In a cluttered studio room tucked behind La Academia Charter School on North Ann Street, black egg crates seal in the sounds of salsa and meringue at Radio Centro.

The station turns 20 this year. There's a fancy gala in the works for Aug. 25 to celebrate its remarkable climb from a converted bathroom to a major force in the Lancaster community, and the makeshift soundproofing in the production studio is one of the few remaining throwbacks to its humble beginnings.

Enid Vazquez-Pereira runs the show here. She's probably the slightest figure in the office — close childhood friends call her "Peanut" because she's 4 feet 11 inches tall.

Her voice reaches much higher than that. For two decades it has been announcing the call letters of WLCH Radio Centro, Lancaster's Hispanic public radio station.

"Do you have to run to the mic every time?" people would ask her in the beginning. The radio station manager explained that her announcement was a recording.

She explained often that Radio Centro is a community resource, a subsidiary of the Spanish American Civic Association, a place where Spanish speakers call in to chat, to report a lost purse, to get a local phone number, to give a shout-out to a friend on their birthday. "Saludores!"

It's difficult sometimes explaining why her radio doesn't sound like the commercial Spanish stations, she says. Instead of pumping the airways with hyper deejays and blaring ads, Vazquez-Pereira sometimes has to train her volunteers to maintain a modest volume on 91.3 FM.

It's strange at first, she says of people who've never experienced it before. But you get used to it quickly.

The trend must be catching on, as Radio Centro estimates somewhere around 11,700 listeners tuning in each week.

"I knew everybody in the community 20 years ago," Vazquez-Pereira said. "Now, that's not the case."

When she was 10 months old, Vazquez-Pereira's family moved from Puerto Rico to Lancaster and settled in the city's southeast.

Turning on the radio was among the morning's first conscious acts, Vazquez-Pereira recalled, and the music was on all day long. Simultaneously, so was the television, which is customary in Puerto Rico, she said.

On trips back to Puerto Rico, her mother would collect the latest music recordings for her daughter. She brought 33-inch vinyls at first, then 45s.

Around the Vazquez clan, Lancaster's Hispanic community was growing, expanding from the mostly Puerto Rican community Vazquez-Pereira knew during her student years at McCaskey High School to other groups.

Little by little, Dominican and Columbian dialects were heard along city streets. A Salvadoran mom-and-pop store opened on Mulberry Street. A Peruvian Committee was formed.

Of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, Vazquez-Pereira is sure there's a cluster from each in Lancaster, and that they all connect through Radio Centro.

Preparing for the big gala and running a radio station that broadcasts 18 to 20 hours everyday is a whirlwind for Vazquez-Pereira.

On Thursday, she went looking for trophies for the 40 volunteer radio announcers who give the channel its community flavor. Friday, she swung by the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center to put the final touches on the menu. It's a sign of the times, perhaps, that Vazquez-Pereira was able to choose items from the Host's Spanish menu.

It all began here, she said, pointing at the ceiling above a stairwell outside the radio station's office. There is nothing there now but two small windows.

"That was our weather," Vazquez-Pereira said. The station's first announcers crouched in a small room and reported the mercury reading on a room thermometer.

"Oh, it's raining outside. Oh, it's snowing outside," Vazquez-Pereira recalled them telling listeners.

Her current office is bigger and more cluttered, she says. Souvenirs from South America line the window panes, among them Coquies (frogs) that hail from Puerto Rico, some wearing sombreros and playing tiny guitars.

Some television equipment in the corner hints at SACA's newest venture — Centro TV. It's been in the planning stages for years and the organization is currently in discussion with Comcast, conversations which Vazquez-Pereira said have been a big help.

The plan is to broadcast the same kind of educational and community programs as the radio station carries. There might be an English as a Second Language tutorial or a cooking show, Vazquez-Pereira said. She hopes to have panel discussions and programs like the popular "You and the Law" radio show, which features Mayor Rick Gray on the last Wednesday of each month.

A Radio Centro Web site will be launched by the end of the month, Vazquez-Periera said.

The market can only grow from here, she figures.

Radio Centro is one of 14 Hispanic public radio stations in the country. It is among only four on the East Coast — one station in Miami and two in Puerto Rico.

It has six full-time staff members whose salaries take up more than half of the organization's annual budget of $300,000.

The rest goes for rent, operating expenses and equipment repairs.

"We're a non-profit," the 55-year-old Vazquez-Pereira says frequently, as a blanket explanation for all things financial.

Fiscal matters aside, there is a sense of permanence among the station's supporters.

"The Latino community, they depend on us 100 percent," said Victor Rivera, who was the first male voice to grace Radio Centro's airwaves when broadcasting began in 1987. "I'm pretty sure of that."

When hurricanes threaten Puerto Rico, for example, Spanish-speaking Lancastrians flood the station with calls.

Deejays keep pace with the weather via the Internet and report updates often. Sometimes, they contact radio stations in other countries and let the foreign announcers update Lancaster listeners directly.

In a perfect world, Vazquez-Pereira would like Radio Centro to develop a news team of local reporters and cover Lancaster County from within — for the community, by the community.

Vazquez-Pereira herself is very much a part of the Lancaster County community.

She is married and has five children and six grandchildren.

During an involved conversation about recipes for pig stomach at the Akron Restaurant on Thursday, the Lancaster Latina held her own against some Pennsylvania Dutch classics.

Vazquez-Pereira recommends a chopped pig stomach stew with garlic and cilantro. That's local flavor.

For more information about Radio Centro's 20th Anniversary and Volunteer Recognition Gala, call 295-7996.

CONTACT US: alitvak@lnpnews.com