The beauty of this forum is the ability to connect with peers and ask for a fresh perspective on something that has you baffled. The much appreciated response I received yesterday from michaelk; thanks again, helped refresh my search and I was able to find the following link on how to build your own WIFI radio:
http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/10/bu...-introduction/
This website is a blog from someone who likes to tinker with DIY technology and details the steps to convert a WIFI router into a Internet radio appliance using an embedded version of Linux (OpenWRT). I wasn't looking for WIFI capability but it will prove to be of great benefit when I am locating the units. Everything looks pretty straight forward, the how to provides just about every feature I was looking for in a remote streaming audio client and depending on the price I can get the WLAN routers for the total cost should be under $50.