Idaho Radio News Etc.

The Boise Weekly did another write-up on the Boise Community Radio Project.

Let’s say you are a Boise radio station runner.

What if you had an open air slot?
What if that air slot were on a rock station?
What if you had pretty great numbers to start with?
What if a known talent (or two) used to pull decent numbers in the area?
What if that talent (or talents) very recently became available again?

(Note I said rock not oldies)

KQXR has been in a bit of a slump lately — with several complete turnovers in staff in the past few years, several PD changes and a lack of stability in AM drive.

In fall 2005 the station saw a 12+ decline of about 17% in total audience from the spring (or from the glass-not-empty camp: an increase of about 3% from year to year).

Here’s the long-term picture:

The station lost some ground in 25-54 as well. I also understand that the station saw some ratings softening after Mancow debuted.

When I was still producing a daily newscast, I read a great piece of advice: You shouldn’t make a big deal of your ratings succes – just as you wouldn’t want ratings failure pinned upon you.

Using that thought as a back drop, I thought I’d take a look at a six book trend for Boise’s stations. As usual these are A 12+ numbers. While most will say “you don’t sell based on those numbers…” it’s really the only fair way to gauge all the stations on an even playing field.

The number are figured by totaling the numbers attained by each station and dividing by six.

KIZN – 7.68
KQFC – 6.40
KTHI – 6.07
KIDO – 5.88
KQXR – 5.62
KBOI – 5.54
KKGL – 5.37
KXLT – 5.13
KLTB – 4.48
KZMG – 4.48
KCIX – 4.43
KJOT – 3.93
KSAS – 3.88
KRVB – 3.10
KGEM – 2.78
KFXD – 2.05
KTIK – 1.87

KIZN is the big winner in the A 25-54 – racking up a 49% increase in listenership from spring ‘05. The station vaulted from a 5.9 to 8.8.

KCIX also saw improvement, with a 37% bump (4.3 to 5.9). Three stations are in the top 10 that were not in the spring: KBOI, KQFC and KLTB (now KTMY). Since I do not have all the numbers, I can’t give you exact figures — but a little deduction helps.

In the spring, the lowest rated top 10 station (actually nine due to an error in the newspaper) was KRVB with 3.8. That means that KBOI, KQFC and KLTB had a number lower than that.

KIDO stands at 6.5, a bump of at least 2.7; KBOI is at 6.2 now – an increase of at least 2.4; and KLTB stands at 5.5, up at least 1.7.

The fish wrap has the 25-54 numbers for the top 10.

KIZN 8.8
KKGL 7.2
KIDO 6.5
KBOI 6.2
KQFC 6.2
KXLT 6.2
KCIX 5.9
KTHI 5.9
KLTB 5.5
KJOT 5.2

KTIK-AM employee Kaela McCutchen died last week at her Nampa home. McCutchen was a member of the station’s “Ticket Chicks” group.

The 24-year-old leaves behind a son, Eathan. If you would like to make a donation in memory of Kaela for Eathan, write a check payble to the “Eathan Dueno Trust Fund – care of Syringa Bank – 1299 N. Orchard – Boise, ID 83706.”

Lear more about Kaela’s life from the Idaho Statesman

From Layni Davis’ bio on mycountry.com:

When asked how she begun her career in radio, she says she just kind of “stumbled upon it”, and has never looked back.
“Country music moves me like no other, so I couldn’t be happier than I am here on 96 ONE THE BULL”!

Oh “my.” The fact that they didn’t notice that her bio for whichever CC station she’s imported from had a local reference is funny enough. The only thing that makes it better is that Treasure Valley country outlet KSRV brands itself as… “96 ONE THE BULL!”

Too bad her other VT market isn’t home to “Kissin’ 92!”

Update: Fixed – but the first line still doesn’t make sense… I think this is the Gem State, not sure…

From the Golden State to the Sunshine State, Layni comes to us from Florida.

Boise’s 104.3 FM is now “KTMY” according to FCC records. The change went in to effect on January 26th.

It’s the fourth call sign for the frequency. KIDQ (Q104) signed on 6/13/1983 – used KUUB for about two months during the K-Lite transition in 1984-1985, and pulled down the calls KLTB on Feb. 22, 1985.

Sources tell me the station hoped to obtain “KMYC” for its callsign — even redoing the coding on “mycountry.com” with the new calls, but clearly that didn’t exactly work out.

Anyone know what the “T” is supposed to stand for?

You can now listen to Citadel Broadcasting’s Boise stations online.

The group is using EON System’s “Right Now Radio” platform. You’ll have to register – but one login works for the entire group.

The audio quality isn’t great – but passable. The player shows title and artist. I was not able to get it to work in Firefox, but IE worked fine. You can also easily pick any Citadel station across the country with a few clicks once you are in the player.

Now I can finally listen to Caves and Prater prattle on (my desk radio won’t pick up 1350).

Links: KZMG | KKGL | KQFC | KIZN | KTIK | KBOI

The stream gets a little sketchy when it hits a break. Here’s the log for KZMG here in the 12am hour Friday.

12:32am – Local promo (“Live”)
12:33 – Mor furniture spot (“Live”)
12:34 – Dubbed over smoothie spot (only on the online stream; it ran at 50% speed)
12:35 – Another dubbed over spot at 50%
12:36 – dead air
12:36:30ish – PSA (dubbed over)
12:37 – Promo
12:37:30 – Another promo
12:38 – Promo… ok.. there’s like 3 in this minute.
12:39 – Ok, I get it already… 1) you have a website 2) Kid’s Fair is coming
12:40 – Must visit KZMG.COM. Must go to Kid’s Fair
12:41 – Ummm… I didn’t know Magic played elevator music (weird filler music plays)
12:41:30 – Rejoin “live” commerical break halfway through a Continental loans spot
12:42 – Another local spot
12:42:30 – promo bumper
12:43 – What’s this weird “music” sound coming from my speakers?

Below you’ll find the ratings summary for the Fall 2005 book. I’ll drag out the trademark charts this weekend.

All numbers ar 12+ of course.

After that damn-near-miraculous jump in the last book, KKGL glided back down to earth. The station dropped from a 7.1 to a 5.4, but is still up year to year.

OK, even I’M sick of the KZMG/KSAS battle.

New Kiss program director Aarong Traylor moved the ratings needle up a tad – about 5% (from a 3.9 to a 4.1). The station is flat from fall to fall.

KZMG saw an 8% improvement, from a 3.4 to 3.7. However, from fall to fall, Magic is down about a point.

If this market can’t support two oldies stations — can we really prop up two pop stations?

Rock as an overall category dropped about 14%, but that’s mostly on the back of KKGL; it’s actually up over a 3-book average.

KLTB-FM saw a 26% gain fron spring to fall.

KLTB-FM saw a 48% gain from fall to fall.

KLTB-FM beat direct competitior KTHI-FM for the first time since spring 2003.

KLTB-FM was Clear Channel’s biggest gainer (tied with KCIX).

KLTB-FM no longer runs the format it used during this ratings period.

I’m going to predict the future: KTHI will see the biggest ratings improvement in the next ratings period.

Oldies as a category (KTHI/KLTB) was up 7% from spring to fall.

I don’t think I’ve ever quoted my blog on this blog. But what the hell!

Hi, we’re from Citadel. We’d like to sell you some spots – August 10th

As good as the news was for the folks on Bannock then, it’s even better now. Fueled by the KBOI ratings growth, Citadel actually added a little more than 1 ratings point from Spring to Fall. Journal dropped .8, and Clear Channel added 2.1 overall points.

Citadel takes the top overall spot, with Journal second and CC third.

Boise’s top country station lost a little bit of ground (.2) – but still beat the surging KBOI for the top spot.

Arbitron clearly got some Spanish-speaking Treasure Valley residents in the sample.

KWEI-FM SHOT up an astounding 350 percent. Not 35… 350. The station is still in the FM ratings basement, notching only a 2.1. However, when you combine the stalwart KWEI with newcomber KDBI (owned by Bustos Media) – the stations grab a 3.1.

Well… Bronco football seemed to have quite the halo effect for KBOI-AM. The station nearly always has a better fall book than spring — but this book was extraordinary. The Citadel talker jumped 65% – the greatest gain of any English-language station in the market.

But that 65% jumps is extra-extraordinary. It’s the highest number for the station since I began tracking in spring 1999.

Here’s an odd trend: Three full stations saw no change. KQXR, KXLT and KQFC all held steady from Spring to Fall.

Before I crunch these numbers, here’s what I see:

- Sofetning in the overall country numbers
- A dearly departed station pefrorms
- SPANISH!
- Citadel on the march

KIZN-FM 7.3
KBOI-AM 7.1
KIDO-AM 6.2
KQFC-FM 6
KKGL-FM 5.4
KQXR-FM 5.4
KXLT-FM 5.4
KCIX-FM 5.2
KLTB-FM 5.2
KTHI-FM 5
KSAS-FM 4.1
KJOT-FM 3.9
KZMG-FM 3.7
KRVB-FM 2.9
KGEM-AM 2.5
KWEI-FM 2.1
KFXD-AM 1.9
KTIK-AM 1.7
KDBI-FM 1.4
KBXL-FM/KDZY-FM 1.2
KTPZ-FM 0.8

Did you hear the one about KLTB? Yeah… you know, the station they blew up cause it’s ratings tanked?

Yeah. Maybe they shoulda waited 3 weeks.

KLTB beat competitior KTHI in the most recent ratings period — jumping .9 to land at 5.2.

Umm. Can we have a do-over?