History

WFHB (Firehouse Broadcasting) started as the dream of radio enthusiasts from Bloomington in the early 1970s. The station didn't go on until 1993.

They can be found on the web at www.wfhb.org/. You can email them at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Organization

Let the aspirations of Firehouse Broadcasting of Bloomington, Indiana serve as a cautionary tale!

Let the aspirations of Firehouse Broadcasting of Bloomington, Indiana serve as a cautionary tale! WFHB started out with an interesting, if not noble, intention: to make a community station that does not serve any one segment of the community more than another.

The founders understood that disenfranchised groups deserved a place on the airwaves, but in WFHB's utopian ideal, the programming would be distributed equally. All groups would have a voice together. WFHB's apparent mission in undertaking such a sizable task was to build a community radio station that reflected all of the community in a balanced manner, thus leaving no one out. WFHB would not just be a tool for the leftist agenda. WFHB went on the air in 1993, determined to carry on their mission of not "catering" to any one group, especially the left.

As WFHB went on to eschew more controversial programming, some started to wonder about the station's neutrality. In 1996, an editorial in a local newspaper charged that WFHB by not airing controversial programs, in effect was catering to the interests of the right. Ironically, the station seemingly began to do just what it purported not to do. In light of the fact that listeners are the backbone of community radio, WFHB wanted to make sure that its station was not exclusive to any listener. Some listeners pointed out that in maintaining a position of neutrality, WFHB was becoming something not unlike commercial radio. This position skirts controversial issues by also claiming neutrality. Critics of the neutrality mission say that community radio will agitate some people no matter how neutral. Any station trying to showcase all voices in a community could stand to embrace those tensions that come from a diverse group. In trying to distance itself from controversy and bias, some Bloomington listeners have felt that WFHB does not always accurately reflect the voices of the community.

Address

PO Box 1973
Bloomington, Indiana 47402
PHONE: 812-323-1200 FAX: 812-323-0320

For more information, see Kevin Howley's article "WFHB and the Legacy of Listener-Sponsored Radio" in the October Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television