WFHB celebrates 20 years of radio

Before instant streaming and digital downloads, Mark Hood and Jeff Morris had a plan to broadcast Bloomington’s music to a wider audience.

Twenty-eight years after the initial idea for the local radio station, WFHB is celebrating 20 years on the air.

The vision for the station began in 1974, and in 1975 a small group founded the Community Radio Project to help launch WFHB.

WFHB Music Director Jim Manion said he met Morris — now the station’s engineer — and Hood as an undergraduate student during an engineering workshop at the music studio where Hood worked.

“They were all involved with the local music scene, and so was I as a young IU student,” Manion said. “I grew up around broadcasting and was very attracted to the idea.”

Manion recalled attending a benefit to help raise money for the radio station at The Bluebird Nightclub on July 10, 1975 — 10 days before his 21st birthday.

After 18 years of planning and overcoming technical obstacles, WFHB began broadcasting on Jan. 4, 1993.

“At that time, it was really hard for local bands to get any kind of airplay,” said Emily Jackson, a member of the WFHB board of directors and a volunteer disk jockey at the station. “The music industry was a big monolith that was hard to get involved with. It was a good way to highlight local music and local musicians.”

Board members at the station planned monthly events this year to celebrate its 20th anniversary, including the “Women Rule: Finding a Voice at WFHB” concert in March and the sixth annual Acoustic Roots Festival in May.

This month, WFHB collaborated with the City of Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District to create an atrium exhibit about the station’s history at City Hall.
Featuring photographs, artifacts and documents, the exhibit is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The display features items that chronicle the history of WFHB as well as Bloomington music.

“The local music scene of the mid-’70s was a huge reason why the original group of people wanted to get the station on the air,” Manion said. “There was an amazing music scene back then as well.”

In 2002, Chad Carrothers, then a WFHB volunteer, worked with former station manager Ryan Bruce to launch the station’s News and Public Affairs Initiative.

They created the Daily Local News, Bloomington’s first and only daily 30-minute
radio news broadcast.

The Society of Professional Journalists has given the program numerous awards as part of its Best of Indiana contest.

With the addition of the news department, Manion said WFHB “became a full-service radio station rather than just a place for cool music.”

Now the general manager of WFHB, Carrothers attributes the station’s continued community involvement to partnerships with Bloomingfoods, Rhino’s Youth Center and Lotus World Music and Arts Festival.

“WFHB has evolved from a radio station into an arts organization,” Carrothers said. “The key to that, really, has been the institutional partnerships we’ve been able to develop over time.”

In addition to 91.3 FM — the original WFHB frequency broadcast to Bloomington, Bedford, Ind. and Martinsville, Ind., — the station now broadcasts at 106.3 FM in Ellettsville, Ind., and Spencer, Ind., as well as 100.7 FM in Nashville, Ind.

“The death of radio has been predicted for 15 to 20 years now because of all these other things, and it hasn’t gone away,” Manion said. “It’s not going away. Terrestrial broadcasting from your antennae to your audience who’s listening in real time is a valuable service and a very healthy experience for the listener.”

Manion estimated nearly 300 volunteers are involved with the station from board members to journalists to volunteer DJs.

As programming has expanded and some broadcasting methods have changed, Manion said WFHB’s mission to celebrate local culture and create an open forum to discuss issues remains the same.

“The vision for what we wanted to create has definitely been successful to the 10th power,” he said.