I am interested in setting up a live audio webcast for a radio
station, but am not sure how to configure the program(Windows Media
Encoder) to push the stream to the internet or to a specific server. 
Step by step instructions would be greatly helpful.  Also please let
me know if I need to subscribe to a website to use their server or is
there a way to get around this.  Thanks.

You can set up a live audio webcast using shoutcast, check out the
website at www.shoutcast.com it's fairly complicated, I'm not sure I
can provide you the step by step. Most of the steps will depend on
you, what kind of firewall you have, how fast your internet connection
is, etc. With a cable connection you can have about ten or twelve
listeners without lag. If you want anything that's going to allow you
a larger audience, you'll probably have to pay for it. Hope that
helps.