People in the campus community interested in listening to Spanish language news, information, and music now have a new alternative. The Latino Radio Service, a low power Spanish language radio station, started broadcasting on January 3, 2005 at 1660 Khz on the AM band. The station is low power in keeping with FCC regulations that allow educational institutions to broadcast on the AM band so long as the broadcasts are limited to campus. The current equipment has an effective broadcast of 2 to 3 watts of power, which allows reception in the open air throughout most of campus, although people inside buildings will have difficulty picking up the signal unless their radio antenna is near a window, preferably facing Bevier Hall, the site of the transmitter.

Station manager Gary Cziko, professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, notes that students learning Spanish, as well as native speakers wanting to keep up with news from home or who want to maintain their language and culture, will find the broadcasts of interest. Broadcasts currently consist of archived and live programming that is available by streaming over the internet. Program scheduling is set up on a computer, and LRS broadcasts are fully automated. Programming currently includes news programs from Radio Netherlands, Radio Canada International, the Voice of America, and United Nations Radio; a live call-in/interview program from Radio Bilingüe (experiencing technical difficulties at press time); and Nuevos Horizontes, a program on Latino issues produced locally by University of Illinois Extension. Music programs featuring Latin Jazz, Rock, Pop, and Norteña are also on the broadcast schedule.

Programming is currently dominated by news and views from the US and Europe, but Cziko hopes to increase the diversity of news, music, and dialects heard by adding programming from Latin American countries. Licensing agreements need to be worked out with providers, but listeners who have a favorite program that they would like to get on the air are encouraged to contact Cziko (email: g-cziko@uiuc.edu), who can help coordinate efforts to take care of the necessary paperwork to get the program on the air.

Due to FCC regulations, the Latino Radio Service has no plans to increase its power to broadcast beyond campus boundaries. However, it hopes to work in coordination with the Radio Free Urbana project (WRFU, broadcasting at 104.5 FM beginning in June of 2005) to come up with programming that will reach out to Latinos and those interested in Spanish language and Latino issues in the greater Urbana/Champaign community.

The Latino Radio Service is supported by a grant from the Office of the Chancellor, La Casa Cultural Latina, which houses the computer and studio, the College of ACES Information Technology and Communication Services Unit, providing the antenna and technical help, and the Department of Educational Psychology. More information on the station, including a program schedule, can be found at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/lrs/.