to the Internet and so broadcast
interruptions may be more frequent and longer during this period.
- 2005/10/13 19:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/10/28 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's stream is not currently
available. Other programs, mostly from Radio Netherlands's
live stream in Spanish and Portuguese, will be subsituted until Radio
Bilingüe's becomes available again.
- 2005/10/13 19:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/10/13 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's stream is not currently
available. Radio Nederland's
Spanish/Portuguese stream will be subsituted until Radio Bilingüe's
becomes available again.
- 2005/10/05 06:20 RFI's strike is over. We have resumed our regular
broadcast schedule.
- 2005/10/04 06:00 Radio France International (RFI) is
not producing its Spanish- and Portuguese-language programs due to a
24-hour labor strike. All scheduled RFI programs will be replaced by Radio
Bilingüe's live webcast while the strike is in effect.
- 2005/09/19 21:30 The transmitter is back on the air with regular
programming.
- 2005/09/19 20:30 The transmitter is off the air, hopefully because
of a power interruption and not because it has been hit by lightning.
Unless power is restored and the transmitter powers up on its own, the
station is likely to remain off the air until at least 8:30 am tomorrow
morning.
- 2005/08/27 15:30 UIUCnet seems OK now. Regular programming
has resumed.
- 2005/08/27 05:30 UIUCnet (the University's connection to the
Internet) has come under a denial of service (DOS) attack and is currently
experiencing problems. LRS will be unreliable or unavailable until
these problems are solved. For latest UIUCnet status information see
http://status.uiuc.edu.
- 2005/08/15 16:05 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/08/12 16:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is not accessible.
Radio Nederland's
live Latin American stream (in Spanish and Portuguese) will substitute for
all Radio Bilingüe programs until Radio Bilingüe becomes available again.
Each Radio Nederland's program may begin one minute after the scheduled,
unavailable Radio Bilingüe program it is replacing.
- 2005/07/29 22:30 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/07/29 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down due to a power
outage in its server room. Radio Nederland's live Latin American stream
will substitute for all RB programs until RB is back online.
- 2005/07/20 08:30 The station manager will not have regular access
to the station between July 20 and 25, so more frequent and longer station
outages may occur during this period.
- 2005/06/25 12:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/06/25 05:30 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down. Radio
Nederland's live
Latin American stream will substitute for all RB programs until RB is back
online.
- 2005/06/24 12:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/06/24 06:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down. Radio
Nederland's live
Latin American stream will substitute for all RB programs until RB is back
online.
- 2005/06/15 12:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/06/15 06:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down. Radio
Nederland's live
Latin American stream will substitute for all RB programs until RB is back
online.
- 2005/05/29 to 06/14 The station manager will be travelling in Peru
during this time period and will have at best sporadic access to the
Internet. So more frequent dead air can be expected during this time
period.
- 2005/05/23 20:00 Radio Bilingüe is back on the Internet, so we have
resumed our regular broadcast schedule.
- 2005/05/21 21:00 Radio Netherland's live stream is back but Radio
Bilingüe's live stream is still down and will probably remain down until
Monday afternoon. Radio Nederland's
live stream will substitute for all RB programming until RB is back
online.
- 2005/05/20 08:00 Both Radio Bilingüe's and Radio Netherlands
live streams are down. This is causing a major disruption as RN's
live stream is used when RB's live stream is down and this is the first
time that both have been down at the same time. While we will
attempt to provide all regularly scheduled programming that does not
involve RB or RN's live streams, there may be periods of dead air until
one or both of these streams comes back.
- 2005/05/12 06:50 Changes have been made to the computer program
that automates the broadcasting of programs from the Internet. It
has now been programmed to recognize error messages caused by server
outages and network traffic and to automatically play Radio Netherland's
live stream whenever an error occurs that prevents broadcasting the
scheduled program. This should dramatically reduce dead air and
broadcast interruptions.
- 2005/04/25 12:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is back and so normal
programming has resumed.
- 2005/04/23 17:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is not available and
probably won't be available again until midday on Monday. Radio
Nederland's live
stream will substitute until RB is back.
- 2005/04/17 16:00 Internet connectivity problems continue on campus
as we are unable to connect to most external websites. Radio
Bilingüe, however, is available and we will broadcast their live stream
until full Internet connectivity is restored on campus.
- 2005/04/17 14:00 Internet connectivity problems on the UIUC campus
have put the station off the air. It will be back on as soon as
Internet connectivity is re-established.
- 2005/04/15 17:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is back and so normal
programming has resumed.
- 2005/04/15 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down. Radio
Nederland's live
stream will substitute until RB is back.
- 2005/04/04 15:30 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is back and so normal
programming has resumed.
- 2005/04/04 10:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down. We will be
replacing all RB programs it with Radio Netherland's live webcast until
RB's webcast is restored.
- 2005/03/14 20:00 The Voice of America appears not to be providing
new programming via the Internet, possibly due to a reorganization of its
website. Because of its heavy reliance on VOA for morning
programming, LRS will play the Radio Bilingüe's and Radio Netherland's
live streams this morning until the problem is resolved.
- 2005/03/10 12:00 Radio France Internationale is back
to regular programming.
- 2005/03/10 07:30 There is a labor strike at Radio France
Internationale which is preventing them from providing their normal
Spanish- and Portuguese-language programs. They are replacing them
with 30-minute music programs. We will broadcast the replacement programs for
a day or so and then consider replacing them if the strike is not over
then.
- 2005/02/25 16:16 A new broadcast computer has now been installed
and is running. The old one was a 350 MHz machine with 128 MB of
memory. The new one is almost 10 times faster at 3 GHz and has 512
MB of RAM. The new computer should be noticeably faster in switching
between programs (usually at the top and bottom of the hour) and play the
station ID without stuttering at 59 minutes after each hour. The old
computer will be kept as a backup broadcast computer.
- 2005/02/20 12:35 Broadcast computer crashed sometime between 12:00
and 12:30. Restarted via Remote Desktop. Broadcast resumed.
- 2005/02/20 05:00 Broadcast computer is unable to connect to RFI
broadcast. Broadcasts stop. Broadcasts restarted at 06:30.
- 2005/02/19 23:00 Broadcast computer restarted using on-site,
physical restart. Broadcasts resume.
- 2005/02/19 22:30 Broadcast computer crash. Broadcasts stop.
- 2005/02/17 10:00 Full Internet connectivity has been
restored. We are back to normal "beta" operation.
- 2005/02/16 19:00 Internet connectivity has been partly restored and
we are back on the air. Because of reduced bandwidth there may be
pauses during programs and longer pauses than usual between programs.
- 2005/02/16 17:55 The University has lost it's Internet connection
with the outside world. We will be unable to broadcast until the
University restores its Internet connection.
- 2005/02/12 07:22 RealPlayer stopped playing sometime between 05:00
and 07:00 for an unknown reason (it complained that there was no update to
support the file it was supposed to play). RealPlayer was restarted
without complaint at 07:20.
- 20005/02/11 06:20 Broadcast computer crashed between 03:00 and
04:00 this morning. Restarted at 06:20 when broadcasting resumed.
New broadcast computer should be arriving soon which should hopefully
reduce or eliminate crashes of this type.
- 2005/02/10 05:00 Broadcasting stopped between 04:00 and 05:00 due
to a "network error." Broadcasting resumed at 05:00.
- 2005/02/09 21:30 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is back after
resetting the encoding computer in
San
Marcos, CA.
There was apparently a power outage this morning that brought it
offline. We are back to our normal programming.
- 2005/02/09 11:00 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is still
unavailable. We will therefore broadcast Radio Nederland's live
stream until Radio Bilingüe comes back on line.
- 2005/02/09 04:00 Radio Bilingüe's live stream is unavailable.
Regular non-Radio Bilingüe programming restarted at 05:00.
Programming will be switched to Radio Nederland's live stream if Radio
Bilingüe's live stream is not available when next scheduled at 11:00.
- 2005/02/06 23:59 RealPlayer complained that it could not access the
audio device. RealPlayer was restarted, but still did not supply
audio to the transmitter. The computer was restarted and RealPlayer
appears to be working normally now.
- 2005/02/01 10:00 There have been several interruptions to
broadcasting this morning as we explore ways to allow several users to
monitor broadcasts and control the broadcast computer.
- 2005/02/01 08:33 The Station Manager (who is still the only person
who has access to the broadcast computer) will be traveling between
February 2 and 6. As he will be unable to closely monitor the station
during this time, it is expected that there will be increased "dead
air" during this time period.
- 2005/02/01 08:25 The station has been running quite well over the
last couple of days, although we are still waiting for the new broadcast
computer to be delivered. There are still some gaps between
programs, and the station ID has its stutter back again. But these
problems should be eliminated or reduced when the new broadcast computer
is received and installed (as I was writing this, RealPlayer timed out
trying to connect to the VOA and had to be manually restarted!).
- 2005/01/27 22:20 After a few days of almost perfect operation, we
are now having difficulty keeping the Radio Bilingüe stream running. It
seems to be an Internet traffic problem. RealPlayer has been
restarted. If the problem persist, we will switch to Radio Netherlands
live stream.
- 2005/01/23 07:15 The stuttering of the hourly identification
announcement has been eliminated by playing the file from a Web server
instead of playing it from the broadcast computer's local hard drive.
- 2005/01/21 23:15 Broadcast computer started bogging down.
Computer restarted causing about 10-minute broadcast interruption.
- 2005/01/20 16:30 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is working again so we
are resuming our normal programming.
- 2005/01/20 02:15 The broadcast computer experienced a system
crash sometime between 01:00 and 02:00 from which it has now recovered ("Your system crashed because the random access
memory containing Windows program code was corrupted").
- 2005/01/19 22:35 There was in interruption to Radio Netherland's
live webcast. It is being broadcast again now.
- 2005/01/19 21:17 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down
again. Apparently the problem has not been solved. We will
once again be substituting Radio Netherland's live stream for RB programs
until the RB audio stream is up again.
- 2005/01/19 16:45 Radio Bilingüe is webcasting again and the
technician in charge now believes he has corrected the problem they have
been having over the last week.
- 2005/01/19 08:00 The broadcast computer experienced a system crash
sometime between 06:00 and 08:00. We are now back on the air.
- 2005/01/18 07:00 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is down again. We
will be replacing their broadcasts with the live schedule of Radio
Netherland until RB is reliable again.
- 2005/01/17 06:00 We made it through the night broadcasting
some Radio Bilingüe's programs, so hopefully their webcast difficulties
are resolved and we can maintain our normal broadcast schedule that
includes their programs.
- 2005/01/16 21:40 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is back online. We
will attempt to resume our regular broadcasting schedule overnight.
If Radio Bilingüe goes down again during the night, our service will be
interrupted until the morning.
- 2005/01/16 09:50 Radio Bilingüe's webcast is still down. All
scheduled Radio Bilingüe programs will be substituted by Radio
Netherland's live audio stream. Some of our other scheduled
broadcasts will also be replaced by Radio Netherlands until Radio
Bilingüe is up again.
- 2005/01/15 21:30 Radio Bilingüe is down again. After
Vibraciones en Jazz is over, we will play the Radio Netherlands live
stream at 23:00 until Radio Bilingüe becomes available again. I suspect
that this will not be before Tuesday morning (given that Monday is the M.
L. King holiday).
- 2005/01/15 16:00 Radio Bilingües is webcasting again, so we
are back to our normal programming.
- 2005/01/15 11:45 The Radio Bilingüe Internet audio stream
continues to be unreliable. Radio Netherland's live stream will be
used to substitute for Radio Bilingüe programs and perhaps for other
programs until Radio Bilingüe becomes available again reliably on the
Internet.
- 2005/01/15 11:00 The broadcast computer has been restarted and
broadcasting has resumed.
- 2005/01/15 09:30 The broadcast computer has crashed. We will
be off the air until the problem is resolved.
- 2005/01/15 08:36 Radio Bilingüe's Internet audio stream is
still sporadic. So we can expect broadcast interruptions in
programming until reliable is re-established.
- 2005/01/14 06:45 The computer we used for broadcast stopped
functioning sometime during the night. It was re-booted and
broadcasting resumed.
- 2005/01/13 07:20 Radio Bilingüe is back on-line and we have
resumed our regular program schedule.
- 2005/01/13 17:25 A sound card failure has been reported
in the computer used to provide the audio stream for Radio Bilingüe.
We will continue to broadcast Radio Netherland's live Spanish/Portuguese
stream until Radio Bilingüe becomes available again on the Internet.
- 2005/01/13 15:15 Radio Bilingüe's live Internet audio
feed is down. We will be broadcasting Radio Netherland's live feed
in Spanish and Portuguese instead of our regular programming until the
problem is resolved.
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