WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

On March 27th, WFHB offered the "WFHB Radio Extravaganza: An Evening With Border Radio" at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. If you weren't able to make the performance, you can listen to it on-line:

www.wfhb.org/music/live

"Colonel" Mike Kelsey hosted the show, along with the ever-popular Arbutus Cunningham. The inimitable Richard Fish served as both director and announcer. The program features Jeni & Billy, a marvellous Appalachian-folk duo from Nashville, Tennessee, and a bunch of great Bloomington musical talent, including Cathi Norton, Art Heckman, Jason Fickel, the Firehouse Gospel Singers, and our house jazz band, Dennis Riggins and the Firehouse Swing Thing.

"Herald-Times" columnist Mike Leonard joined us for a special radio report, and we go back in time with the first live performance of the RadioSynclastic Infandibulator, the radio time-machine familiar to listeners of The Fire House Theatre (8-10 p.m. Sunday). Of course Arbutus tells one of her hilarious stories, and is transformed into a radio preacher in another very funny segment.

The show highlights the world of Border Radio in the 1930s -- stations like XERA, located in Mexico (and thus beyond FCC regulation), which pumped out as much as a million watts of homespun and sometimes truly dubious programming. As you'll hear, we had a whole lot of fun, and a fabulous audience in the theatre!

The program served as a billboard for WFHB's Spring 2009 Fund Drive, which concluded April 12th. But if you somehow overlooked that opportunity to pledge support for community radio in our area, you can still do so on our secure Web site.

Thanks for supporting Bloomington Community Radio!