Radioscapes: Reimagining the Contours of Community through Complex Broadcasting Systems
Companion media for my doctoral dissertation for the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University.
Interactive Map
Below is an interactive map made with uMap, an extension of the Open Street Map project. Zoom in and out by using your mouse scroll wheel or the plus and minus icons on the top left interface. Also at the top left are a button to view the map in full screen (recommended) and one to toggle layers off and on. Each layer shows landmarks prominent in a different dissertation chapter. A layer that shows the location of WFHB and its transmitter and translator towers is visible by default. Best viewed on desktop. For mobile devices, view map on uMap.
Interactive Floor Plan
Below is a diagram of the WFHB downtown facilities based on an original floor plan sketch made interactive using the Flourish app. Clicking on any of the shapes overlaying sections of the floor plan will bring up a video of still and moving images that correspond to that area. Best viewed on desktop.
Audio
Below are files of selected sound events discussed in the manuscript.
Chapter One: Radio as Lightning Rod
Recording of the lightning strike that hit downtown Bloomington during a storm on September 20, 2024, causing extensive damage to WFHB's facilities at the beginning of the last weekend of the station's fall fund drive. Recorded incidentally by WFHB co-founder and former music director Jim Manion five or so blocks west of WFHB.
Chapter Two: Radio as Resonance Chamber
Excerpt of recording on my Zoom H1n recorder on July 4, 2024, when I accompanied Jar to Radio Ridge, where he needed to fix some equipment. The differences in the soundscape outside the shack (crickets, birds, occasional cars) and inside the shack (largely transmitter equipment) are distinct.
Lotus Live on WFHB session from September 16, 2016, hosted by WFHB's then-music director Jim Manion and featuring guest Rocky Dawuni. This file was publicly available on the WFHB website until it was removed for storage reasons. The file is still housed in the WFHB internal archives.
Chapter Three: Radio as Collective Improvisation
Message recorded on March 14, 2020, and which ran periodically throughout the time that WFHB suspended live programming in favor of automation for safety during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Music used is Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues."
Montage of recordings made from the WFHB webstream during the fall 2020 fund drive for a seminar project under the direction of Dr. Julianne Graper. Some programs are being broadcast from inside the WFHB air room, others from remote locations.
Firehouse Session with Erica Dawn Lyle on November 14, 2025.
Chapter Four: Radio as Collage Art
An abbreviated version of a 1998 episode of WFHB's Interchange hosted by Shana Ritter and featuring guests Linda Billings, an instructor in journalism at Indiana University, and Sarah Rupel, a student in the Indiana University journalism program and the then-ombudsman of the Indiana Daily Student. The original episode was entitled "Who Owns the Media?" and was broadcast live during the 1998 spring fund drive and recorded to cassette. This version was aired on April 28, 2025, as part of WFHB Rewind during a spring fund drive. At the end is the standard archive segment tag and remarks from Kade Young, WFHB's news director.
Excerpts from a September 7, 2021 episode of Interchange titled 'Authority and U: On the Anti-Democratic Campus.' In this episode, host Doug Storm spoke with City Council member Steve Volan about his Master's thesis, 'Gownsburg: The Campus as Municipal Phenomenon,' which explores the paternalistic ideologies of college campuses and how they come into conflict with democracy. This segment was edited and aired on WFHB Rewind on August 13, 2025.
Excerpts from an episode of Interchange broadcast on August 31, 2021, titled 'The Mask of the Public Good: What the University Costs Community.' Host Doug Storm spoke with Davarian Baldwin, an urbanist, historian, cultural critic, and professor of American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. They talk about Dr. Baldwin's book 'In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities,' and discuss the complex and often contentious relationships between colleges and college towns, what Dr. Baldwin calls the 'universe-city.' This segment was edited and aired on WFHB Rewind on August 20, 2025.
Excerpts from an episode of Interchange broadcast May 4, 1999. In it, host Darryl Neher talks with IU English Professor Stephen Watt and graduate student Sarah Stevens about the relationships between economics and academics. This episode was digitized from a cassette stored in the WFHB archives. The edited version aired as a segment on WFHB Rewind on August 27, 2025.
Conclusion: Radio as Community
A clip captured from the WFHB webstream of DJ Kulow experimenting with a turntable during For the Record on the last day of the 2025 fall fund drive. Song is "Semifinal" by Giorgio Moroder.
Video
Below are videos relevant to content in the manuscript. Please note that because they are embedded from external digital sources, the media as shown here may eventually become unavailable. VPN users may have difficulty viewing the videos as embedded and may instead need to view the videos directly on YouTube. Playlist here.
Lorenzo Milam's keynote speech at NARK 2 in Telluride, Colorado, 1976. Referenced in the introduction, chapter one, and the conclusion.
Scene from NewsRadio episode "Rap" (1997, season 3, episode 12) in which radio station owner Jimmy James (Stephen Root) argues with reporter Lisa Miller (Maura Tierney) and station manager Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) about the nature of advertising. Referenced in chapter one.
Scene from the film Breaking Away (1979) in which Ray Stohler (Paul Dooley) walks through campus with his son Dave (Dennis Christopher). Referenced in chapter one.
Hermeto Pascoal performs in a lake as part of the documentary film Sinfonia do Alto Ribeira (1985). Referenced in chapter three.
Slideshow audio and video displayed at the WFHB Past and Present event as the main feature of an archival media listening station. Discussed in chapter four, with approximate text transcriptions in Appendix B.