Radio stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as non-commercial or educational, shall receive preference from Satélite Radio Bilingüe services. Non-public stations that have daily programming oriented to serving the community with information, education and cultural entertainment may also receive programming services.
To receive programs from Satélite Radio Bilingüe, a station must be interconnected to the public radio system. The station must operate a satellite terminal capable of receiving signals from the proper transponder on the Galaxy VI satellite. The station user must pay an annual Distribution/Interconnection (D/I) fee to the public radio system.
The other option is to pick up Satélite Radio Bilingüe feed on KU Band, from the Sat-com K-1 satellite. Stations must be equipped with KU Band downlink technology to be able to receive this signal. The downlink frequency is 11715.5 gHz, transponder 1, network 6, channel 1. The format of the transmission is Musicam compression system, 128 Kbps, QPSK modulations, Comstream FEC coding.
A third option available to stations interested only in Noticiero Latino is via phone feeds. The 5-minute news segments are available at (209) 455-5797 and (209) 455-5798. The 14-minute weekend edition, Edición Semanaria is available at (209) 455-5799.
Satélite Radio Bilingüe provides stations with a weekly update that gives information about upcoming programs and scheduling changes. These messages are sent via DACS. For stations not linked to the C-Band satellite, updates are sent via fax or email. In addition, stations receive special updates for program announcements and last-minute changes.
The uplink and main operating equipment located at Radio Bilingüe was financed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Agency and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is held in trust by Radio Bilingüe. Interconnected stations own their downlink equipment except KU Band downlinks, which are leased to stations. Other sources of revenue for programming services include the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.