Late summer and early fall is always a fun but hectic time in Bloomington. WFHB has it's own fall frenzy, with our fund drive and Lotus Festival always falling near each other. Whichever comes first really makes no difference, but these major fall events always mean a six-week rush of long days and a positive coming together of the volunteer and staff power it takes to keep WFHB moving and growing.

When Fund drive was over, we only had a few days to get ready for our annual run of special programming connected to Lotus Festival. Each year we dedicate our music programming on the Friday of Lotus Festival to an exclusive mix of CD tracks, along with live performances and interviews with festival artists.

This year we were thrilled to kick off the Lotus mix a half-day earlier on Thursday afternoon. As the Lotus performance tents went up on the streets of Bloomington Thursday afternoon, WFHB's Lotus mix kicked off at 1:00 p.m. to boost the Lotus vibe with samples of the musical diversity this annual music fete draws to town, while we tried to get live performers into the studio on Thursday. Travel delays had us settling for a phone interview with Ori Kaplan of Balkan Beat Box as he rolled south from the Indy airport to Lotusland. Despite the stress of trying to maintain a cell phone connection in rural Indiana, Steve Volan's informative and enthusiastic interview with Ori was a hoot.

Live Lotus music on the air had to wait until Friday. We squeezed as much on the air as we could, with live performances for Chango Spasiuk, Toubab Krewe, Red Stick Ramblers, 17 Hippies, and Puerto Plata. MC Rai and Brina stopped by the station for interviews on Friday. And, members of the March Fourth Marching Band visited Mark Richardson Saturday morning on Roots for Breakfast. I could write a thousand words about the heady experience of being in a live radio studio with all these exciting artists from across the globe. But, I'll use my remaining space to instead thank the WFHB volunteers who made WFHB's Lotus programming possible.

Big thanks to music programmers "Tall Steve" Volan, Mark Richardson, Emily Jackson, Dan "G-Man" Selvaggi, Tillman Piedmont and Catie Kosinski, who all helped present the all-Lotus mix from the DJ studio. WFHB's Hola Bloomington crew hosted the live set and interview with Spanish-speaking Puerto Plata. Live music engineers Shane Young, Seth Mahern and Jeffrey Morris set up microphones, sound-checked the bands and made the live performances sound incredible over the airwaves. Allison Strang greeted artists as they arrived at the station and helped them in and out of the studio. Cindy Levindofske sought out and got great on-location station IDs from many festival artists.

After major events like our fund drive and Lotus programming, something akin to post-partum depression sets in for a few days before things get back to normal at the radio station (whatever that is!). It makes sense, though, because in a way we have given birth to a few things since early September- better financial stability and a stronger volunteer spirit at WFHB, and another one-of-a-kind broadcast experience of music from around the world as only WFHB can present it. We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again to everyone involved!

By Jim Manion