Isaiah Newburn is outgoing, energetic and rather self-assured for a 16-year-old.
He's proud of those character traits and plans to use them in his new volunteer role with a Little Rock neighborhood radio station that went on the air in November. He's getting a chance most could only dream of: his own show.
"Have you ever been watching TV or a YouTube video, or Instagram, and someone is saying something that's so wrong, so racist, and you just want to scream at them and say 'you are wrong'? This is my opportunity to scream back," Newburn said.
He and dozens of other youth and community members have signed on as volunteers for KWCP 98.9 low-power FM West Central Community Radio.
It's a community station paid for by the city of Little Rock using grant money.
The Isaiah Newburn Show -- when it airs -- will be a mix of everything, Newburn said.
"I feel like I have a unique perspective that most people don't," he said. "I'm half black, but my mom is half white and half Mexican, but adopted by two white parents. I feel like I've adapted more to the black culture, but I was still raised in the household of my mom. I feel like my perspective on most things would be completely different, because I've never met anybody like me -- thank God. This is my way to say things that most people wouldn't say."
Shows on the radio station vary from talk shows to music hours to poetry readings and more.
The only paid employee is Station Manager Kwami Abdul-Bey, who is paid by the city to work 25 hours a week. He also works full time at the Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services.
Abdul-Bey created the internationally syndicated PHAT LIP! YouthTalk Radio show in Little Rock in the 1990s. The setup for West Central Community Radio is based on his former show.
The station is located in the newly constructed West Central Community Center. It's meant to allow neighborhood members and youths to reach a wider audience, developed their voices and use them more efficiently.
Leron McAdoo, a former radio producer turned teacher, said the means to do that is the power of a community station.
McAdoo, his son and his daughter will volunteer at the station. He will host a show called Writeous Hour, where youths perform poetry, read poems they like and interview poets. It will air weekly.
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McAdoo was known as Ron MC the Hip Hoptimist in the entertainment world. Now his son raps and produces music, and his daughter is a poet.
"This station allows access to voices that aren't being heard -- voices that are more marginal than mainstream -- and those points of views, those customs, those attitudes," McAdoo said. "There's this perception in some quarters about colorblindness that minority groups a lot of times don't subscribe to. ... I want you to see my color, see and recognize what I bring to the table, my contributions, my uniqueness. This station is a great vehicle for that."
Little Rock resident Elizabeth Centeno and her 14-year-old daughter, Heaven Friaz, will host a show on Latin and Hispanic communities and culture.
Centeno said KWCP shows the community that "our youth want to be more. They are not lazy. They want more, and they want to succeed."
She and her daughter hope their show pushes out stereotypes about Hispanics and makes the community aware that there are more than just Mexicans in Arkansas. While her husband is Mexican, she is Puerto Rican.
When the city was looking for someone to run the new low-powered FM radio station, Abdul-Bey was the first person who came to mind. He's well known for his PHAT LIP! YouthTalk Radio show from the 1990s. He started the show after the HBO documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock aired, when many youths were angry about how their generation was portrayed.
"We wanted an alternative view. The young people were talking about, 'We need to boycott HBO,' and I was like, 'No, don't hate the media, become the media," Abdul-Bey said. It's a slogan he still uses at the bottom of his email signatures today.
Despite having a full-time job where he works 12-hour shifts three days a week, and having a young child to help care for, Abdul-Bey said he immediately said yes when offered the opportunity to become station manager at KWCP.
"I knew the potential. I knew this would be a revolutionary step in youth empowerment. I wanted to be a part of it. Sometimes when I think of all the work I have to do in order to be a part of it, I'm like, 'Wow, was I not thinking straight?' But I knew this would totally revolutionize youth empowerment here in Arkansas, and I was glad to be back home and for this opportunity to assist in that," he said.
His wife, Clarice Abdul-Bey, volunteers her time as assistant station manager.
For youths, the station is more than a way to have their voices heard. It's also a training opportunity. Through partnerships with Boy Scouts of America, the Toastmasters International Gavel Club, StoryCorps and others, every volunteer gets access to training and resources.
Many parents said they hope this allows their children to see whether broadcasting is a career path they may want to take.
Joseph Reed, a 17-year-old Central High School student, will work behind the scenes at the station, learning to do production and work the sound boards.
"I feel like I'm sort of ahead of the game working as a high school senior," he said.
His mother, Debra Clark Booker, is also volunteering at the station, helping with a daily community show that will run from 4-6 p.m. and touch on local politics and community events.
"It's a thing we've been needing for a long time. Not only will it be entertainment, but it will be real information -- not just information with comedy behind it," she said.
Philip LaBeau, an 18-year-old senior at eStem High Public Charter School, was the first volunteer to sign up for the station.
"My band was put on the radio in the summer, and that blew our minds. We were pretty unpopular and didn't expect anyone to put us on the radio. That got me thinking, I'd like to start something where I can take local, cool musicians and put them on the radio. I considered that a pipe dream until I talked with Kwami," LaBeau said.
He will fill his show slot will local punk and metal acts, and may play some music himself, he said.
McAdoo's son, Norel McAdoo, 17, also is excited to get his own music played on the radio. He will have a segment within his dad's show called "SIMO the CEO," which originates from his first single "Step Into My Office" and his rap name, CEO Norel.
"It will be me teaching everyone the ways of being hip, cool, whatever, just in the new -- what types of clothes is cool, the music I think is hot right now," the younger McAdoo said with a boyish grin as he leaned forward in his seat.
The radio station grew out of an idea of Ward 6 City Director Doris Wright, who championed the construction of the West Central Community Center. It is a division of the city's Community Programs Department.
"I am very excited about the potential and the opportunities this radio station presents to the citizens of Little Rock," said Dana Dossett, director of the department.
"We are creating a new way to reach not just the citizens of Little Rock, but the station can already be heard throughout Pulaski County. And we fully expect to be internationally syndicated across the world by the end of 2017," Dossett said. "All I can say right now is: You haven't seen nothing yet!"
Metro on 12/31/2016