BY ELAINE DE VALLE

 A Miami Cuban radio station, trying to sway public opinion in the Elian Gonzalez
 custody clash, is launching a national billboard campaign.

 Next month, 25 billboards denouncing the federal raid that took the boy from his
 family's Little Havana home will go up outside 22 major U.S. airports, as well as in
 San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, a Miami radio station
 announced this week.

 The campaign is called ``Wake Up America.''

 ``We want to reach the Anglo and African-American people so they understand
 the problem of Elian and what really happened,'' said Jorge Rodriguez, owner of
 WWFE La Poderosa (670 AM).

 ``We want to show them that there is an injustice being committed against the
 boy, first in the violent form they took him out of the home, and secondly in the
 way they intend to send him back to a totalitarian system where there are no
 parental rights.''

 The first billboards will show the now-famous photograph of Elian in front of a
 helmeted Border Patrol agent brandishing a submachine gun, accompanied by a
 quote from Thomas Jefferson: ``The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the
 same time. The hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.''

 Leasing the billboards for one month costs $228,000, Rodriguez said. But he
 believes the station can raise the money. They have collected nearly $60,000 so
 far, mostly small donations by radio listeners. ``We got 74 checks today,''
 Rodriguez said at 2 p.m. Friday.

 He says Cuban Americans in some of the target cities -- including New York,
 Washington, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco and Little
 Rock, capital of President Bill Clinton's home state -- will help pay for the
 billboards.

 Carlos D'Mant, host of the 4 p.m. Rush Hour talk show, said he came up with the
 idea after hearing from frustrated listeners who could not understand why the
 American public would support the federal raid, as well as returning the rafter boy
 to Cuba with his father. Elian, who left Cuba with his mother, was found at sea on
 Thanksgiving Day. His mother drowned in the voyage.

 ``The listeners were frustrated,'' said D'Mant, who presented the plan on the air
 and was surprised by the response. ``I didn't expect it to take off so well.''

 People are walking in with donations topping about $7,000 a day, D'Mant said.
 ``They range from $2 to the biggest so far, $500.'' The station has also been
 approached by other stations about a radio marathon.

 Since the station can be heard and seen through the Internet, people also called
 from other states, D'Mant said.

 And that was the point -- to take the message to middle America.

 ``I don't need anyone to give me four free billboards in Hialeah,'' D'Mant said.
 ``That's not where we need the message to go. I have nothing to sell there.''

 The first billboards are expected to go up as soon as June 3, but Rodriguez said
 the idea is to lease them for six months and change the message periodically:
 ``We want to have a different message almost every month.'' Other quotes tacked
 on to the AP photo of the raid belong to Martin Luther King Jr. and John F.
 Kennedy.

 The station and other exile groups have used advertising to try to sway public
 opinion before.

 Billboards were leased in Canada and Spain to discourage tourism to the
 communist island and also at the Atlanta Olympics to send a message to Cuban
 delegates.

 La Poderosa also was behind a campaign of postcards bearing the image of Elian
 and his mother which were addressed to the White House.