Idaho Radio News Etc.

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OK, I’ll get off this subject soon, I promise… but Michael Deeds has a good scoop in the Scene today. KZMG is now playing KSAS’s so-called “exclusive” of the Mad Ro “Amp It Up” BSU anthem.

“Magic stole the song from Kiss!” Mad Ro rapper Chris “Arcturus” Jameson explains, sounding not very mad. “They downloaded it, they wiped off the Kiss FM tag, and they’re playing it all over their station now.”

That’s hilarious.

I agree. I’m having an odd flashback to 1998ish when KCIX got an Alanis Morrisette exclusive — and put annoying whispers all over it “K-106 exclusive” — and Magic wiped the whispers and ran the song. All is fair in love and radio.

MediaBase has Magic spinning Amp it Up 19 times a week, Kiss is actually playing it fewer times — 18 spins.

KSAS is now giving some serious spins to Mad Ro’s “Amp it Up” BSU anthem.

After my post last week, I noticed that Michael Deeds also wrote a little bit about the genesis of the song. It’s a good read.

Mediabase reports that KISS played the song 48 times in the last week, making it their 16th most played song. I’ve listened a couple more times… it grows on you.

OK... time for someone associated with Mad Ro pretending to be someone else to leave a commentabout how cool the song is. Fortunately that's easy to erase...

The Boise Weekly’s Best of Boise issue is out – and there are some changes from last year.

KQXR’s Big J (not J-a-y) takes the top DJ spot. The Weekly says it might come as a surprise to the radio community… not sure I agree:

While this may come as a surprise to the radio community, Big Jay is no shocker to us. The X (100.3) has been climbing the popularity charts for years, and a lot of the credit can go straight to Big Jay. He works the system, baby, doing his best to promote local music and make listening to mainstream radio fun again.

KRVB’s Tim Johnstone takes second place, while KCIX’s Kate McGwire is the only person to appear in both the Statesman’s poll (second) and the Weekly’s (third).

On the AM band, Weekly readers picked KBOI as tops, followed by KBSU & KTIK. KIDO no where to be found…

On the FM side, NPR News 91 took the top spot for the second year in a row, followed by the X and the River.

Oh, and despite my shameless campaigning — boiseweekly.com took the top website spot. I guess when you have to log on to said website to vote, people might just pick you as the best. Neourlux and the freak-show that is the Ada Sheriff’s website grab the other two spots.

KZMG is touting a new “count the songs” promotion. “When you hear Magic 93.1 play MORE than 10 songs in a row, be the first caller at 424-9300 to win!”

They’re giving away all sorts of stuff — iPods, CDs, DVDs, even a trip to see George Bush’s good friend Kanye West in concert.

OK, so they’re emphasizing that they play ten songs in a row… and getting die-hard listeners to count.

But what about EVERY SINGLE HOUR on the bottom side of the clock when they play only one or two songs in a row? Isn’t that going to just accentuate the “fuzzy math?”

Boise State Broncos

KJOT is celebrating it’s 20th annual Rocktober next month.

The fact that any radio promotion is able to survive from one PD to the next… or one ownership group to the next is remarkable.

But Rocktober has survived at least more than a dozen program directors, and so many ownership changes I couldn’t begin to count.

So cheers to an idea that stood the test of time!

KSAS is making good on its promise to play local music.

Well… sorta. 1033kissfm.com is promoting Mad Ro’s “Amp It Up” BSU quasi-theme song for the season. You can listen online, but MediaBase isn’t detecting the song in the top 30.

The song even includes a “KISS FM exclusive” shout toward the end. It’s been downloaded more than 600 times from the Statesman’s mp3 site.

KTLB’s promoting the 13th Annual Oldies Cruise… with the Raiders (of course), plus Bobby Vee, The Chancellors and others.

Cruise hits the water in January.

It’s like, 52 degrees in the city of trees today.

So what could be the best possible birthday present?

A trip to Roaring Springs, of course!

The not-so-regularly updated khits.fm says you can win a trip to the water park for your b-day.

There’s always next year.

KQFC is giving away a trip to see the Country Music Awards in New York

It’s a “listen in the morning for the song of the day” deal — but the station is leveraging it’s e-mail club with the “unfair advantage” game… sign up and find out what the song is and when it will air.

Update: KIZN’s doing it too… same idea, slightly different execution.

Former KZMGer Big Boy is on the 10 questions list at All Access this week.

I’d link to it, but you know… AA’s site sucks and I can’t.

You’ve probably already heard about this — Scott Stevens, KPVI’s chief meteorologist weather guy thinks the Japanese Mafia created Katrina as punishment for the WWII bombing of Hiroshima.

Well… now he’s quit.

But not for the reason you might think.

Update:But wait, there’s more: Video

Idaho Radio News turns two whole years old this week. Two years of quips, comments, news and typos.

Like I said in a similar message last year, I didn’t expect to do this long. I don’t really remember what made me start this site… but it has been quite a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it.

Now… our second annual “Year as Bullet Points:”

• BSU Radio, Ken & Teri named Boise Weekly’s best.
• KSAS’s Smooch is bumped by Aaron Traylor. A sign of things to come.
• We watched the coming of KDJQ, the launching of KDJQ… and the end of KDJQ.
• Sean Hannity came to town.
• Cabana Boy Geoff can’t stop fibbing.
• Deb Courson beat down the rumor mill.
• Nothing interesting happened in all of 2004… apparently.
• The X appeared across the country.
• I stopped hiding.
• KZMG’s morning show evolved. Again.
• KSRV planed a Bull-d move.
• A new Spud joined the doomed program.
• Chelsea from Nampa High scored an exclusive.
• April Fool’s Day was lame.
• Boise Community Radio gears up.
• Citadel clamped down.
• KTPZ finds a new DJ
• Spanish-format invasion continues.
• Now we know why KTIK day didn’t include the Spuds
• KKGL broke the law… kinda
• Statesman readers like Kat
• KBSU-A gets a pulse
• The stations of Idaho did something quite extraordinary.

The crew from Salt Lake’s quasi-defunct KQMB Star 102.7:

Thanks to Cale for pointing out that WCBS-FM is now the LOWEST RATED FM station in the New York City — pulling in a 1.7.

Infinity is spinning the number… as you might imagine.

For the week of September 12th, Clear Channel and Citadel both saw gains of more than 2%, while Journal Communications shares fell nearly 3% on the week.

Journal Communications August Sales fell 3.2% (helping contribute to the weekly stock loss). Broadcast revenues fell a total of 9.1% — but the radio group actually grew by 1.3%.

On the news front, Citadel announced it promoted Patricia Stratford to CFO. Se joined CDL in 2003. She replaces Randy Taylor. She will also sit on the board — starting October 1.

Clear Channel’s “StormAid” has so far raised $11 million, according to the company. Also, CCU CFO Randy Mays said that the company’s “Less is More” approach has had an odd side-effect: no one likes 30 second units. They’d rather have 15s or 60s.

From Mike Deeds’ local column today:

FRIED SPUDS: Beginning this morning, “The Spud Brothers” will be replaced by ESPN Radio programming on sports station 1350 KTIK-AM. Not that true sports fans will miss it. Formerly a classic-rock radio yuk-fest, the locally produced “Spuds” were an experiment gone awry during their year-and-a-half at KTIK. The new lineup: “Mike and Mike in the Morning” (ugh, Mike Golic), will run from 4 a.m to 8 a.m. weekdays. “The Herd,” broadcast from Portland with host Colin Cowherd, will run from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Why’d they go awry? From listening to the show, it sounds like most sports fans liked the program. There just aren’t enough of them to keep the show on the air.

Also, Colin Cowherd’s program broadcasts from Bristol, CT — not Portland. Cowherd used to be sports director at KGW-TV (a Belo station) and did a local morning radio program — but when he got the national gig, his show moved out of PDX — to the friendly confines of ESPN/Bristol.

Pacific Empire’s KMGI and KSEI in Eastern Idaho launched a relief effort of their own — with listeners packing an amazing FOUR 53-foot trailers full of goods! They also teamed with Zions Bank, directing listeners to a fund account.

Troy Devries, aka “Smooch” is no longer an employee of Clear Channel Boise. “Matty the parttimer” is also out I’m told.

My e-mail requesting comment went unanswered.

Troy was an original KSAS employee… dating all the way back to the heady days of 1999.

Jason Drew will now produce Idaho Sports Talk with Caves and Prater — as well as doing KTIK’s imaging and production. He keeps his night gig on KKGL.

J Bates will now be “sports director.”

Also: My ususal game of “such-and-such still hasn’t updated its website” doesn’t work… there’s been a pretty thorough scrubbing of KTIK.com. You can still listen to the Spuds in the audio archive. At least for now.

Thanks to your efforts, the Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund is now $121,500 dollars richer — between the efforts in Ontario, Twin Falls and Boise.

Way to go!

Chris Brewer is no longer an employee of Citadel Boise. I’m told that KTIK will no longer produce a local morning show. The company is keeping J Bates on the payroll – no word where he’s going to land.

A small bit of history – Brewer has worked for (from my memory) KFXD-AM, KFXD-FM, KKIC-AM, KARO-FM (the 103.3 flavor, not the Air One flavor), KJOT-FM and of course KTIK-AM. He came to KTIK in April of 2004 — just more than a year ago. At the time he was teamed with Eddie Mistler.

Earlier: Spuds get Mashed

Thanks to Kristine at Journal for this set of photos!

Read the rest of this entry »

KQXR’s logo has evolved again. Still a big red “X”… now a little more “current.”
First…           Second…

Now…