Bloomington radio station WFHB will host a benefit concert Saturday at The Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Tickets for the show, which can be bought on the Buskirk-Chumley Theater website, will cost $21.82, and all of the proceeds will go to the local radio station.
The concert includes five bands and will run from 6-11 p.m. The show will start off with KP & the WLGs, followed by The Hammer and The Hatchet, Jeff Shew & the Late-Night Crew, Coyote Motel and finally The Dynamics.
The money earned from the benefit will go to the community radio station in order to fund their day-to-day operations. Jar Turner, WFHB general manager, said the money can go toward funding infrastructure, equipment and other everyday expenses.
After funding cuts and the shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helped fund more than 1,500 local radio and television stations across the country, WFHB and other public broadcast stations have lost a key portion of their funding.
In May 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that stated “The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage.” The funding cuts were then passed by Congress in July, and the corporation decided to shut down at the beginning of January this year.
WFHB was a recipient of the corporation's community services grant, which gave them money for their operations every year. The upcoming benefit will help with this year's shortfall.
“The benefit is important in that events like these really build community and they build resilience,” Turner said. “With kind of the political climate that’s going on in the world right now, community is much needed.”
Due to the funding cuts, the station cut back on staff. The station currently only has six paid staff members and around 150 volunteers. With their limited resources and staff, Turner had his doubts about the success of theconcert. Luckily, WFHB volunteers Steve Philbeck and Jeff Shew were dedicated to planning the event.
Philbeck and Shew came up with the idea for the event and approached Turner about it after the funding cuts. Philbeck said they wanted to plan a benefit concert and thought WFHB would be the logical recipient since they were already involved with the station.
Philbeck, who has been a volunteer at WFHB for almost 30 years and has a regular show called “Fast N Bulbous,” said WFHB is a unique station.
Philbeck said the station tries to represent as much of the community as possible. WFHB has the only show dedicated to issues facing the African American community that’s on weekly in Indiana, as well as a show about LGBTQ+ issues, Philbeck said. Philbeck thinks the station serves the community by creating shows that people have asked for.
“We are the community station,” Philbeck said. “We represent all the views of the community as best we can, and we’re happy to represent more if people bring them to us.”
In order to plan the benefit, Philbeck and Shew coordinated with the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and decided which bands they wanted to play at the concert. Philbeck said they wanted to choose reliable bands who representedthe music taste of Bloomington.
They also decided to keep the ticket price low, Philbeck said, as they really want people to have the opportunity to experience the music and the community of the radio station.
“We really need the support,” Philbeck said. “We’d love to see human beings out physically supporting us as well as financially supporting us with their contribution through their $20 ticket.”
Across the five bands performing at the benefit, there will be around 33-35 different musicians performing at the event
Coyote Motel, a psychedelic band based in Nashville, Tennessee, will perform at the benefit. For this show, they plan to play mainly original music from their four albums but have a few covers in the mix too. They will also be playing original music from the soundtrack of their film, “The River.”
Ted Drozdowski, who plays guitar and is a vocalist for the band, has been in many bands since the ‘90s but says Coyote Motel has been his favorite because of the freedom in song making. He said that to him, music is love, and he enjoys spreading love through music.
“I think we live in a fairly cold time right now, so if we can do whatever we can to make it a little warmer, and a little more caring about people, and to have more sharing and more community, then I think that’s a positive thing,” Drozdowski said.
The band has played in Bloomington before and took advantage of the opportunity to come back for the benefit.
“We also love the station, you know, they play great music, they do great work and we love the people involved, so it just seems absolutely right,” Drozdowski said.
