Idaho Radio News Etc.

KTIK may be getting some competition.

KIOV is currently licensed in Payette — but is moving to Notus.

KIOV says it lost it’s transmitter site in Payette, and could not find adequate ground to build a new one.

The station will stay on 1450 and will operate with 1kw of power. The new location gives KIOV a shot at the Valley.

KIOV.com is getting a makeover.

KIOV-AM is owned by Media Enterprises — with managing partner Milton Erhart. If that name rings a bell, it should — he ran against Dirk Kempthorne in 2002 in the Republican primary.

Dr. Drew Harold exits KBOI, effective immediately.

A sources tells us the move was a cost-cutting one, and not directly related to ratings.

KBOI will now air the third hour of Hannity at 3pm. The show will likely be followed by Savage. It’s unclear what will air in the evening.

“Everyone is shocked in the building,” the source says. “25 years here….SAD SAD DAY!”

Update: The schedule changes posted above aren’t happening today. Brett Recamp and Andrew Paul are hosting live this afternoon. It is unclear if this is a permanent or temporary solution.

KLTB blinked.

After another weak book The CC-owned Oldies station has moved PD Jack Armstrong back to afternoons — leaving Melissa & Brian in the morning.

KJOT continues to poke fun at KKGL.

J105 is running a promo that says, in effect: ‘Want to hear our impression of the Eagle? Blah Blah… blahblahblah… talk talk talk talk blah blah blah.’

This may be the war to watch in the next few months…

Cale Guthmiller (who went by Cale Jay in a past radio life) hits the air at KJOT tonight. Cale takes over for JD (who exited earlier this month). Previous to his new J105 gig, Cale made stops at KCIX, KZMG and the Spokane market.

He will hit the air as Dale Larson.

KTPZ isn’t the only pop station in the Magic Valley… not even the only pop station in the 99 FM range in the Magic Valley.

KZDX, “99.9 The Buzz” competes for the CHR crown in Southern Idaho. Well, sorta.

It’s a Hot AC station that positions itself as a CHR with rock-tinged imaging. The station’s tag is “Southern Idaho’s #1 Hit Music Station.” The music is more Hot AC (Jason Miraz, Maroon 5) and the promos and other image elements have a voice straight out of a class rock image package, with music beds that use classic rock songs.

At 5pm, the station went from the Hot AC format to Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and their ilk. Waaay off format. It’s called the “Weekday Blast Off,” but the jock kept calling it the “Weekend Blast Off,” apparently because it was Friday. The 5pm show was mostly upbeat, old school music (from the aforementioned Bon Jovi to Vanilla Ice). At about 5:40, the DJ spun a very slow Live tune, and said “I apologize for breaking format a bit here.” Wait — which format? There’s a format? Really?

The Buzz’s night guy (who starts at 5pm) “JT” has puking down to a science. If you ever get to about Glenn’s Ferry or east, take a listen. It makes the Boise-market pukers sound mellow.

And this: The station’s footprint is huge. I picked it up in Northern Utah, Pocatello and all the way to the Boise Stage Stop. A liner said “From Boise to Idaho Falls,” but that’s a stretch — you really can’t pick it up in Boise.

Despite all this, the station has a good sound — tons of power, and a decent playlist. Despite the format-confusion, the imaging is strong.

MediaBase’s sample hour for Tuesday August 17 is 8am. Time for another morning roundup.

KCIX
8 songs, 3 breaks

KIZN
7 songs, 6 breaks

KQFC
9 songs, 5 breaks

KQXR
6 songs, 2 breaks

KRVB
7 songs, 4 breaks

KSAS
9 songs, 3 breaks

KXLT
9 songs, 4 breaks

KZMG
5 songs, 2 breaks

Update: I stand corrected — this report is for the 9am hour, not 8am hour.

A trio of notes out of the central slice of the state.

KKMV/Rupert moved up the dial from 92.5 FM to 106.1. The frequency change allows for KUUU in Tooele Utah to slide in to the 92.5 slot. The station will also upgrade from class 2 to class 3. KUUU is known as U92 in the Salt Lake valley, and has moved it’s city of license to Sandy. KUUU is a Millcreek/Marathon station. KKMV is now providing better service to the Magic Valley & Twin Falls.

Also, Alpine Broadcasting is now officially gone. Scott Parker’s stations are now owned by Chaparral Broadcasting out of Jackson, Wyoming. The purchase price was $3.5 million, and included the legendary KSKI, KECH and KYZK.

One more quick note: KTFT-TV in Twin Falls has boosted it’s antenna power to better serve the Magic & Wood River Valley’s. KTFT is owned by Belo, which also owns KTVB in Boise. KTFT primarily simulcasts KTVB, with local spots. The station is at 38 on the dial, and 7 on most cable systems.

Changes in the KTPZ on-air lineup.

DJ has departed the morning show, and Jeff Allen jumps to mid-days (replacing Dina Diamond).

KTPZ & KISY are non-starters in the Boise market. They are both pulling in a .6.

One side note: KTPZ did a 3.8 at it’s pinnacle (Fall 1999). KZMG pulled a 3.8 this book; KSAS earned a 2.7.

Let’s divide the market in to these segments: Country, Rock, Pop/AC, News/Sports and Oldies.

Country
KIZN, KQFC, KFXD
Overall share: 16.9

Rock
KJOT, KQXR, KRVB, KKGL
Overall share: 16.1

Pop/AC
KZMG, KSAS, KCIX, LXLT
Overall share: 17.7

News/Sports
KIDO, KBOI, KTIK
Overall share: 14

Oldies
KTHI, KLTB, KGEM
Overall share: 13.5

I’ll leave the math to you.

Usually in 12+ ratings, we expect to see KZMG, KSAS & KQXR excel. They all supposedly bring in legions of young fans — some of whom actually get a diary.

This time? The three young-skewing stations puttered along with lower than expected numbers, and all lost share year-to-year and book-to-book.

Despite the addition of the Spud Brothers, KTIK didn’t see much movement this go around, falling both year-to-year and book-to-book.

Good news for KRVB: They cracked a 4 share.

Idaho’s 94.9 The River also cracked the top 10 with a 4.2. These are the station’s best numbers since I began keeping track in the Fall of 1999. KRVB is now ahead of once-unbeatable stations like KZMG, KLTB and KQXR.

As Boise’s three groups stare in to their figurative mirror, they often wonder who the fairest is.

The answer? It depends on how you count.

Clear Channel has 6 stations in the race (KIDO, KCIX, KXLT, KLTB, KSAS, KFXD); Journal has 5 (KTHI, KJOT, KRVB, KQXR, KGEM); and Citadel also has 6 (KIZN, KQFC, KBOI, KKGL, KZMG and KTIK). This little fact should give CC an advantage over Journal, no?

Well in fact… no.

As was the case last Fall, Citadel leads the overall race, this time pulling in just more than 30 points. Journal grabbed 21.9 points and CC had 26.2.

Citadel has an average rating of 5.01, while Journal and Clear Channel are neck-and-neck with 4.38 and 4.36 respectively.

Overall Citadel and Journal are down from Fall 2003, while Clear Channel is up.

The Oldies war rages on.

The once-unstoppable KLTB pulled down a 3.5 in Spring 2004. That’s its lowest overall number in a good long time. You’ll remember the Fall of 2001, when Kool ruled the roost, and was beating it’s nearest competitor by more than two points (at a stunning 9.3).

Today relative newcomer KTHI is not only continuing it’s dominance of KLTB, it is the top non-country station in the market. In the aforementioned Fall 01 book, KTHI scored a 1.8.

And a footnote: KTHI has had the most stable numbers of any station over the past year, varying less than a point.

NewsRadio 580 saw improvement for the second straight book, while KBOI’s numbers did what they almost always do: fell in the spring.

But BSU Football is back this fall, and has a powerhouse schedule — expect a good Fall book for KBOI.

You may have looked at the numbers, and noticed that many of the top stations are traditionally female-leaning.

KIZN, KQFC, KCIX and KXLT all target women, and all are in the top seven. KTHI also targets females to some extent, and it lands at number three. Only the newsy pair — KIDO & KBOI seem to buck this trend.

Traditional male-oriented station KQXR saw an incredible fall, and the combination of KJOT & KKGL lost ground from the last period.

The argument against this is the drop in CHR numbers — the duo of KSAS & KZMG lost a combined 3.4 points from fall, and a similar drop from spring.

KJOT has been slowly rebuilding itself. In April it flushed the Spud Brothers, and went for a show headed by former X-er Doug Hardee.

It’s starting to work. J-105 is Journal Broadcast Group’s second highest rated station. Perhaps the bigger achievement: it beat KKGL for the first time since the Fall of 2000 (albeit by a within-the-margin-of-error 2-tenths).

The Eagle is seeing some softness in the 12+ numbers, but as you can see, it’s historically been a cyclical trend.

Journal Broadcast Group made a gutsy move last April: It broke up Byl & Doug.

It also shipped off Chris Brewer’s long-running Spud Brothers routine.

Until we see morning numbers we won’t know the full effect of those moves, but a preview hides in the 12+ info.

KQXR dropped to it’s lowest level since I began tracking in the Fall of 1999. The station pulled in 3.3, which puts it just 2-tenths ahead of AM sister KGEM-AM.

The X is an entirely new station — with a new morning show, new mid-day show (in fact it’s Melissa’s second turn in the time slot), new afternoon and evening shows.

Some of the faces are familiar — Big J, Byl & Melissa have all been part of KQXR, but even those familiar voices couldn’t hold listeners.

The question you just have to ask: Would this have happened if Byl & Doug were still a team?

Magic 93.1 is going through another of it’s down cycles. The station is the equivalent of a tightly wound Yo Yo. It has nice little cycles where it stays close to the owners hand — then suddenly it falls to earth with great force. Depending who is working the string it can stay down forever, or spring back to life in no time flat.

The second thread to this story is the continued fall of 103.3 KISS-FM. KISS is off 54% from the same period a year ago, and nearly a point from fall. As you’ll recall, the station did not have a morning show for much of the Book — but did have a newly launched night show. Whatever the forces were, KSAS is clearly on the mat. Will it rise again?

OK, metaphors out of control

The sounds of celebration were certainly heard in the KQFC studio Friday.

The station saw it’s best book since Fall 2001, and saw strong gains over both fall and year-ago numbers.

The Q is again the second highest rated station in the Valley, and has come a long way since bottoming out at 4.2 in Fall 2002.

The Big 98 sits just eight-tenths off their friends and competitors at KIZN.

If this had happened 6 years ago, the headline would be: KCIX beats KZMG.

That was then.

While that headline is true — it just isn’t important any more. Boise’s only Hot Adult Contemporary station chalked up a big chunk of the overall audience. The station doubled it’s numbers from fall, and a 60% increase over the same period a year ago.

It will be interesting to see the morning numbers…

Wow. There are some amazing twists and turns in the ratings race.

First, the 12+ numbers:

KIZN-FM 7.9
KQFC-FM 7.1
KTHI-FM 6.9
KIDO-AM 6.9
KCIX-FM 6
KBOI-AM 5.2
KXLT-FM 5.2
KJOT-FM 4.4
KKGL-FM 4.2
KRVB-FM 4.2
KZMG-FM 3.8
KLTB-FM 3.5
KQXR-FM 3.3
KGEM-AM 3.1
KSAS-FM 2.7
KTIK-AM 1.9
KFXD-AM 1.9
KTPZ-FM 0.6
KISY-FM 0.6

OK, I’ll admit I really didn’t want to like The Other Studio in KRVB. I tuned in Sunday with a need to dislike.

I liked it. Decent music – good conversation about that music.

I must be losing it.