INTRODUCTION

Radio is one of the oldest mass media technologies in the US, dating back commercially to the late nineteen-teens.  It has been joined only within the last ten years by Web radio:  simultaneous audio streaming of radio broadcasts via the World Wide Web.  In essence, the audial content is identical; only the medium has changed.  This paper discusses a hybrid of this old and new technology currently being pilot-tested at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Spring 2003 semester).

Normal daily broadcasts from Radio France Internationale (RFI) are being re-transmitted out over the campus Quad twenty-four hours a day via an FM frequency (90.5 FM) from an office in the French Department in the Foreign Languages Building, a signal that can be picked up on any common transistor radio or car radio within the immediate area. The original signal from RFI is received via the World Wide Web as a digitized audio-streaming  file and retransmitted via radio waves within a "limited-range" radius. The broadcast is non-licensed but legal according to Part 15 in FCC regulations.   While accessible to anyone near the Quad with an FM radio, the existence of the signal has not been widely publicized and won’t be until certain technical glitches have been worked out.

GENESIS OF THE IDEA

The idea for the retransmission project came to Prof. Gary Cziko in the Educational Psychology Department  about two-and-a-half years ago when he was at one of the campus fitness centers. A long-time radio aficionado, Cziko noticed that the TV monitors in the exercise room were linked via radio frequencies to patrons’ radios with headsets - each channel's sound track was being broadcast locally in the room.  The professor thought this would be a nice technology  for the home, as well, where he could broadcast web radio from his computer over a small radius covering his house and yard. After buying NetPlay Radio (www.netplayradio.com) for his home and using the technology for a while, he thought, "Why not use the same principle for retransmitting web radio in foreign languages inside the Foreign Languages Building?"

NetPlay Radio’s signal wasn’t strong enough to cover the larger campus area, however.   Cziko learned that another manufacturer, Panaxis (www.panaxis.com), does build a more powerful and versatile limited-range FM transmitter for license-free  radio transmission, and so using research funds available to him, he purchased Panaxis’ ACC100 FM transmitter for $195 (product  information at www.panaxis.com/ci.html).   Panaxis describes the FCC-certified transmitter as having a range of 100 feet or less, "enough to cover homes, offices, churches, hospitals, malls, and advertising from 'homes for sale'."  (In reality, Gary points out that the ACC100 has been broadcasting much farther on campus than the 100 feet in the company description.)

IMPLEMENTATION

Last Fall Semester (2002), Prof. Cziko contacted Prof. Peter Golato in the French Department, who he knew had a technology background and was interest in radio, to see if he might be interested in a pilot project using the Panaxis retransmitter for broadcasting Radio France Internationale (www.rfi.fr) from the Foreign Languages Building.  Cziko also sent an exploratory email around to the German and Spanish departments, but the idea was received with less enthusiasm.  The German Department wondered what the benefit would be if the radio signal were only available only  over a small subsection of campus, when students might prefer to listen at home.

Little publicity has been given out on the existence of the FM 90.5 RFI broadcast, although it has been available all Spring 2003 semester. Two other faculty members in French,  Profs. Liz Martin and Zsuzsana Fagyal,  have expressed interest in the technology, as have two French graduate TA’s.  The rest of the department is uninvolved.  This is due mainly to continuing technical glitches:   loss of the signal and dead air time every day or every other day. Until these issues have been solved acceptably, the project remains in pilot test stage.

Meanwhile, the project has not come to a complete standstill.  This Summer Semester, one French teaching assistant , Jessica Miller, has agreed to be involved in a more pedagogical pilot test of the technology in her French 104 class (a 4th semester basic language course). She will be using the webcast of RFI's 11-minute newscast in "français facile" - easy French ­ which is archived digitally on a daily basis and can be replayed as many times as desired.  A full textual transcription of this broadcast is also available online, making it an extremely rich source of L2 input for instructors.

LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES

Ultimately, Cziko would like to see 24/7 rebroadcasts in Spanish and German as well as French. He is also enthusiastic about playing the webcasts through  Enounce’s 2xAV, a $20 plug-in (www.enounce.com ) that can slow down (or speed up) audio transmissions (with no change in pitch) to give students at various competency levels a choice in the speed of the foreign-language audial input. He would also like to compile a back-up list of substitute webcast stations that can be connected to in case the priority stations (e.g. RFI) are temporarily unavailable for technical reasons.

If the rebroadcast effort is successful (Cziko knows of no similar project elsewhere), it could serve as a model for foreign-language departments elsewhere. He mentioned by way of example the strong demand among students in Chongqing, China for English-language radio  broadcasts, listening on short-wave radio to BBC, when he was a guest there in 2002.  Cziko speculated that there would be great enthusiasm at Chinese universities  for a similar webcast retransmission of English-language radio broadcasts of, say, NPR or the BBC.  In the case of the People’s Republic,  however, there is the added issue of government permission for rebroadcast of foreign stations in a more centralized, tightly-controlled educational system.

On the technical front, for better coverage, the transmitter could be put on the roof of FLB or on some even taller edifice on campus. It would have to be "weatherized", however, e.g. covering the main unit in plastic to protect it, while the antenna could stand outside of the covering.  Cziko also spoke of piggybacking on the Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) efforts on the Quad, which aim soon to have a wireless "hot-spot" over the entire Quad. In that case, however, students could just as well access webcasts directly off their Wi-Fi-equipped laptops or PDAs without need for a radio. Cziko mentioned that Deanna Raineri, associate dean and the LAS computer coordinator, might be willing to work out an arrangement to technically support the existing retransmissions of FLB webcasts at the same time as the Wi-Fi technology is installed in FLB.

A secondary objective is to make radio rebroadcasts available also to departments which teach "lesser-taught languages" such as Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, among others.   Transmission time could either be shared (as on the Scola television channel) over the existing retransmitter, or each department could purchase their own retransmitter for uninterrupted broadcasts in that language.   French, along with Spanish and German, are frequently-taught languages in the United States and thus normally do not suffer from a lack of quality materials for teachers.  Teachers of lesser-taught languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Arabic, etc. frequently do face limited teaching materials and thus may find the web-to-radio technology more immediately appealing as a resource of authentic linguistic input.

PRESENT COVERAGE

While a non-licensed campus AM broadcast such as the unofficial "Blaze" station at Arizona State University in Phoenix might cover up to a 3-mile radius with 30 watts of power, the RFI retransmission at the University of Illinois is much more low-power and covers an area from the north side of FLB to a bit shy of the Illini Union.   It can also be picked up on Mathews Avenue. (The Panaxis literature describes the legal coverage as 100 feet or less, but the retransmitter can cover a wider area in reality.) In addition, the signal is receivable in most areas inside FLB except for the basement (where, unfortunately,  many introductory foreign-language  courses are taught) and the south side of the building. The transmitter is located in Prof. Golato's office on the northwest side (Quad side) of FLB on the second floor.  (To compensate for this unequal coverage, extra transmitters (at $200 each) could be installed in poorly-covered areas, such as the FLB basement.)

HARDWARE-SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

At the time of writing (before the installation of the Dell Optiplex in replacement of Golato’s laptop soon after May 16, 2003), the hardware/software configuration being used in the transmission is:

Hardware: CTX EZ notebook (circa 1998)
Platform: Windows
Operating system: Win 98
Browser: none
Player:  Microsoft Media Player 6.4 or 7.1 (the stand-alone application, not the plug-in).

In the near future (after May 16, 2003), Golato’s configuration should be:

Hardware: Dell Optiplex desktop computer
Platform: Windows
Operating system: Windows 2000
Browser: Explorer (version ?)
Player plug-in:  Microsoft Media Player (9?)

SOLVING TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

One of the early technical problems (and still a major issue) was frequent interruption of the audio   stream and the crashing of the dedicated computer.  Cziko's first solution was to write a browser patch that relaunched the RFI webpage every half hour whether the streaming successful or not.  This created an inelegant "hiccup"  of several seconds of dead air time while the streaming data reloaded and interrupted the broadcast regularly every 30 minutes  - hardly ideal.  It also meant that up to 29 minutes of dead air time could elapse before connection was re-established.

Prof. Bob Hart, assistant director of the Language Learning Lab in FLB, was approached by Prof.  Cziko at the beginning of Spring Semester 2003 to create a Javascript applet in DHTML (dynamic HTML) to check the status of the streaming more frequently - every 5 seconds, in the current code.  If the streaming was successful, no play error message would be returned by audio player plug-in and the streaming would continue uninterrupted.  If an error message  was detected, however, the code instructs the computer to reload the frame plug-in for Real Player.  A RAM log was also created to keeps status entries of each 5-minute signal check for up to 1000 entries, after which it  refreshes (i.e. a circular log).  The phrase "task ran" at the end of a log entry means that no error messages showed up and that the streaming was OK.

Hart's Javascript patch, however,  was designed to work in the following configuration, different in almost every respect from the actual configuration presently in use or planned to be in use:

Hardware: Macintosh G3
Platform:  Macintosh
operating system: OS 9.2
browser: Mozilla 1.3 (the newest version of Mozilla, incorporated into Netscape 7)
plug-in: Real Player 8  (Real Player One is the latest but hasn't been tested for this function)

Javascript is compatible with the Netscape (and Mozilla) browser but not Microsoft's browser Explorer or Microsoft's Media Player plug-in, which uses JScript, and by default, VB-script.  Thus, it isn't clear how well Hart's patch may work if Explorer is used as the browser for the audio streaming.

DEBUGGING

Even with this more flexible "patch", the webcast crashes occasionally, say, after 12 or 18 hours of streaming.  The exact type of crash hasn't been specified yet.  It could be that the player plug-in locked up, the browser locked up, or the system itself locked up, or that there is a coding error - although Hart insists the coding is pretty straightforward.  Or it could be some interaction between any two of these factors.  One hypothesis Hart has is that the browser (Netscape 7) may have a memory leak, as happened in older versions of Mozilla, which accumulates over a number of hours until the system crashes.  Another predictable technical problem is periodic adjustments to the University's network by CCSO, which interrupt network service campuswide.

Specifying where exactly the problem lies, however, will require time-consuming debugging, which Hart hopes to do this summer.   He hopes to test the system in different configurations, which will have to be run until the system crashes and the log can be examined for clues, tying up the machine for long hours, perhaps  days.   There also appears to be a difference in the performance in the platform on which the webcast  is being tested.  One trial back in January 2003 conducting identical streaming on both a Macintosh and Windows machine found that an apparent network interruption caused a gap in the Macintosh log of 4 minutes, while the Windows log continued recording entries without interruption.

One question - and suggestion - I had for Hart was, if the streaming is normally reliable for long periods of, say, 12 - 18 hours, why attempt uninterrupted 24/7 streaming when most student  listeners will only tune in between 6:00 am and midnight.  Perhaps a patch could be created without much change to the present DHTML code that would launch the audio streaming plug-in every morning at 6:00 am and shut it off at midnight.  This would combine Cziko's original idea of relaunching the plug-in at regular intervals and build in more robustness by not allowing continuous streaming to go beyond normally reliable intervals of 18 hours.

Another sensible suggestion is to develop a code patch that directly corresponds to the configuration actually being used.  With the installation of the Dell Optiplex as the new dedicated computer, Golato plans to use Microsoft Explorer as the browser and run Media Player.   It makes no sense for Prof. Hart to develop code for a completely different configuration of hardware and software.  In my interviews, I discovered that neither Golato or Hart were aware of the different configuration being used by the other, and I have since notified Prof. Hart of Golato’s plans.

LEGAL ISSUES

Normally, any AM or FM transmission must abide by FCC (Federal Communications Commission) guidelines. The relevant government guidelines for low-power and limited-range FM and AM are referred to as "Part 15", short for "Part 15 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations".  In addition to conventional radio broadcasts (such as the RFI rebroadcast at the University of Illinois), Part 15 covers the use of remote garage door openers and cordless phones, which also do not require a federal broadcasting license.  Users of non-licensed radio transmitters don't have the right to complain about interference from licensed stations on the same wavelength, however.  The FCC regulations for AM and FM differ, however, as do their relative advantages and disadvantages for potential webcast retransmission.

For the RFI project, Cziko chose  Panaxis’ (mono) FM transmitter because they are resistant to electrical storms, allow stereo broadcast and need smaller (and cheaper) equipment than AM transmitters. The disadvantage is that the signal is weak and rarely penetrates buildings, although car radios (in the vicinity) can pick it up. The radius of FM coverage is not regulated by Part 15, however.  From a technical standpoint, distance of coverage is a matter of the height of the antenna.

AM transmitters, such as the moderately powerful 30-watt KASC (the Blaze) station at Arizona State, have a much more powerful signal than FM transmissions, and their signal can reach into buildings. Consequently, this signal is more likely to interfere with existing licensed stations, the FCC's main concern. Thus, legally, the signal mustn't reach beyond the limits of campus (within reason). AM equipment is also larger and more costly than that needed for FM transmission - roughly $3000 minimum to set up a campuswide AM station.

REBROADCASTING FOREIGN-LANGUAGE WEBCASTS

Although stations that webcast in foreign languages of interest to American universities and high schools are numerous (see, for example, a country list on www.radio-locator.com), legally rebroadcasting such webcasts requires contacting the original stations for permission. Cziko found RFI quite willing to give such permission for free, as he did Deutsche Welle, the national German broadcasting corporation. Rádio Exterior de España, on the other hand, refused to give rebroadcast permission, and BBC, whose Spanish-language broadcasts are considered some of the best, insisted on a $100-a-month fee.  It is doubtful that a foreign radio corporation will notice the existence of a limited-range retransmission of their broadcasts in a distant country, but university language departments are under obligation to abide by international intellectual property law.

THE TECHNOLOGY - THE CURRENT STATE

One of the major hurdles faced in the first semester of the RFI webcast project has been old equipment and software.  Prof. Golato’s personal laptop dedicated to the webcasting function has only a Pentium 1 processor with only 32 megabytes of RAM and uses the Windows  98 operating system.  Since this limited memory uses up too many system resources , the streaming is not reliable and is cut off frequently.  Thus, the present system demands too much user intervention:  Prof. Golato has had to check on the streaming status at intervals during the day to see if it has stopped or if the computer has frozen.  He tried every browser possible to see if the browser variable might influence the dependability of the streaming, but found it didn’t make any difference.  In the end, he chose to use the stand-alone Microsoft Media Player application and dispense with the browser entirely.
The good news is that newer and more powerful equipment  will soon replace his old laptop: a Dell  Optiplex , which should allow far more RAM for the streaming.

OPTIMAL CONFIGURATION OR "HOW TO RETRANSMIT YOUR OWN WEBCAST"

To work properly, the system requires an appropriate and compatible choice of hardware (dedicated computer and radio transmitter) and software (audio player plug-in, browser, and operating system).  Following discussion with Profs. Golato and Cziko, I have listed the following desirable configuration, which others may copy:

Radio transmitter - For campuswide  coverage (or a more limited area),  Cziko recommends Panaxis’ ACC100 FM transmitter for $195 (product  information at www.panaxis.com/ci.html).   It is designed for professional use by schools, prisons, etc. for local FM transmission.  If used within FCC Part 15 guidelines, no broadcasting license is required.

Computer operating system - Use Windows 2000, preferably, or Windows XP, whose Windows Messenger now allows remote assistance and application sharing, so that a user on one computer can control and view what is on another computer (this has dangers, however ­ see "security" below).  Golato believes the security for Windows 2000 is still the most robust, superior to any version of Windows XP, and it is always prudent to guard against outside tampering by hackers. More importantly, as a robust operating system, Windows 2000 can handle failures in streaming via  an audio player without crashing the entire operating system. He also recommends Windows for Workgroups, one professional version of Microsoft’s earlier Windows 98 operating system, for its robust security. (At present, any streaming problem on Golato’s laptop causes Windows 98 to crash, requiring that the laptop be rebooted frequently.) Microsoft itself warns against combining Windows 98 with the use of Real Audio in any version, stating categorically that it will crash.

Audio plug-in - There are many competing audio players currently available on the Web: Real Audio player, Media Player (Microsoft), and QuickTime.  Radio France Internationale webcasts in both Real Player and Microsoft Media Player . Golato believes that Media Player works better for the RFI broadcasts than Real Player and, in general,  prefers to keep the software within the product line of one company, Microsoft, in this case.  As an alternative to a browser plug-in, a stand-alone audio player application can be used without the mediation of a browser, such as Media Player.

Browser ­ Golato prefers to use Microsoft products for every part of the software configuration for surer compatibility.  Thus, Explorer should be expected to work more successfully with Microsoft’s own Media Player and Windows operating system.  Bob Hart's Javascript patch to regulate streaming quality is written for Mozilla (= Netscape 7). While audio streaming is equally possible on either Netscape or Explorer, Microsoft products do not accept Javascript, using JScript and VB script instead.    Using a browser is not entirely necessary, however, and some audio players exist as stand-alone applications.

Multiple broadcasts  - If simultaneous transmissions of more than one station or language is  desired, separate computer + FM transmitter set-ups are necessary for each station since Panaxis’  ACC100 transmitter can transmit  only one signal at a time.   Alternatively, separate times each day could be scheduled for each station/language (c.f. Scola’s TV network) so that only one hardware set-up is necessary.  This involves publicizing the schedule of use, however, so users know when to tune in.

SECURITY ISSUES

Prof. Golato, from past experience, has been very sensitive to security issues on his computers, including the dedicated laptop computer for this RFI project.  For this purpose, not all operating systems are equally secure.  He recommends Windows 2000 over all other Windows operating systems (e.g. Win 95, Win 98, and Win XP) as the most robust and secure system against outside hacking.  On the present dedicated laptop using Win 98 he will not use any remote access software, since that opens a door to outside interference.

In addition to being secured from outside tampering via the network, Golato recommends that any dedicated machine be at least password protected inside the room in which it is housed so that only the coordinator can access the computer directly, as his laptop is at present.  Thus, to prevent human error and malice from interfering with webcast retransmission set-ups,  the computer used must be secure against unauthorized persons in the same room or on the internet.

BANDWIDTH ISSUES

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has very high bandwidth campuswide:  its internal network is a T1, which is far more than RFI requires with its webcasts at 22K per second, the lowest level of audial acceptability, tolerable for spoken voice.  Other campuses with more stingy  bandwidth budgets should carefully check the webcast rate of the online radio stations that they are interested in to make sure the signal can be received adequately with the bandwidth they have.  Bob Hart says that 56K is the normal broadcast rate for many on-line radio webcasts.

OTHER TECH CHALLENGES

In addition to various software and network challenges, the project team has discovered that certain unchangeable environmental variables may affect broadcasting:  e.g. the presence of leaves on the trees outside Prof. Golato’s window, for example,  appears to interfere with the distance the signal carries.  In late Fall to mid Spring semester,  the broadcast radius extends to the Illini Union, whereas when the trees are leaf-covered, the radius extends barely to the Anthropology building nextdoor.  Ideally, the signal transmitter should be placed higher, e.g. on the roof of FLB, where there is no physical impediment to the signal radius.   The FM signal is also blocked inside  parts of FLB, especially the basement, where so many foreign language classes take place.  Careful testing should be done  at many locations to make sure the signal is receivable everywhere it is needed.

BROADCAST CONTENT

Once the technical challenges are under control, the prime issue remains the linguistic content offered by the broadcasts and how it dovetails with the needs of foreign-language learners and the curriculum.  Prof. Golato mentioned that, in addition to its regular programs, RF1 broadcasts  news in "français facile" (easy French) several times a day, news in which the vocabulary is carefully limited and the speed of utterance is slowed to a more easy-to-understand speed.  (These files are also archived on the RF website, making for  smoother web streaming.)  In addition to finding webcasts from the desired country, a careful listen and check of the programming schedule is necessary to guarantee the content is appropriate for foreign language learning ­ many foreign radio stations play English-language pop music, for example.
 
PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES

Just because technologies are available, that doesn’t mean they are pedagogically useful.  In the case of the current RFI project, the technology "solution" has been imposed before any needs analysis or survey of the department was made to see if French-language radio access were needed.   As Prof. Golato admitted, the actual pedagogical uses of the technology have yet to be explored since, in the beginning stages, the focus has been on the technical side. Before the technical bugs are ironed out, however, department faculty should discuss how the broadcasts might be incorporated into the existing French curriculum ­ or, indeed, whether there is a need to incorporate it at all.  Perhaps, the transmissions could exist as helpful outside resources, available but not required.

The project  also poses awkward logistical issues for instructors.  At the moment, the broadcast is available outside of class only to students with radios (surely a minority), and the signal is unavailable in the basement of FLB where many basic language courses are taught.   Logistically, instructors will either have to require their students to purchase radios or bring their own and assign radio listening as an out-of-class assignment.  Yet, the same webcast is available online at any computer.  Students could listen directly to the webcast with headsets in the Language Learning Lab or at home on their own computers.   When, exactly, would it be necessary or preferable for students to tune in to the signal on a radio?    It will be interesting to see how TA Jessica Miller’s trials of the "français facile" newscasts work this summer.

Personally, I believe the technology will prove to be of more interest, and be more widely used, for the teaching of the lesser-taught languages, since authentic, high-quality teaching materials in those languages is much harder to come by.  Foreign-language radio broadcasts, which may seem like an awkward add-on to instructors of commonly-taught languages struggling to fit in the material they already have during a semester, could potentially be seen as a core curricular resource for the lesser-taught languages.

REFERENCES

Prof. Gary Cziko, notes from private oral interviews  on April 18, 2003 and May 15, 2003.

Prof. Peter Golato, notes from private oral interviews on April 24, 2003 and May 16, 2003.

Prof. Bob Hart, notes from a private oral interview  on May 15, 2003.