‘Guerrilla Radio’:
Underground radio station operator uses ‘sneak attacks’ to educate community
By James Muhammad
Assistant Editor, The Final Call
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.–WTRA, “guerilla radio,” broadcasts from behind the wall.
“They say they put up the wall to protect the residents from the speeding traffic,” said Dewayne Readus, the voice and operator of the low-watt AM station, “but you notice they didn’t put sidewalks in for our children.
“The wall helps them in their control of us. They don’t want anything positive to come out of the Black community because that will disprove the myth…. that we’re dumb,” he said.
WTRA’s message comes out from the John Jay Homes housing project carried by weak radio waves but charged with the crusading spirit of its mastermind operator. The project sits in the shadow of the domed capitol building, behind the wall that blocks the blighted project from the casual glance of the speeding motorists making their way downtown.
Operating out of one of the apartments, Readus, a 30-year-old legally blind resident, is determined to educate and politicize his community, although local police attempted to silence his “Voice of the people,” as WTRA is called.
Until recently, Readus regularly operated the station from an upstairs room in his sister’s apartment. The station covered a radius of one-and-a-half miles, just enough to reach the housing unit[s…….
“When we talked about] the Urban League and the NAACP, we were alright,” said the independent contractor, “but when we started talking about police brutality, that’s when they came to shut us down.”
Readus’ controversial music and talk format had already attracted the ire of the city’s Black leadership whom he consistently criticized. He caught the attention of the police when he aired a tape recording made at the hospital bedside of a 52-year-old boxing coach who was severely beaten by security guards at a local department store.
Will Gray, an inspector with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), visited Readus after he aired coverage of a hostage incident where the police cordoned off a Black neighborhood after a man took his girlfriend and her sister hostage.
[………H]e was fined $750, which Readus has vowed not to pay until he has his day in court.
“We are saying we have a right to access the airwaves,” Readus said. “The very fact that we can’t communicate with each other is a form of genocide.”
A frequent target of Readus’ commentary, Alderman Frank McNeil, said the station provided important information to the community and a viewpoint not offered by the “run-of-the-mill” media. “But he attacked every Black person in a leadership position who didn’t agree with his position. He never allowed opposing points of view to be aired,” McNeil opined.
Today Readus operates what he calls “guerilla radio,” a “sneak attack” approach to getting his message out at varying times during the week.
“They haven’t made their move because they don’t know how to go about doing what they want to do,” Readus said, defiantly. “Ultimately, they probably just want to get rid of me. That’s their history.”
Even McNeil agreed that the relationship between Black people and the police is “very tense.”
Police Chief Mike Walton said he contacted the FCC only after he received complaints about vulgarity used on the station. He also described Readus as a “man with a small following who causes more trouble than he helps.”
However large or small Readus’ following may be, he has had an impact on the city and his community.
“He let kids and parents know what was going on in the world,” said Emmanuel Morehead, 17, who said he often listened to the station.
“I would like to see his station bigger so he can reach the broader community,” said Bill Robinson, 42. “But he’s got to make his program where people will come to him with information. He’s got to open up more.”
Readus said he welcomes the threat of arrest so WTRA’s struggle can be an example to others. The station also served as a training ground for young boys and girls interested in radio, he said.
“Somebody tell the children how WTRA served as an advocate for the people when the police wouldn’t police themselves,” Readus proclaimed. “Somebody tell the young people how we fought police brutality by broadcasting the personal testimonies of African-American victims.”
Copyright 1989, 2007 by The Final Call Newspaper Co.
Drums in the Global Village 
