Idaho Radio News Etc.

This entry mostly included for completeness. I’ve had this bouncing around for a few days — but have been low on time.

Greg Williamson is back at KLTB-FM, Kool 104.3. G-Dub joined Melissa and Brian during the morning shift Monday. You’ll remember that Big Jack exited the show this summer — headed for afternoons.

An insider tells me the newly revamped show will put the focus on music — with traffic 3 times an hour and about the same number of spot breaks.

The big story out of the spring book was primarily the fall from grace for KQXR/KZMG/KSAS. All three younger skewing stations had a tough go of it.

In the morning, KZMG grabbed the #4 spot among women 18-34. In women 25-54, KZMG doesn’t crack the top 10. KSAS isn’t in either top 10. KCIX tops both lists.

KARO-FM’s morning show (Air1) has a surprising little blip in the W18-34 category — tying KXLT, KKGL and KTSY.

Conventional Wisdom holds that Mike & Kate’s show is targeted primarily at women. CW is wrong.

KCIX grabs the #3 position in the mornings, behind KKGL & KTHI. In fact, M&K’s morning performance powers them to #4 between 6a & 7p in that same demo.

Sigh.

So much talk about localism being important… about local DJs being vital to a station… vital to a community.

Until tomorrow (when KSAS goes the syndie route) only one major FM station had a syndicated morning show: KKGL’s Bob & Tom.

Guess what the top show between 6 and 10am for adults 18-49 is? Yep.

B&T had the highest average in Spring 2004, whereas Mike & Kate on KCIX have the highest cume.

Mike & Kate on KCIX are just a fraction behind The Eagle in the mornings overall. Tracy & Margo on KTHI are at #3 – tied with Mee in the Morning on KIZN. KQFC rounds out the top 5. The second five consist of KJOT, KBSX, KXLT, KRVB & KZMG — all separated by very small percentages.

KQXR has had a long tradition of breaking format — somewhat — to play music from Eminem. Slim Shady’s latest single “Just Lose It” is already playing in strong rotation on CHR & Urban stations around the country (including Boise’s KZMG).

So far it appears Mediabase hasn’t detected the new song on KQXR (but has on other Alt. stations like WXRK/NY and WHFX/DC).

When Eminem’s last disc dropped — KQXR debated the entire album on a Saturday afternoon — with then-PD Jascent Jackson at the board. Since the album had not yet been released, Jackson (at least pretended to get) a C&D from Interscope.

The other notable Boise Eminem stunt involves the voice-tracking Lackey playing “Without Me” more than 20 times in a row shortly after it’s debut (now that’s rotation).

One last note on this topic — it appears KZMG played the song 17 times Saturday (though this number could include Friday). If the station did spin the song 17 times – it would hit 119 airings by Friday. KZMG even sent out a bulletin to it’s e-mail newsletter subscribers touting the new song’s arrival on Magic.

KTPZ has reworked it’s morning duo — and the station’s penchant for initials continues.

DJ has been replaced by JT. He will pair with Sierra for the Music Monster Morning show.

Is this the same JT that used to do nights at the other Twin Falls 99 popper — KZDX? That JT left ‘ZDX about a month ago — and is possibly the most prolific puker in the state of Idaho. Wonder if the powers that be at Locally Owned Radio will help him tone down his delivery.

(Hat tip: Idaho Radio Buff)

Sources tell us that Brad (Rowen) Wyler is out at KSAS-FM. His replacement? Syndication.

Kidd Kraddick and crew are set to add 103.3 KISS FM to their affiliate base. You may remember that KSAS was looking for a team to fill the time slot. Apparently that search didn’t bear any fruit.

One other note here: 1033kissfm.com’s staff page has been stripped down to just two people: Brian McFaden and Jerr. McFadden used to host the TRL countdown (not anymore); and Jerr used to do a couple weekend shifts (not anymore).

Things are brewing…

Put KZMG PD Jim Allen next to Kevin Federline on the long list of Britney Spears fans.

Only 5 stations across the country are playing Brit’s new hit “My Prerogative” more than Magic 93.1 this week. KZMG spun the tune 40 times over the past 7 days. MTV has played the new video 5 times (and Entertainment Tonight has played it 105 times… go figure).

KZZU in Spokane is also in the top 10 for the song — at #2 with a whopping 63 airings. Something about flannel-wearing Northwesterners that takes to the belly-bearing Mrs. Federline, apparently.

Tangent: I wonder who will play the new Nelly/Tim McGraw song first in this market….

The Boise Weekly’s annual Best of Boise edition is on the streets. It’s filled with the usual stuff. This year’s top 10 radio stations are not a large surprise:

1. 91.5 KBSU
2. 94.9 KRVB, The River
3. 100.3 KQXR, The X
4. 105.9 KCIX, Mix 106
5. 93.1 KZMG, Magic 93.1
6. 96.9 KKGL, The Eagle
7. 107.1 KTHI, K-HITS
8. 105.1 KJOT, J-105
9. 104.3 KLTB, Kool Oldies 104.3
10. 92.3 KIZN, Kissin’ 92

Even when the Weekly breaks it down — there are few surprises:

Best AM Radio Station
1. 670 KBOI
2. 730 BSU
3. 580 KIDO

Best FM radio station
1. NPR News 91 (91.5)
2. 94.9 KRVB The River
3. 100.3 The X

Best Radio Station DJ or Team
1. Ken Bass & Teri Tate

One of the most intelligent, insightful and entertaining morning show teams, Ken and Teri are so full of witty repartee that you hang on every word waiting for Teri to pick the low hanging fruit that Ken is constantly dangling. A slam on Ken is sometimes as easy as an unobstructed lay up. When that happens, we slap the dashboard and shout “Two points for Teri!�

2. Bob & Tom (KKGL 96.9 FM)
3. Tim Johstone (KRVB 94.9 FM)

But hey… wait… Bob & Tom aren’t local! How can they be the “Best of Boise?”

Well, IRN can now kinda walk… and say a few words here and there… we’re about to hit the big one year mark.

This site launched September 27 of 2003. It didn’t have a domain… or a logo… or much of anything (and it used yellow as a primary color… yuck). We’ve commented on just about everything (and nearly every Boise-area station) over the past 366 (leap year and all).

And you’ve joined in the fun as well — keeping the comments well stocked with your thoughts.

Nearly every station has changed its lineup this year (but really, what year doesn’t that apply to). Most remarkable to me is the turnover in the mornings since last 9/27. KZMG, KRVB, KXLT, KJOT, KQXR, KTIK, KLTB, and KSAS (several times over) among others have changed their AM lineup. One station even held a contest to find a new host.

The year as bullet-points:

• A certain stunt boy ended up in handcuffs…
• Mix 106 gave away 12 bucks…
• The KBOI crew landed a TV gig…
• KSAS launched a night show…
• KQFC got big…
• Nate Dogg came to town after looking for advice from AllAccess…
• April Fools got out of hand – or not…
• KQXR split up their popular morning team — then took a tumble…
• A rumor never came true…
• Chris Brewer moved his act…
• We accidentally started a little firestorm…
• Valentine started his own little debate…
• Spring ratings came out – with some surprises…
• A radio vet lost his job…

Thanks for making this silly hobby of a website a stop on your web surfing travels.

When will KSAS-FM get a morning show?

As you all know by now, KBOI has done some surgery to its lineup.

First tipped here, Sean Hannity will now air live for his final hour — and Michael Savage now airs in drive. The station has added the Jerry Doyle program to evenings.

One last note: I know it goes against conventional wisdom for anyone to program any of Air America’s slate — but Boise is slowly moving to the left (with the county voting for Jerry Brady over Dirk Kempthorne in the last election, and electing a Democratic mayor).

With two whole stations filled with Fox Newsers and their cousins (KBOI’s O’Reilly, Hannity and Savage; KIDO’s Limbaugh, Schlessinger, Snow and Beck… among others) – wouldn’t an Al Franken experiment be worth 12 months? (And I don’t want to hear that suggesting Al Franken in Boise is as dumb as Howard Stern in Boise). Even conservatives want to hear a Liberal point of view once in a while.

During the Wednesday edition of Idaho Talks Live on KBOI, Brett Recamp (filling in for the vacationing Chris Walton) introduced radio vet Paul J. Schneider as his partner… and quickly added “which kind of a cool thing for me to say.”

It’s always fun to watch the video portion of that show — wonder what some of the other morning shows would look like on teevee.

10 years after the Internet came in to being — and a good 5 or 6 after it became en fuego – every station in Boise has a website. Some have simple addresses (like j105.com). Others don’t quite have the dot-com thing going on (khits.fm). A few (like xrock.com and riverinteractive.com) found unique addresses after someone sniped their calls (tried KQXR.com, KRVB.com or TheX.com lately?)

But then there’s the station that has not one, but three addresses — all of which are promoted. KZMG.com/Magic93.com/Magic931.com. While it is smart to have all three registered — the station can’t seem to decide which one to use on air. Some promos say KZMG.com — other promos say Magic nine three one dot com… and others just say magic93.com. Which is it?

On a tangent: We’ve talked a bit about who has the highest ranked website in June (here and here). The Alexa rankings are somewhat subjective however.

As many know, Citadel leaves their webstats open to anyone who can type the word webstats in a browser. While the other groups aren’t as open — it’s interesting to look at the Citadel metrics:

Pageviews for August
KZMG.com (et al)
13,988

96-9theeagle.com
3,469

KTIK.com
25,096

98KQFC.com
15,790

KIZN.com
13,545

670KBOI.com
17,136

You’ll not that Citadel’s two AM stations lead the pack — largely due (in my view) to their original content. KBOI posts (and promotes) a daily poll, and KTIK.com has always been one of the best sources of local online sports news (even prior to the Diamond to Citadel transfer).

One more note before we leave this topic: KBOI has already zoomed past 30,000 views this month, more than all of August. This puts them well ahead of any of their counterparts.

Sorry for the unending silence. August was a busy month — September? Not so much.

Your tips and ideas – idahoradio@gmail.com

OK, while I may not be a fan of his newspaper antics — the newish KRVB Sunday night show “The Other Studio” is fun to listen to (in fact, I find my self listening to it most weeks). Deeds and Tim Johnstone play well off each other — and Tim seems to keep the music from getting too crazy. The interplay is interesting — and I would not be at all surprised if we saw an expansion and time slot upgrade (2 hours?).

It makes me miss the old Blues Highway days on that same frequency.

Mike Deeds finally did his semi-annual ratings roundup. He hit most of the points hammered home on this site.

I have to greatly question his legitimacy however. He is now appearing on KRVB each Sunday night. Whether or not he is getting paid isn’t the issue — he’s still a member of the River team. His objectivity on radio is the same as him reviewing the difference between Thrive and the Boise Weekly — he’s vested, therefore not a valid observer. And why did it take him a month to churn out the ratings column?

KHTR up north might carry the coolest brand in the state right now.

Call me slow, but it took me a moment to get the “cross it, crank it” line — but it’s very smart. The station makes a national syndie service seem local (KHTR does have a local morning show).

The station also carries Vandal Football in that corner of the Palouse. More at border104.com

Mediabase is now monitoring KCIX. The data is available for Mix 106 from August 9th on.

Drew Harold (formerly of KBOI-AM) can be contacted at d.harold@worldnet.att.net.

Despite losing one of it’s long-time talents this week — KBOI is at full attention today.

The station’s Bronco GameDay has fetured, so far, Chris Walton, Brett Recamp, Andrew Paul, Curtis Sawyer and John Patrick. We’ll hear PJ & Caves at game time.