WLRA - Technical Achievements

Technical Achievements

Lewis University's WLRA Radio was the first college radio station in the country to become digital. Lewis University received a $350,000 digital broadcasting project grant in the 1990s from philanthropy of The Andrew Corporation, a leading worldwide communications corporation. The studios, music archives, music scheduling system, audio storage and retrieval systems (including an AES/EBU Broadcast Electronics - Audiovault serial number 001 and 002), digital audio consoles, CD players & recorders, minidisc players and recorders, and DAT), ISDN digital phone system, ISDN and IP remote broadcast codecs, Optimod AES/EBU audio processing, AES/EBU broadcast delay, Harris Digit AES/EBU fm exciter, and transmitters were upgraded from analog to state of the art digital AES3 type I balanced and type II optical. The entire digital project was a joint venture with the Freberg Communications Corporation of Illinois, Harris Corporation of Florida, Pacific Research and Engineering of California, A-Ware Corporation (Musicmaster (software)) of Wisconsin, and Broadcast Electronics Corporation of Illinois. WLRA also added RDS Radio Data System to the FM transmission allowing information about the artist and song to be displayed on a radio tuned to 88.1-FM. Lewis University installed a new self standing 250-foot (76 m) radio tower and new digital IBOC or HD Radio ready ERI Rototiler single bay fm antenna in 2000 adjacent to DeLaSalle Hall. WLRA increased the antenna height to 200 feet (61 m) HAAT and had to reduce the effective radiated power to 140 watts. WLRA moved from the basement of Fitzpatick Hall dormitory basement to new studios and broadcasting center in December 2005. The new broadcasting facility was named The Andrew Center of Electronic Media at Lewis University. The state of the art broadcasting studios and transmitters are located in DeLaSalle Hall on the Lewis University Romeoville campus. In 2005 WLRA began streaming a simulcast of the station over the Internet and in 2008 mobile media APPs for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Simultaneously Apple added WLRA as one of their iTunes Radio Stations under College format. WLRA uses an AES3 Orban Opticodec audio processing/encoder for their 128kbs and 64kbs bit streams. In 2010, WLRA and Broadcast Electronics, Inc. integrated social media automation and Twitter with the newest generation of Broadcast Electronics AudioVault (FLEX) and Message Manager (TRE) RBDS data. The automation allow listeners to be notified of favorite artist being played through tagging. WLRA was the first station to have Broadcast Electronics integrate customer supplied computers, paving the way for other stations to upgrade into new generation Audiovault FLEX. In the Spring of 2012 WLRA was among the first 15 colleges selected to be part of Clear Channel Communication's IHeart Radio for both internet streaming and mobile media apps.