WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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 attended a meeting or two of the group trying to get the station off the ground.
Kearney would go on to become leader of the group. But that was several years off, after he moved out of town and came back.
Meanwhile, Richard Fish was elected to the board of the group, now calling itself Clear Creek Sounds (CCS), in October ’79. He’d discovered the Firesign Theater’s first album as student at the University of Virginia. “It was like Buddha sitting under a tree,” he says. “Three minutes and 45 seconds into side one, I said, ‘This is what I want to do with my life.'”
Fish traveled to Columbia, Missouri in the spring of 1980 for a workshop sponsored by community radio KOPN. Producers, writers and radio theater people from around the county descended on Columbia. There, Fish made connections and immersed himself in radio theater. He learned how to put on a show and KOPN became a big influence on CCS. Over the years, KOPN people would serve as mentors. “They were kind of our mother station,” Fish says.
Upon his return to Bloomington, Fish immediately put together “The Big Broadcast of 1980.” “I came back so fired up that I emptied my savings account, the entire $250, and I put on a show here at the library auditorium,” Fish says. Featuring original plays, skits, and music before a live audience, the Big Broadcast of 1980 was carried live on WQAX as a fundraiser for CCS. It was so successful, Fish staged another such show in 1981. Any optimism arising from the shows was doused, though, when the FCC denied the CCS application for a frequency in the summer of ’81. A couple of years later, Brian Kearney, emboldened by alcohol, declared himself the group’s new leader.
NEXT POST: “LET’S DO IT!”
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.