Idaho Radio News Etc.

Kissin’ 92 is one of five stations nominated for the Academy of Country Music Award in the Medium Market Station of the Year category. The awards are given out May 23rd at the MGM Grand in Vegas.

If you have news to share, send it to idahoradio@gmail.com. Anonymity guaranteed.

KZMG’s fundraiser to sell Girl Scout cookies for a young girl who lost her mother last week was a big success.

They sold more than 2,000 boxes in four hours. That’s about $7,000 worth of cookies. WOW!

The place was a zoo when I stopped by just before 3pm — lots and lots of people.

KFTZ/Idaho Falls program director Brad Collins is sliding up I-84 for the same position at KZMG/Boise.

Magic and former PD Jim Allen severed ties just a week ago.

“We had some excellent candidates for this job, but Brad had a great presentation, showed exceptional enthusiasm and displayed sincere excitement about being able to come to Boise and take over the helm at KZMG,” Citadel OM Rich Summers told R&R. “He’s an Idaho guy. He understands the Idaho lifestyle and wants to win. We’re looking forward to having him join the Citadel team in Boise.”

KFTZ is known as Z103 to the locals — and is owned by Bonneville… or Frank VanderSloot depending on interpretation. In addition to his PD duties, Colins is a third of the morning show team.

You might remember that both Tara Kelly & Mike Shamus once teamed with Collins part of the KFTZ morning show before joining KZMG. (Shamus made a pit stop in SL before the Boise job).

Collins spent an amazing twelve years at the station, and graduated from Idaho Falls HS.

Collins will stick with Z103 until March 17th – then hit B-town on March 21st.

Also: This hiring isn’t the end of this storyline…

An eagle-eyed friend noticed this posting on the Idaho Department of Commerce & Labor’s site. Give you one guess as to who the employer is (the ad doesn’t say):

Market Researcher

GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO EARN $60.00 FOR 2-1/2 HOURS OF WORK. Employer seeking several participants to take part in a radio music study for a `Classis Rock` or a Contemporary` radio station. The study is to offer suggestions to the radio stations to determine what type of music would attract a larger group of listeners. Will be going to a specific radio station for 2-1/2 hours, 1 evening only, either 3/14/2006 or 3/15/2006. Job starts at 7:00pm, but must be at the job site at 6:30pm, and work until 9:30pm. After listening to a specific radio station, will be asked what type of music would be the most likely individuals would be drawn to listen to. The target audience being studied must be female in two age groups. One target group is 25-45 years old and the other is 25-38 years old. Individuals outside these target groups need not apply. Will be paid $60.00 for assisting with this survey.

Learn how to apply here

KZMG has used Jeff Berlin for its voice image for the last several years.

But lately, he’s also popping up on KSAS. It sounds as though some of the generic imaging elements pulled from who-knows-where (the CC library?) have his easy-to-identify sound.

If you listen closely enough, you’ll actually hear him quite a bit.

Just watch

Trivia. By definition it’s trivial – but there’s just something about it. I was reading the Google Blog (of all things) today – and ran across a great Idaho media-related fact.

Apple Computer Inc.’s famous “1984″ is often said to have aired on commercial TV only once. Make that twice. The 1984 spot ran at 1am on December 15, 1983. Apple & ad agency Chiat-Day wanted to qualify the ad for 1983 advertising competitions, and made the Twin Falls buy to make that happen. It cost them all of $10.

At 1am on a cold December Thursday in Twin Falls, I doubt even big brother was watching.

KCIX morning hosts Mike Kasper and Kate McGwire had a chance to interview former Matchbox Twenty front man Rob Thomas Thursday.

The lively interview ended with a bit of static: Rob’s cellphone died. Game over.

I haven’t been posting much on Boise Community Radio Project. The group did a live narrowcast from the Record Exchange on February 10th. Neat step.

The station says it has collected about $3,000 – plus in-kind donations of equipment. Getting people to cough up cash to the program will be a continuing challenge for the group. This area has a lot of goodwill to give, but at the same time – there are many organizations that people will always see as more deserving. I get the dream – but the folks that might donate to BCRP are already well served. BCRP might say those folks aren’t, but there are lots of options.

- KRVB has the broad-appeal angle covered. The station is active in the community and has a wide playlist. Plus it’s consistent.
- Stations like Boise State Radio and KTSY (yes, KTSY) appeal to niches. BSR’s University Pulse is what BCRP wants to be: Local radio, programmed by local people. The only difference is that BSRUP has terrestrial radio carriage.
- If the Deer Point-based options don’t work for audiences, there are two satellite services with hundreds of channels. Local? No. Independent? No. But my my are there options.
- It’s not radio – but TVTV features a TON of local programming, issues and opinions. No “big media filter.”

So where does BCRP fit in? If someone has $20 to donate – what’s going to get them to funnel it to BCRP over the Red Cross, or United Way — or buying cookies for Brittney?

While doing an interview for my day job, the people running an ad against the Boise schools bond told me something interesting: they were only able to buy time on Journal and Citadel. They claimed Clear Channel was “sold out.”

Record labels want a THIRTY PERCENT cut of Sirius Satellite Radio’s revenue.

This is the scene earlier this week at the KTMY “gas blast” event – gas for $1.04.

This is the station that’s also giving away a truck. Which clearly these people need.

Who doesn’t like Girl Scout Cookies? Thin Mints! Samoas! Trefoils!

KZMG/Magic 93.1 is helping a Girl Scout go to camp. The young girl, Brittney lost her mother just last week. As you might imagine, there’s not a whole lot of time to sell cookies when your life is in turmoil.

So show up at the Albertsons on Overland & Orchard today (Saturday) between 1 and 4pm. And buy some cookies. If you can’t hit that time frame, dial up 629-9276 and buy some sugary goodness – make sure you let them know you want the cash to go to Brittney.

Magic will broadcast live from the sale.

As we were the first to report early this week – Jim Allen has left his PD post at KZMG.

From All Access:

“I have no doubt that with the staff in place, MAGIC 93.1 will thrive and achieve greatness and I thank GM KEVIN GODWIN and OM RICH SUMMERS for the opportunity that they provided me. It’s been a tremendous experience.”

I wonder if he talked in all caps like that.

Anyway, the station is scraping by with former KSAS imaging dude and part-time on-air talent “Matt,” plus Shamus, Tara & Valentine pulling long shifts.

Citadel tossed 11 stations in trust for some unstated reason – says R&R.

Michael Deeds has a piece on Nerina Pallot this week in the fish wrap. It’s good. OK, I said it. It’s good.

This has to be the best part:

Pallot would love to gig in Boise, she says. But if she visits, Pallot insists that she won’t fly here. She wants to drive across the state line, then get out and inhale a lungful of air.

“I know this sounds kooky, but … I’ll know when the time is right to go to Idaho,” Pallot says. “Because it’s very special to me.”

Just don’t let her enter through Ontario. Or up from Utah on 15 — or 84 for that matter. Or I-90 at State Line. Lolo maybe?

Also: I’ve listened to KRVB’s Other Studio sporadically over the past few weeks – but The X comes up an awful lot. When the PD job was open, Tim Johnstone and Deeds joked about the (then) open PD job at KQXR. Then this past week the pair talked about the long-gone days when Johnstone was working at The X (not Pirate Radio we were reminded).