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Roots of a Revolution

The voice that launched a thousand rebel stations

By Michael Mechanic

While Stephen Dunifer's challenge to the FCC has led many to consider him the founder of the free radio movement, Dunifer's inspiration came from a man who has been broadcasting in defiance of the FCC since the mid-1980s.With the support of Mike Townsend, a professor of social work at a small college in Springfield, Ill., a young, blind African American man named Mbanna Kantako began broadcasting on a 1-watt homemade transmitter he found in a mail-order catalog from Panaxis Communications in Paradise, Calif.

Kantako lives in a public housing project in East Springfield, where the city's black residents are concentrated. Thus, even with the small transmitter, the 27-year-old was able to reach a large portion of his targeted community.

Kantako called the station WTRA, the "TRA" standing for the projects' Tenants Rights Association, of which he was a member. He later changed the name to "Black Liberation Radio" and quite recently to "African Liberation Radio."

Kantako broadcast for years without incident, expanding into full-time programming. But the FCC paid him a visit after some youths from the projects came on his program to tell their side of an altercation with the housing authority police. The FCC ordered Kantako to quit broadcasting. He went off the air for about a week, but soon changed his mind and returned to the airwaves, calling a press conference and contacting federal authorities to announce his return.

The FCC responded with a $750 fine, but Kantako couldn't get a court-appointed lawyer for a civil case and he refused to go to court. He was found guilty by default and ordered to pay the fine. He never paid and the FCC hasn't pursued the matter.

But press attention aroused interest from people wanting to start their own stations. Radio Free Detroit came on the air, and was eventually busted by the FCC. Then came Free Radio Berkeley, followed closely by San Francisco Liberation Radio.

"We were technical [incompetents], but Kantako is a master programmer," says Townsend, 57, now at the University of Illinois. "We were hoping someone like Dunifer would come along to help people who aren't electronic whizzes get on the air, and so I guess that's happened."

Kantako is on the air every day from 7pm to midnight on 107.3FM broadcasting his own perspectives on the local news, education, police relations and community affairs. Townsend says Kantako, who has upgraded to a 13-watt transmitter, has no interest in getting a legitimate broadcasting license. "Kantako has no faith at all in the power structure," Townsend says. "He feels he is making a significant contribution and not interfering with anyone and he should just be left alone. He looked for an open space on the spectrum--he's not out to tromp on anybody else out there."

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