airtunes has never worked

I have tried everything I know of and searched every FAQ site for itunes, airtunes, airport express, etc. I have attached my stereo and a powered speaker to the airport. I have restarted, reloaded, done everything I have seen as a remedy in itunes preferences. Airport Admin Utility never has shown a "music" tab. Sometimes it flashes briefly and then disappears. When I configure the airport, the itunes logo always has a circle/slash across it. My powered speaker is working and indicates it detects no signal from the airport. Is the airport audio port blown? Again, I have NEVER been able to get airtunes to work. All the threads I've seen seem to resolve everyone else's airtunes/itunes/speaker menu problems, but none of their fixes works for me. What gives?