The WFHB Story, Episode 6: Emotional Roller Coaster

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 (CRP) remained optimistic. Surely, the volunteers felt, Morris would soon dig up a usable frequency. He worked feverishly to find one.

Of more pressing importance was the task of raising money. More money. The group’s first foray into fundraising, the Bluebird live concert in July of 1975, had generated more than $700. The group soon realized that would be a drop in the bucket. People went about the business of staging more benefits for the proposed station. There were pancake breakfasts at various restaurants around town, with Jim Manion, Mark Hood, and Nick Brubaker sweating over the grills, concerts, including one with legendary jazz mandolin player Jethro Burns, and two “Trance Dances.” All benefited the CRP. With each success the optimism grew.

By the late 1970s, Morris indeed had found another frequency far enough away from the Indy Ch. 6 lane. The group (renamed Clear Creek Sounds in 1977)) filed an application with the FCC for 90.5 FM and waited for the expected favorable response. On June 10, 1981, a letter from the FCC arrived. It contained bad news; the application had been rejected. It was yet another example of how the pre-internet search for a frequency could break an applicant’s heart. In the time since Morris had found 90.5, Louisville’s public radio station WUOL, airing on the same frequency, had applied for and been granted a big power increase. Its coverage area now approached Bloomington. “Boom!” says Richard Fish. “We were shot down.”

The rejection took the heart out of the volunteers. “Everybody quit except me,” says Morris. “Nobody else was thinking about the station anymore. Everybody was gone.”

NEXT POST: BIG BROADCASTS & A TIPSY SAVIOR

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.