WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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 lost its chance to acquire a commercial frequency farther up the dial but an operator pledging to start a radio station serving Nashville had lodged a successful challenge to get the spot.
Working with New Orleans radio engineer Ken Devine and the Washington, DC law firm, Bechtel & Cole, specialists in FCC applications, BCR learned that if it located its broadcast tower more than 10 miles south of Bloomington, it would not run afoul of WRTV’s signal. Now more financially secure than ever, after Cecile Waldron’s gift and Brian Kearney’s hat-in-hand work around town, BCR was able to buy a tiny square of land in a cornfield just off Rockport Road, 11 miles south of Bloomington. BCR applied for an FCC construction permit; Kearney, Jeffrey Morris, Jim Manion, Richard Fish and the rest, certain they had done all they could to satisfy FCC requirements, sat back and waited for the FCC to respond.
This time, though, BCR folks felt confident.
NEXT POST: BONFIRE!
Come back for more tales from the WFHB genesis story in this space as we celebrate our 31st year as Bloomington’s home of community radio.
