WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

WFHB  will be producing its eighth live radio variety show on March 13 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre.

"Firehouse Follies: Digital Daze" will feature music, skits, storytelling, and comedy, and will serve as a fundraiser for WFHB's digital conversion effort.

Headliners for the show will be all local musicians, and include Ginger Curry and Art Heckman. Additionally, Cathi Norton and her Firehouse Gospel Singers will be back by popular demand to provide the audience a look at some of the best-known songs from the “Girl Group” tradition, and the house band will once again be Dennis Riggins and the Firehouse Swing Thing. Local storyteller Arbutus Cunningham will also be on hand to co-host the show and keep the audience entertained with timely rants and a story.

Indiana State Representative Matt Pierce is the newest member of the WFHB board of directors.

The board unanimously approved Pierce’s selection during their February board meeting. Pierce fills the unexpired term of  Duane Schau, who stepped down last fall.

“Matt Pierce will bring another set of skills and another network to an already strong board of directors,” said WFHB Board President Mark Need. “I look forward to working with him and drawing upon his expertise and experience in radio and telecommunications law.”

Mayor Mark Kruzan delivers his 2010 State of the City Address in a full-length recording of WFHB's live feed from our remote transmitter inside City Hall. Kruzan gets a little help from fire chief Roger Kerr, police chief Mike Diekhoff, and Bloomington Transit director Lew May. After the address Will Murphy and Chad Carrothers gather impressions from local officials and Murphy goes one-on-one with Kruzan for follow-up questions.

Local voices reach a national audience as WFHB goes live from an overnight homeless shelter to hear from social service advocates and people who have experienced homelessness. Our topic is family homelessness, specifically the lack of family shelter in our own community. Hear the tragic story of a family that feigned domestic abuse just so that the mother and children could find shelter...while the father faced criminal charges. Guests include Rev. Jack Skiles, site director for the Interfaith Winter Shelter; Joel Rekas, director of Shalom Community Center; Bobbi Summers, director of Martha's House; Bill Ferry, a local outreach caseworker for the homeless with Centerstone through the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program; and Dorothy Axsom, a mother who almost lost her children in the throes of extreme poverty. Hosted by Darryl Neher and broadcast live all across the country on February 24, 2010 as part of the National Homelessness Marathon.

WFHB signed on in 1993 with a transmitter that was already used. We haven’t made significant upgrades to our transmission equipment since. If WFHB is to stay timely and relevant, we must upgrade our transmitter to support HD Radio. The new equipment is expensive -- nearly $100,000 total. But we have already come a long way to meeting this challenge. We have secured a digital conversion grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting worth $57,000, but we must match it with an additional $28,000. To date we have secured nearly $20,000. Now we need to raise just $8,000 more before March 15th!

The WFHB transmitter will not only be newer, it will be a better, digital transmitter. We will be able to broadcast in high-definition (HD), which allows for additional channels, but just as importantly, improved CD-quality sound. We would love for you to experience that better sound, so if you pledge $180 to help us go digital we have a new Insignia Portable HD radio for you as our way of saying thanks. Of course, any amount is welcome and every pledge is appreciated. So, please show your support for Local, Live, Community, DIGITAL radio.

Click here to donate and help WFHB go digital!

Learn more about HD radio and the CPB Digital Conversion Fund