DOWN FROM THE HILLS

Radio Venceremos, the guerrilla radio that survived the Salvadoran civil war, broadcasting daily despite aerial bombardment and close combat, is facing a different kind of challenge -- gaining new listeners, and even advertisers.

During the war, Venceremos was known for its strident reports about the revolution and discourses against the imperialist United States. Although its facts didn't always check out, it provided information on the rebels not reported by the legal media. Last February, with the signing of the Salvadoran peace accords, Venceremos became legal too, and began the transition from mountain hideaways to public life.

The station's new approach has surprised a few. During the ceremonies for the peace accords, its reporters interviewed some long-time enemies -- including former U.S. Ambassador William Walker. "When they put the mike out I didn't think about it," says Walker, who was in El Salvador between 1988 and February 1992. "Then I remembered what they had said about me during the war."

"The guerrilla radio died with peace," says Santiago Gallo, the forty-four-year-old Venezuelan who joined Venceremos at the beginning of the war. "Now we have to show people what radio can do for their lives."

The station's new headquarters are in a middle-class neighborhood in San Salvador,120 miles from the mountains where it transmitted throughout the war; state-of-the-art equipment is replacing the cheap sound mixer, car battery, and old auto antenna it used to use. Gallo, a willowy graying man who serves as a sort of news director, ahs shed his olive-green fatigues for tailored jackets and dress pants.

Now that the guerrillas have formed a political party, the station will serve as its voice. The new slogan is: "Venceremos. Revolutionizing radio to unite El Salvador."

Station members may have a hard time matching their wartime exploits, however. In 1984, for example, a piece of the station's equipment was used as a weapon against Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, one of the army's most effective officers. Monterrosa, who had a grudge against Venceremos, which constantly referred to him as "Pig's Lips," was lured by the prospect of capturing Venceremos's radio repeater. But the repeater (actually one the station no longer used) was stuffed with dynamite and fitted with a remote-controlled activator. As Monterrosa was flying back to hold a press conference announcing the end of Venceremos, the device blew him out of the sky. Six other top officers died with him.

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