WFHB History

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:30 — 81.8MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreOn July 10th, 2025 we’re celebrating WFHB Past and Present – a commemorative concert marking 50 years since the first benefit for the Bloomington Community Radio Project. So today, on WFHB Rewind, we’re taking you back – way back – to the very beginning. Before the transmitters, …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. When Jim Manion was 16, he tried to get a DJ shift at the University of Evansville campus radio station. He was told he had to be a college student to go on the air. “That’s the reason I’ve always been a strong advocate for Youth Radio on WFHB,” he …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. All the while DJs trekked out to Radio Ridge, over hill and dale, in good weather and bad, Jeffrey Morris led a revolving pack of volunteers building out the city’s old central firehouse behind the Waldron Center. The place was a wreck having fallen into disrepair over the years. “There …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Jim Manion had been speaking into a microphone all his life. Little Jim was four years old when his father, who worked in radio in Evansville at the time, brought him into the studio to record a commercial for a local dairy. His dad built him a Heathkit shortwave radio …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. WFHB was on the air at last. It had taken 18 years and the Bloomington Community Radio people had experienced a number of false hopes and heartbreaks before it happened. It was a long road indeed. Music director Jim Manion had recruited dozens of volunteer DJs. Richard Fish had set …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. The City of Bloomington’s old city hall and main firehouse sat empty and unused. Brian Kearney had forged an alliance with the Bloomington Area Arts Council, an umbrella organization that advocated for artists and hoped to be a home for all sorts of local creative types. Thanks to a generous …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. December 1991: Winter was descending on Bloomington. The phone rang at Jim Manion’s house. It was Brian Kearney bearing great news: the FCC had approved Bloomington Community Radio’s construction permit application. That meant BCR could begin building its antenna tower 11 miles south of the city. The permit in hand, …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Even into the early 1990s, non-commercial radio stations within 50 miles of big cities ran the risk of interfering with the audio signals of certain TV stations. Bloomington Community Radio (BCR) already had been denied an FCC permit due to the reach of  Indianapolis’s WRTV, Ch. 6. BCR also had …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Brian Kearney persisted even after Bloomington Community Radio (BCR) was denied a license by the FCC in 1987. Persistence was a hallmark, a tradition among the members of the nonprofit group trying to start a community radio station here. Kearney might even have learned how to be persistent by watching …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Here’s what the group hoping to start a community radio station in Bloomington called itself through the years: From 1975 through 1977: Community Radio Project (CRP) From 1977 through 1984: Clear Creek Sounds (CCS) From 1984 on: Bloomington Community Radio (BCR) The name changed but its goal remained the same …