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to support your favorite programs on The Community's Choice.
If you already know which media player that you have or want to select your favorite, please click on one of the following links.
MP3 - 32kbps, Mono - WinAmp 2.0 or later*
*If you have receive an error message that the server has reached capacity or have difficulty connecting, please email WTCC's chief engineer. Please let him know the date, time, and the stream that you tried to listen to.
WTCC has three audio streaming sources. They are carried on on WTCC's media server, nick-named "Netcaster", from Springfield Technical Community College. Each steaming feed has its advantages and disadvantages. If you are not sure which one you want use or are having problems listening, please read the following information. If you need to download a player, go to "Click on the link to get your free player"
RealAudio - For listeners using RealNetworks (aka RealAudio), click on the RealAudio Feed to connect. RealAudio's RealPlayer 7 or greater is necessary to listen to this stream. Connection is speed for 28 & 56kbps modems or greater. This feed also offers the best audio quality, particularly through higher speed internet connections, such as DSL, cable modems, or T-1 network connections. The maximum audio quality is 44.1kbps - Stereo. RealAudio uses feedback from the listener's player to achieve the best audio qaulity for your connection. Many businesses employ firewalls on their networks going to the internet and unfortunately, firewalls can block this feedback loop, preventing the player and media server from communicating. The player is either unable to properly decode the incoming stream, or the firewall blocks the stream from entering your network. Your player may either be unable to connect, or if it does, you will hear what sounds like a CD player skipping. Also, many businesses prevent users from downloading or installing software to install on their computers, so you may only have Windows Media Player installed, or no player at all. At lower connection speeds, like with dial-up modems, heavy network/internet traffic can also hamper this feed back path and cause frequent "buffering". Since the RealAudio feed provides the best quality audio, you should try the RealAudio Feed first. If you have problems or get a "capacity/limit" error occur, please listen on either our Windows Media Feed or ShoutCast Feed.
If you have Windows NT4, 2000 or XP and you are able to download, but not complete installation of RealPlayer8 because you get the following error "file asctrm.sys is in use", ask your system administrator to install RealPlayer for you. If that is not a possible, then download RealPlayer7 from RealAudio's archives at http://proforma.real.com/rndl/blackjack.html RealPlayer7 will let you play most RealAudio content.
Windows Media - For listeners who have (or only have) Windows Media Player, which is included in most Windows setups (95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, etc.), click on Windows Media Feed Media Player 6.0 or higher is necessary to listen to this stream. Connection speed is for a 28.8kbps modem or greater. Audio bitrate is fixed at a constant 20kbps - Mono. Since the data rate is fixed, the player does not need to communicate with the media server. This makes it more robust at penetrating firewalls and for slow speed connections. However, because this feed is fixed at low bit rate, audio quality does not improve with higher speed connections. If you paste this link into your Windows Media Player, remove the ".asx" at the end of the link or you will get an error when you use Media Player.
ShoutCast - ShoutCast streams audio in an MP3 format. Connection speed is for a 56kbps modem or greater. The audio bitrate is 32kbps - Mono. The preferred media player for listening to ShoutCast is NullSoft's WinAmp, 2.5 or higher. *However, both RealPlayer and Windows Media Player can be used as players, provided they are "new" enough to decode MP3s and it is a selected file type in one of the players. Click on the ShoutCast Feed to listen in MP3 format. The WinAmp player has many "bells and whistles" compared to the other players. It also has features that integrate with ShoutCast. However, all the players decode MP3s the same way so there are no audio differences. If you have both RealPlayer and Media Player on your computer (and do not have WinAmp), it tends to be easier to select RealPlayer as the default player for MP3 (it is hidden in the "upgrade tab in preferences). The advantage of MP3 is that it normally goes through firewalls. Depending on the player, the MP3 stream can be recorded to a CD. MP3 use less data compression than RealAudio or Windows Media, but requires more bandwidth, so audio quality of MP3s at low speed connections may not sound as good as the more advanced compression methods of Real or Windows. This feed is fixed at low bit rate; audio quality does not improve with higher speed connections.
As a side note, many companies block streaming media from the internet because it uses up bandwidth (how much data their network can handle). As bandwidth get used up, the network starts to slow down. While one employee listening to streaming media at their computer may not use up much bandwidth, when many people in the company start listening, network bandwidth can quickly get used up, preventing the "business" data from flowing properly.
