WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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 operators.
Long before the 1980s, freelance unlicensed broadcasters had become outlaws. One such “pirate” was a fellow named Bruce Quinn here in Bloomington. Operating out of homes and living rooms and always on the move, Quinn transmitted low power signals and played music for several hours each night. Unbeknownst to the Bloomington Community Radio people, Quinn was eager to go straight.
Jeffrey Morris had located yet another potential frequency, 95.1 FM, for a local community radio station. As Morris and company began preparing an FCC application for the frequency, Quinn was invited to attend a few BCR meetings. He, too, had identified 95.1 as a likely dial position for a legitimate radio station he wanted to start. Quinn and BCR batted around the idea that the two parties might work together on an FCC application. Both sides quickly came to the conclusion their putative partnership would never work.
“We came to the conclusion we weren’t going to be able to play well in the sandbox with Bruce,” Kearney says. Both Quinn and BCR marshaled their resources to make a pitch to the FCC for 95.1 FM to serve Bloomington. Quinn beat BCR to the punch. He filed an application for the frequency in March 1986. BCR filed a competing claim for it in July. Quinn responded by amnending his application, saying his station now would serve Brown County.
Kearney tried to negotiate with Quinn to no avail. “We wound up lawyering up,” Kearney says. “Talking wasn’t working.”
BCR would spend more than $10,000 on legal fees throughout the process.
In June 1989, the FCC ruled for Quinn, reasoning Nashville had no radio station serving it and so had priority over Bloomington, which already had several stations. “We played this game of chess and he wound up winning,” Kearney says.
It was the BCR’s second rejection in the decade. The group, though, redoubled its efforts to get an FCC license after that.
A postscript: Quinn never operated a station on that frequency. He sold his license to a Christian broadcaster with a target audience in Bloomington.
NEXT POST: DEVINE INTERVENTION
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.
