Idaho Radio News Etc.

We are used to music-drive stations doing the “Listener Advisory Panel” game – now KBOI is getting in on the action. The survey asks questions like “what radio station do you turn to first for breaking news” (and FM stations are among the choices… I always tune to J105 for breaking news), “Which radio station do you consider the news leader in the Treasure Valley,” and “Has KBOI gotten better/worse in the last six months.”

The station is also trying to gauge the importance of traffic reports, and if the local news is getting better or worse.

Oh, and.. by the way — the station asks if Podcasting is important to the listener. Positive step.

A few creative contests snagged my attention in the few days since I’ve been home.

• KCIX is doing the “Mix 106 Cash Machine” — folks have to figure out a 4 digit PIN number… one digit at a time. People who listen to the guesses and get a better idea of what the final number is. Not necessarily a a revolutionary concept, but it’s well packaged.
• KQXR is doing a version of the game Clue — someone “killed” Creed’s Scott Stapp (with arms wide open, I’m sure). Listeners are trying to figure out who did it, with what weapon — and where in the US.
• KIZN is giving away a trip to see a NASCAR race in Phoenix. It’s a standard “be caller #…” contest, but the station is giving all the qualifiers a pair of tix to one of four upcoming local country concerts

KSAS is a whole new station.
The imaging is tigher.
The promotions are better.
The station is more promotionaly active.

KZMG.. sounds… the same. Mostly.
Magic’s morning show seems to click, and despite my initial skepticism, they seem to work well on the station.

On the spotload front – KZMG is pumping the “at least 10 songs in a row” promotion, but it should be “at least 10 songs in a row most of the time.” KSAS seems to be carrying a pretty heavy spot load

How many years on end are we going to have two pop stations competing for the ever-shrinking slice of the market?

KQXR’s Melissa will be putting in some overtime at Journal Broadcast Group — she’s picking up weekend weather at channel 6 for now.

OK, I’m getting targeted by shoe spam. I thought only online casino, porn and xanax peddlers liked to spam this site.

So, henceforth… you can’t say “shoe” or “Jesus” (apprantely the shoe in the ads are holy). Oh, and when you read Ian’s comments (at right) and they don’t make any sense… that’s why. Well, that’s kinda why.

Whatever.

Boise State Radio now offers most of it’s local programming in podcast format! New Horizons with Bob Kustra, Off the Trail with Jyl Hoyt, Joyce Doughty’s Food for Thought, Friday Focus, Idaho Business Matters and Diane Joesphy Peavy Essays are now available for iPod (or other player) consumption.

My only note would be the difficulty setting it up. To make it work, I have to copy the URL from the page, fire up iTunes, click “Advanced,” then “Subscribe to a Podcast” — and paste the BSR link over. It’s a lot of work. The podcasts are not even listed in Apple’s iTunes directory. I write this as constructive feedback — not a diatribe… I think it’s beyond great that BSR is taking the right steps.

I’m going to totally toot my own horn here — but the new Coach’s Extra podcast on KTVB.COM is designed to be nearly idiot-proof. You just click the iTunes button on this page, click “Launch Application” — and voila… you are signed up. The podcast is also listed in the iTunes directory so folks can find it by a simple search. We also offer straight downloads of the files, so if you just want to listen to one — you can skip the whole podcast route all together

A group of Boise radio stations are giving out free cash!

Wait… how’s that news?

Oh, yeah… Citadel Broadcasting announced an $0.18/share dividend for all you lucky shareholders on record as of November 18th.

KSAS is set to jump in the time machine every Monday-Friday for “Old Skool Lunch” — 90 minutes of the oldies and goldies you used to hear on KISS-FM. (OK, well, actually… you would have heard them on KZMG or KF95, but you get the idea).

PD Aaron Traylor said artists will include Janet Jackson, Ice Cube, New Edition, WreckX-N-Effect — etc. The new show runs from noon-1:30.

Back in the day, Magic dumped the Flash Back Cafe because they were having tune-in/tune-out problems — busting up the flow of the day (at least that’s the explanation I got at the time). It’ll be interesting to see what this move will do for both stations.

Apparantely KSL-AM (and KSSL-AM et al in the Idaho market) host Doug Wright is pondering a run for congress.

An attorney for Wright’s possible opponent (Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah) fired off a letter asking if Wright will continue to be allowed to “render his opinions on the vital issues of the day” — and essentially asking for equal time, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

KSL PD says that until Wright is a legaly qualified candidate, it’s a non-issue

Clear Channel Communications is stepping up pressure on congress to ease the limits on the number of stations it can own in a single market.

They want 10 stations in a 60-station market, and 12 in 75-frequency area.

From Reuters:

“Free radio is struggling. The cost of competing with new technologies and increased listener choice is staggering and profits are down,” Mays said at a speech to the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

http://www.fabulous570.com/on-air/chambersbio.html
http://ryanchambers.net/

Yee Haw is right. Steve is officially a “goat-roper down the hall” =)

KQFC’s “unfair advantage” for its CMA contest isn’t that much of an actual advantage.

The e-mails do give out the song to listen for – but they also dole out four separate windows each day — with the song being played once in each window. So you pretty much have to listen all day, but the e-mail does save you that oh-so-big hassle of listening at 7:20am.

I’m switching states this week and wrapping up work. I’ll post when I can — but updates may not be very frequent.