WFHB History

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Pirate radio in America has been a thing since 1912, when the US Congress passed a law regulating the use of the airwaves by hobbyists, experimenter, and others. Over the years federal regulation of the radio spectrum became more stringent with the FCC allotting frequencies to both commercial and private …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. For the first seven years of its existence, the Community Radio Project (CRP) was populated by people who loved radio. There were technical experts, veteran broadcasters, music aficionados, radio theater producers, and more. All they’d lacked was someone who had a head for business. When Brian Kearney came along in …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Clear Creek Sounds (CCS) was nearly moribund when Brian Kearney ran into Jim Manion at the Bluebird that spring night in 1983. After CCS’s application for a license was rejected by the FCC (its signal would conflict with that of WUOL in Louisville), just about everybody involved in the effort …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Brian Kearney fancied himself a sly fox. By applying for and being accepted as one of Herman B. Wells’ caretakers, he just might be able to obtain the legendary Indiana University leader’s blessing for the proposed Bloomington community radio station. Wells, though, was a slier fox. He knew from the …

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 …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. In the spring of 1979, a sophomore transfer from the University of North Carolina arrived on Bloomington’s Indiana University campus. By and by, he’d catch wind of the effort to start a community radio station in town. He was a musician, a saxophone player. His name was Brian Kearney. He …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Despite running into the Channel 6 brick wall — powerful WRTV TV Ch. 6 in Indianapolis controlled a lane of the broadcast spectrum uncomfortably close to the noncommercial frequency Jeffrey Morris hoped to secure for the planned Bloomington community radio station — the folks who supported the Community Radio Project …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station; a continuing series. Every radio station needs a frequency. That is, a lane on the electromagnetic spectrum where its signal — the stuff you’ll actually hear on your radio — can travel. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acts as a traffic cop, directing each radio and TV station to an assigned lane, its …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station, a continuing series. The motley crew hoping to start a community radio station in Bloomington almost perfectly represented the mid-1970s subculture. The original idea people, Mark Hood and Jeffrey Morris, along with eager WQAX veterans Jim Manion, Richard Fish, Robyn Carey, and Nick Brubaker, could, many of them, be described as late-age-hippies. Manion, …

The history of Bloomington’s community radio station, a continuing series. In the summer of 1975, Mark Hood and Jeffrey Morris had a few hundred dollars in a bank account. Knowing nothing about the process at first, at least they’d learned they needed money to start their community radio station. Morris went to the Monroe County Public Library and looked up …