John Weber:
It all started with Collins Improv, which I started going to in about '87, after it had been going for a couple of years. I was mainly an audience member, having a severe allergic reaction to getting up in front of crowds. In '89, I took off to Nashville TN, to work in the music/audio industry down there, but returned in '92, when I found Collins Improv still going, but with most of the core members no longer students.
At the same time, looking for studio work, I met Mr. Fish, who, like he does with everyone, gave me his Audio Theater spiel. I invited him to an Improv, as I thought many of the folks would like another outlet for their obvious creativity (and I also asked them first). The two forces gelled, with the newly formed WFHB as a catalyst, cause we knew we'd have an outlet for anything we did.
We started out doing mostly comedy, including “Timestone 175” a twisted history of Bloomington for the then-being-celebrated 175th anniversary of B-Town, Nothing On TeleVision — a parody of TV, which keeps proving more and more proophetic, The Adventures of Tim, and Schroedinger Hotel — an ongoing live show... a situation in search of a comedy.
But one night at a recording session, bored out of their skulls, Matt and Dave started writing Hayward — starting with 2 episodes. After Fish got positive feedback from Andy Trudeau from NPR, we produced 4 more, aired them on WFHB in 93, and submitted them to Mr. Trudeau. He wanted the story developed further, so we got it through episode 8, and it aired on NPR in '94. In '97, Andy wanted to air it again, with the story further developed (or concluded), so we managed to produce two more.
A combination of factors, including personality conflicts, and the realization that nobody was going to make any money doing this, had been growing nearly since the start, and by the time of the '97 airing of Hayward, the group had mostly blown itself apart.
