Idaho Radio News Etc.

The Boise Weekly has a long piece on Boise Community Radio.

Read it, then feel free to comment.

Click to make a donation to the American Red Cross.

The Idaho Statesman is now the property of Knight-Ridder. The flip happened at 11:59pm MT. The US DOJ approved the deal Sunday… apparently (the AP copy isn’t heavy on detail).

Knight-Ridder also picked up the Olympian and Bellingham Herald.

As of this writing, IdahoStateman.com still sports the Gannett logos. As a last hurrah – the Gannett foundation doled out more than $30,000 in grants to local organizations.

Update: Gannett logos gone — RealCities (K-R’s online initiative) logo in place.

On Friday’s Spud Brothers program – Chris went on and on about ratings. How high they are. How great they are. How much growth.

I haven’t seen the morning numbers. But do they meet this standard?: “if you’re a dude between this age and this age, you can’t avoid listening to this radio station at some point during the day,” Chris Brewer said.

You should listen. It’s in between 10 after and 20 after.

But hey… the next thing Chris said is that BSU is destined to be a top 5 program. On that… we agree.

OK, so I know a couple things about technology. I’ll admit it. Apply whichever label is appropriate.

But — this took me about 10 minutes… from Google search to finished project:

KTIK Spud Brothers Podcast

If you drag that link in to itunes… you have a podcast. I’m not going to actually update it — but it would take someone about 1 minute per day… and poof: podcasterific.

I’m just saying is all.

Coeur d’Alene’s KCDA flushed it’s Alt. Rock format (“Mix 103.1″) for a jockless Hot AC blend.

The kids at the Utah Radio News board (yes, that Utah) note that the station is IDing artist and title of every song as part of a liner package — similar to the CC station’s SLC sister KJMY (“My 99.5 FM”).

CC dumped the staff — a mix of live jocks and voicetrackers for the new format. The Hot AC is a little cooler than, say… KCIX. KCDA’s number one one song over the past seven days — Let Me Go by Three Doors Down got 34 spins — while KCIX rolled Kelly Clarkson’s new ditty 54 times.

I told you a few weeks ago about Arbitron’s re-ranking of the Boise market — up to #108.

Now Nielsen is out with its 2005-2006 market rankings. Boise bounces up three spots to number 119. It’s the first time I can remember that the Boise MSA is higher than 120. NSI estimates that the MSA went from 223, 890 people to 230,100 folks.

One little note — Boise/Twin Falls is nearly a merged TV market — if it weren’t for the CBS station in TF — KMVT (because KTVB & KIVI air in the TF market). The combined population would make Boise/TF the #100 TV market in the country.

This is me shaking the trees for news. Shake shake shake.

If you’ve got something to share… idahoradio@gmail.com

Arbitron has decided to go all Electronic – ditching the book for an “e” version.

And apparently — Arbitron will be able to rate Podcasts.

KBOI is giving away this 1997 mini-van — all painted up in Blue & Orange.

I asked BSU Radio’s University Pulse GM John Mitchell a few questions about the new service.

Q: University Pulse’s website indicates a new studio is in the offing. Is this studio going to be part of the current BSU Radio operations? Will it be a separate facility?
Mitchell: It is a separate studio in the communications building and it should be done around the beginning of September.

Q: Currently the service appears for 12 hours on Sunday – is any expansion possible?
Mitchell: We are moving the way of the Internet and at that time we will have the possibility of 24/7.

Q: How many students are generally involved?
Mitchell: Since we are revamping the whole station, the possibilities are endless) (but right now there is between 10-15

Q: What kind of promotion will the service receive?
Mitchell: What ever we can get and take. We have a pretty good size promo budget and have allot of promo items that we just received.

Q: Will University Pulse’s online radio stream be expanded?
Mitchell: Yes, 24/7 soon.

Q: How do you see this service in contrast to the Boise Community Radio Project?
Mitchell: It is different because we are mainly there for the students of Boise State. We may offer community radio in the future, but not right now.

Journal Broadcast Group is adding a trio of TV stations — WFTX/Cape Coral, FL; KMTV/Omaha, NE; and KGUN/Tucson, AZ.

Seller is Emmis Communications — which also sold some stations to LIN TV and Gray Communications.

JRN ended the trading day up nine cents on the news.

Every Sunday from Noon to Midnight, “Idaho’s Jazz Staion” becomes “University Pulse” — student run radio.

KBSU-AM 730 runs a schedule with a wide variety of programs — here’s the usual lineup:

Noon The Power to Make a Difference
1:00 Earthshake Radio
2:00 Wayside
2:30 Common Grounds
3:00 The Ghostwood Development Project
3:30 The Showcase
4:00 Tasty Grooves
5:00 The Breaks
6:00 Subconscious Frequencies
7:00 The Iron Rod
8:00 Spectacular Rubble
9:00 Girl Volcano
10:00 The Dutchess Show

I listened to “The Power” online – which blended inspirational thoughts with a very bluesy music mix.

The Big Headline here might be Pulse’s new studio space — which will give them the ability to broadcast online 24/7. I’ve sent off some questions to UP’s General Manager… I’ll let you know what I find out.

So far the service seems to be similar in concept to the Boise Community Radio Project, only Pulse is broadcasting versus strictly webcasting.

SparkNet Communications — aka the Jack FM folks — sued Clear Channel.

SparkNet claims that CC’s KMYI/San Diego was using the URL JackFMSanDiego.com as a redirect for its website — that KLTY/Columbia SC (Steve FM) is using the positioner “playing whatever we want” — and that KDRB/Des Monies (The Bus) is using “playing whether the hell we want.”

Hmm.

Quoting Mark Mays from a July 8 Billboard Radio Monitor piece: “Historically, the wide-variety formats that are big, brush off eventually.”

All three radio groups with major Boise-area operations moved less than 2% for the week. Journal ended up less than 1%, while Citadel and Clear Channel fell slightly

Guess the Google Image

Shamus & Tara are holding an American Idol contest… Boise style.

Winner gets backstage Kelly Clarkson passes.

I so hope they get a slew of crappy singers, mixed in with the OK ones… that’s the only part of American Idol I can stand to watch.

For some reason, the folks at DJ Radio haven’t grabbed KDJQ.com.

Perhaps they don’t see the need for a website right now. But do they really want someone else to have it?

Just asking.

I’m so not taking credit — but the number of on-air folks with blogs is growing (Nate Dogg, Aaron Traylor, the KTPZ/KISY/KIKX folks…).

KZMG’s Shamus & Tara are also blogging. Well… Tara is.

And here’s proof that the seedy underbelly of Citadel is… well… the seedy underbelly of Citadel…

Says Tara:

About a month ago, my car got broken into here at work cuz I had left the window open a crack. They stole everything that was tucked up in my sun visor thingie. I thought I was lucky that they hadn’t stolen everything in my car, but last night I came to the realization that they had stole about 50 of my favorite cds. I had them in 3 seperate cd holders. I hadn’t changed cds in a long time, and I just thought the cases were under a jacket in the backseat. Last night after the Jack Johnson concert, we were waiting in the parking lot forever so I decided to bust out the Jack Johnson cds, which I knew I had in the car. I opened up the back door and lifted up the jacket…no cd cases. Maybe they rolled under the seats? No cd cases.

The thought of it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. I have no idea which cds I had in there, the ones I can remember right now are Jay-Z unplugged, Tietor, Jack Johnson, Tori Amos, Dave Matthews Band’s new one, and first one. Ugh….I’m just sick about it. The thing that kills me is that the people who stole them probably just ended up throwing them away. It’ll take me a while to figure out what cds are gone since I have like 400 of them that I keep in a big cd wallet, cuz I didn’t have room to display all the cases. This totally sucks!!!

It’ll cost like $800 to replace them, so that’ll take 50 years to come up with that kinda phat coin!

Police issued a statewide Amber Alert during the 3pm MT hour Monday.

I heard it on KQXR, and quickly flipped around the dial — at the time, all the Journal stations on my spot check were airing the alert — as was KTPZ. CC & Citadel stations were not yet airing it. On the retransmit about 30 seconds later, KKGL & KIZN had picked up the EAS activation.

After the Amber snafu in May — it is important that all stations have their EAS systems working and… turned on. I personally give Amber Alerts top priority — as in “get an anchor on the air right now right now right now.”

It appears everyone passed — but my non-engineering mind is confused as to why all stations didn’t air it at the same time. Can someone explain?

I mentioned that Jared: The Galleria of Jewelers is coming to B-town. Idaho Radio Buff noted the prevalence of Shane Company spots in SLC. They are also in heavy heavy rotation in Seattle.

Shane Co. is the 9th most rotated spot on all of radio for the past week — so says RCS.

Between Shane, Jared and a local outfit — all you hear are freaking jewelery spots. You’ll crave those Lee Read spots soon…

The Boise Weekly’s Rachael Daigle (an old friend) takes a look at the future of radio and technology in this week’s issue.

How come all the best images for caption contests come from KCIX?

Two items of note:
» Keilor back on the air in KY.
» Bush on your IPod