You can use your existing radio with no problems. But you need to find out the info on your ESC as that's where your problem is. Many ESC's out there have an "arming sequence" that you have to go through. Some will need for the throttle to be brought to the idle position, while others require idle to full throttle and back to idle, and other have different procedures to arm the ESC. What brand of ESC does it have??

Arming usually only affects the throttle, you should be able to control the other control surfaces even without the throttle not responding. Do you get any type of control out of it at all?? Can you take a picture of how you have your receiver, battery, ESC hooked up??

Ken