WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series.
The group that had formed nearly ten years earlier around Mark Hood and Jeffrey Morris’s idea to start an independent radio station in Bloomington seemed ready to fold.
The FCC had denied the group’s application for a license in 1981. Now, in the spring of 1983, a “savior” came back on the scene. Brian Kearney arrived in Bloomington as an Indiana University undergrad in 1979. He’d moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1982 to chase romance and returned in ’83, lovelorn but imbued with a passion of a different sort. He’d discovered community radio WORT while in Madison. He’d attended a meeting or two of the group trying to start Bloomington’s station before he’d left. Upon his return, the thought of a community radio station here, something very much like WORT, nagged at him.
One night, Kearney went to a live music show at the Bluebird. Like many college students — Kearney was studying business administration at the Kelley School — he enjoyed a spirited refreshment or two on occasion. This night, he’d partaken of a number of such refreshments. He ran into Jim Manion, whom he’d met attending a meeting of the group the first time he was in town. “I was inebriated,” Kearney remembers. “I kind of got in his face. I was just fired up. I wanted to know why this was such a great idea and nothing was really happening. There was just talking, talking, talking.”
Manion responded, “We need a leader. We need somebody in charge.” He looked Kearney in the eye and said, “Brian, you should be the leader!”
“It was just the right moment,” Kearney remembers. He met Manion’s gaze and blurted out, “Let’s do it!”
Kearney turned out to be just what Bloomington community radio needed. He brought a business sense to the group. He worked tirelessly at things nobody had done before, like courting wealthy donors and establishing relationships within the local business and political communities.
The group, nearly dead prior to that night at the Bluebird, rose back up dramatically.
NEXT POST: HERMAN’S CARETAKER
Come back for more tales from the WFHB genesis story in this space. We’ll be posting each week as WFHB celebrates its 31st year as Bloomington’s home of community radio.
