The transmitter, antenna coupler and antenna used by the Latino Radio Service (LRS) of the University of Illinois were purchased from Radio Systems, Inc.
The computer used to obtain from the Internet and play the programs in January 2005 was originally an outdated 350 MHz machine running Windows XP Professional with 128 MB of RAM and is located in a studio in La Casa Cultural Latino. This was replaced in February 2005 by a modern Dell Optiplex with a 3.0 GHz processor and 512 MB or RAM. The original computer is now being used at a backup. Both computers are connected to the transmitter via a Radio Shack mixer.
When originally set up, RealPlayer was used to play programs in RAM, WMA and MP3 formats (RealPlayer can play Windows Media Player files, but Windows Media Player cannot play ReaPlayer files). System Scheduler was used to automate our program schedule.
In April 2006, ZaraRadio 1.6 (a free program) was installed to replace System Scheduler and RealPlayer to automate the station's operation. This resulted in significantly 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.
Remote Desktop (included with Windows XP Professional) is used to control and program the studio computer from remote locations. The audio output of the computer's sound card is relayed over a studio-transmitter link (STL) consisting of a telephone line ("dry-pair") between La Casa Cultural Latina and Bevier Hall with a repeat coil at each end of the STL that were donated by Al Wolfe (K9SI), president of the Twin Cities Amateur Radio Club (TWARC).
LRS may well be the world's only fully automated campus radio station playing programming obtained via the Internet. It is almost certainly the only U.S. university campus radio station doing so using programming in Spanish and Portuguese.
For more technical information about the Latino Radio Service, contact the Station Manager, Gary Cziko, University of Illinois, Educational Psychology, 1310 S. 6 St., Room 210F, Champaign, IL 61820 USA (Tel: 217-333-8527; email: g-cziko@uiuc.edu).