East Central Indiana is a region in Indiana east of Indianapolis, Indiana, and borders the Ohio state line. The Indiana Gas Boom, which took place during the 1890s, changed much of the area from small agricultural communities to larger cities with economies that included manufacturing. Companies such as Ball Corporation and Overhead Door once had their headquarters in the region. Glass manufacturing was the first industry to be widespread in the area, because of the natural gas. As the glass industry faded, many of the skilled workers became employed at auto parts factories in cities such as Muncie and Anderson. With the decline of the American automobile industry, East Central Indiana became part of the Rust Belt. Many communities have been forced to reinvent themselves with a focus on services or a return to agriculture.
Blackford County is located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Indiana. The county is named for Judge Isaac Blackford, who was the first speaker of the Indiana General Assembly and a long-time chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. Created in 1838, Blackford County is divided into four townships, and its county seat is Hartford City. Two incorporated cities and one incorporated town are located within the county. The county is also the site of numerous unincorporated communities and ghost towns. Occupying only 165.58 square miles (428.9 km2), Blackford County is the fourth smallest county in Indiana. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 12,112. Based on population, the county is the 8th smallest county of the 92 in Indiana. Although no interstate highways are located in Blackford County, three Indiana state roads cross the county, and an additional state road is located along the county's southeast border. The county has two railroad lines. A north–south route crosses the county, and intersects with a second railroad line that connects Hartford City with communities to the west.
Hartford City is a city in the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Blackford County. Located in the northeast central portion of the state, the small farming community underwent a dramatic 15-year economic boom beginning in the late 1880s. The Indiana Gas Boom resulted from the discovery and exploitation of natural gas in the area. The rural economy was transformed to one that included manufacturing. The boom attracted workers and residents, retail establishments, and craftspeople. The increased population was a catalyst for the construction of roads, schools, and churches. After the boom came a long period of growth and stability. Agriculture remained as the basis for the economy.
WLBC-FM is a commercial FM radio station in Muncie, Indiana. It is owned by Woof Boom Radio and airs a hot adult contemporary radio format. The radio studios and transmitter are on East 29th Street in the Southside of Muncie.
Area code 765 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the central part of the U.S. state of Indiana. The numbering plan area comprises a horseshoe-shaped region of twenty counties in Central Indiana except for the Indianapolis area, which is served by area codes 317 and 463. Some cities included are Anderson, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Frankfort, Greencastle, Kokomo, Lafayette, Marion, Muncie, New Castle, Richmond, and West Lafayette. The area code was created in 1997 in a split of area code 317.
WYDA is a radio station licensed to Troy, Ohio. The station airs the Christian worship formatted Air1 network programmed by the Educational Media Foundation. WYDA is broadcast to Dayton, its northern suburbs and the Upper Miami Valley region of Miami, Clark, Shelby, Champaign, Darke and surrounding counties in West Central Ohio with local offices are located on south Main in Dayton.
WBCL is an FM radio station located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. The station operates on the FM radio frequency of 90.3 MHz. WBCL is owned by Taylor University in Upland, Indiana with its studios located at the university's Fort Wayne campus.
George Herbert Baker was an American Impressionist artist who worked primarily in the Richmond, Indiana area and was a member of the "Richmond Group" of painters. He worked in oil, watercolor and pastels. He worked for a time in Brown County, Indiana and is sometimes associated with that group of artists.
WXVA – branded as 102.9 Valley FM – is a classic hits formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Winchester, Virginia, serving the Northern Shenandoah Valley. WXVA is owned and operated by Winchester Radio Broadcasters, LLC.
WMUN is a commercial radio station licensed to Muncie, Indiana, and serving Delaware County, Indiana. It broadcasts a talk and sports radio format and is owned by Woof Boom Radio Muncie License LLC. WMUN features programming from Fox Sports Radio. The station airs some local talk programming in the morning, and a local hour of sports talk is heard weekdays at 4 p.m. WMUN is the flagship station for Ball State University women's basketball and carries games from the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers. On Friday nights in the fall, WMUN carries local high school football.
WLOU is a commercial radio station airing an urban adult contemporary format, with urban gospel music on Sunday mornings. Licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, it is owned by New Albany Broadcasting, with studios on West Muhammad Ali Boulevard, west of downtown. WLOU is simulcast on sister station 1600 WLUE in New Albany, Indiana. Both stations target the African American community in the Louisville metropolitan area, which includes parts of Kentucky and Indiana. The Louisville radio market has approximately 200,000 African-American residents, about 16% of the population.
WQXE is a radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format. Licensed to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, United States, the station is currently owned by Skytower Communications-E'town, Inc. and features programming from Westwood One.
The Tri-Eastern Conference is a nine-member IHSAA-Sanctioned Athletic Conference formed by five schools in 1962. The current nine teams are located in the counties of Henry, Randolph, Union, and Wayne.
The White River Conference was an Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA)–sanctioned conference located within rural areas of East Central Indiana, that existed twice, once from 1954 to 1977, and from 1989 to 2010. The first version of the conference was founded as a home for high schools in Madison County who weren't in the Central Indiana Athletic Conference. The conference would expand quickly from six to nine schools, as two new high schools in Anderson and Middletown, a school in Henry County, were added within two years. Membership was generally not stable until 1969, as Madison Heights left, Highland was forced out and eventually added back into the conference, St. Mary's closed, member schools consolidated, and schools from neighboring Delaware and Hancock counties were added. Eventually, large disparities in enrollment causing the conference to disband, as city and consolidated schools outgrew their rural counterparts.. Schools would move into the Big Blue River Conference, Classic Athletic Conference, and Mid-Eastern Conference.
WNAP was an AM broadcasting station at 990 kHz licensed to serve Muncie, Indiana.
Hartford City, Indiana, began in the late 1830s as a few log cabins clustered near a creek. The community became the county seat of Blackford County. Located in the north east-central portion of the state, the small farming community experienced a 15-year "boom" beginning in the late 1880s caused by the discovery of natural gas. The Indiana Gas Boom caused the community to transition from an agricultural economy to one that also included manufacturing. During the 1890s, Hartford City was the home of the nation's largest window glass company and the nation's largest producer of lantern globes.