WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

The WFHB Firehouse Follies series of live variety shows is back, with a spring show titled "Crime and Punishment," featuring the Nashville, Tennessee, group Harpeth Rising. Also appearing is Arbutus Cunningham, the Firehouse Swing Thing, the WFHB Gospel Gurlz, and Art Heckman. Two hours of music and comedy, underwritten by Ivy Tech Community College, Andersen General Construction and Roofing, the Friday Folk Concert Series and the City of Bloomington Animal Shelter's Adopt-A-Pet program.

FIRST HOUR:

The show opens with new lyrics to Hoagy Carmichael's "Riverboat Shuffle," and the Dennis Riggins' Fire House Swing Thing trumpets "Everything's Comin' Up Roses." Col. Mike Kelsey challenges host Richard Fish to a pun contest, and the Gospel Gurlz provide a musical setting for "The Prodigal Skinhead," a sketch by Brian Price. Joseph Legaspi, a doctoral candidate at the I.U. Jacobs School of Music, sings two lovely songs accompanied by pianist Davis Hart. Then Rembrandt & McGillicutty perform a genuine Vaudeville act, Kelsey & Fish have a showdown, and the Gurlz return for a rockin' set. Underwriters for this show include Ivy Tech Community College, BloomingFoods, Morrison's Appliances & Service, Friday Folk, BloomingTunes, and Southern Indiana Pediatrics.

SECOND HOUR:

Hoagy's "Memphis In June" moves to Bloomington to kick off the second hour, and WFHB's Faux News reporters Mike Leonard and Catherine Rademacher scatter barbs in all directions. Joseph Legaspi's fine baritone voice is lifted in another song, beautifully performed -- and then disaster strikes. Everyone is suddenly speaking in Spoonerisms! The very script itself is in peril! Suddenly a rustic time machine appears, manned by the one and only Doctor Whoosier himself. The Doctor takes Mike Leonard and audience volunteer Betty Greenwell off on a somewhat erratic trip through time and space to the Reverend Spooner's secret laboratory, and then back to Bloomington to unmask the Ultimate Villain. Once the English language is restored, the Gospel Gurlz and the Swing Thing finish out the show in a blaze of music.

This is the show that capped off WFHB's most successful Fund Drive ever! Dennis Riggins and the Fire House Swing Thing get off to a rousing start with the Gospel Gurlz, and then co-host Col. Mike Kelsey and sound effects guru Tony Brewer face off in an ad-lib story and FX challenge where neither knows what the other will do next. General Manager Chad Carrothers is overheard conspiring with Ivy Tech Chancellor John Whikehart to get rid of some of the antiques cluttering up the station -- starting with Col. Kelsey and Arbutus Cunningham. A very talented group from Bloomington High School South, with drama teacher Catherine Rademacher, present "South Side Story" with profound apologies to Bill Shakespeare and Lennie Bernstein.

The wolf really is at the door in the second hour of the April Firehouse Follies. There's more music with the Firehouse Swing Thing, Jason Fickel, and the Gospel Gurlz (collectively and individually), and the classic tale of how the Three Little Pigs built radio stations -- only to be threatened by the Big Bad Wolf with a hostile takeover by Amalgamated Wolfworks! Arbutus Cunningham tells one of her hilarious stories, and newly-installed Interim General Manager Chad Carrothers is baptized with pastry in one of WFHB's most cherished traditions.

Our show begins with a rousing gospel number, "No Hiding Place," by our own Gospel Gurlz working with Dennis Riggins and his Firehouse Swing Thing. We then find out what transpired to make guest star Mike Craver the keyboard player he is today in a special edition of Adventures in Music Appreciation: The Keyboardist at the Crossroads. Next we tell (with the help of the Gospel Gurlz) the hitherto untold tale of how WFHB came to have its permanent home with His Landlordship, John Whikehart, chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College.