Fedora Users — no alsa audio

I installed a new mobo recently with a built-in "nVidia Corporation|nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP)" and then upgraded FC1 to FC2. This is my first time using alsa. My only usage for audio is to listen to a PBS station using Real Player 8. When I try to listen to the FM station, there is no audio at first. The sound driver is loaded:

# service alsasound status
ALSA sound driver loaded.

I discovered that if I run "system-config-soundcard", click on "Play test sound", then the audio will play properly once again until the next reboot (I shut the machine down at night). This sequence is very repeatable.

Or, if I do the "Play test sound" first, then I can hear the FM station as soon as I start real Player.

Despite a bunch of digging, I have not been able to figure out what process "Play test sound" is kicking off. Can anyone tell me what I am missing?