Idaho Radio News Etc.

Or, rather in Play – the entertainment tabloid put out by the Idaho Press Tribune.

Play editor Ben Fletcher wrote the piece and did the interview.

Here’s a key paragraph:

Q: Your program director says you two do better work together than apart. Do you believe that?
Byl: Oh definitely. Our chemistry was there from day one. And I was miserable when I was thrown into the room at The X with two people who hated me and was forced to do a show. When there’s no chemistry, it’s just no fun.

Ouch.

The pair deny that the Lucky Peak incident did them in on the X. Doug says he was kicked to J105 because he was “turning 40.” Byl says it was “management trying to save money, I think. There was so much speculation out there. They never came forward with the truth. I know they regret it now. But, we’ve never been happier.”

The story is not online that I can find, you’ll have to pick up a copy of today’s Idaho Press-Tribune to read the whole ball of wax.

(Archive search keywords: KKGL, KQXR, Journal)

Seen that awful blog that has decided that it is Boise’s keeper? Filled with inaccurate information and self-promotion. And you think I’m bad :)

Lately it’s been handing out “dope awards” to TV reporters. These people do good, hard work — and for some reason that blog has decided to pick on them for doing their jobs. It’s really a bit much.

The blog has called them “kids,” “actors” and “the best looking migrant workers in Ameria” — and the folks who leave comments say much worse.

The blog says it was “born out of necessity” — apparantely the necessity to trash people.

(Note I’m not naming the blog or linking to it — go to Boise Weekly’s blog page for the link if you’re curious).

What’s the fastest way to kill a radio station? Go off the air for long stretches of time.

Apparantely crews finally got in to the tower… but they still aren’t on the air.

What’s up?

Seen the new “hometown” ad for Lithia Motors?

It features local folks who sell cars at the various Lithia dealerships around the Valley.

Look verrrry closely — and you’ll see old Idaho radio vet Chris Brewer. No joke.

There’s a new billboard for KBOI/AM 670 on 27th Street — it features a picture of Paul J, Chris & Ken — and “Still here” scrawled across it in pseudo-graffiti style.

I wonder what they are getting at.

Several local stations are taking the book battle to the TV airwaves.

KJOT/J105 has a slick new ad – high energy and very visually catchy. I’ve only seen it once (on their Journal sister TV station) – but it was impressive.

I praised the ads from KTHI/107.1 K-Hits a few weeks ago as being local and unique. Well, I take that back. The new spot consists entirely of old stock footage of people dancing. The video looks like it’s from 1985… very very strange. Go back to the old spots!

KTMY/My Country 104.3 isn’t pinching pennies on the TV schedule from what I can see — the My Country spots seem to be airing quite a bit.

Also, KKGL & KRVB are running some spots… I’ve covered those previously.

107.1 K-Hits wants to give you a vacation!

Paris? Rome? Vegas?

NO! Walla Walla!

Well, it’s cool for the wine-o crowd apparently – since Sunset Magazine called the Washington town the “2005 Wine Destination of the Year.” KTHI is giving away a wine tour trip and a couple of night’s at a historic hotel. Enter here.

The Statesman’s Michael Deeds reported in (the) Scene Friday that KTMY/My Country 104.3 (not KLTB anymore) will have a new local afternoon jock in place soon.

“Hopefully, we’ll have somebody on within the next two weeks,” Jeff Cochran told him.

98 KQFC is on birthday number 20 – and is giving away some serious money.

The station is calling out a birth month each morning and afternoon, then throwing open the phones to people born in that month. Caller number nine wins anywhere from $98 — to $98,000. Yeesh. Even I could tolerate country music all day long for a chance at 98 large.

Here’s the kicker — if caller number nine has the exact day, month & year as the birthday annouced – they win the $98k (in an annuity).

Hurry — the contest ends this Thursday.

KIZN’s got a new round of those funny dancing DJ characaters:

Brenda Mee
Kevin Mee
Spencer Burke
Hot Rod Thompson
Steve Shannon

KZMG’s new afternoon host did a bit with a caller trying to get a job at Burger King yesterday.

Amazingly, that same caller rang up today, and had that exact same converstation!

I found this poor The, orphaned in the media landscape. Since I’m a sucker for cute, adorable typesets, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to scoop up this sweet little The – and give it a home at the top of this site.

And as Bob Barker says – “Help control the The population, have your The spayed or neutered.”

You can almost hear the tundra trembling… a battle is brewing between the pop kids.

KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM program director Aaron Traylor has been in the PD role at the station for about a year now – and the frequency sounds quite different than it did before he arrived. The station is far more promotionally active – and seems to be doing a lot more with what little support it is given. The music is more urban, and Traylor has been active with the local music scene.

In the other corner stands KZMG/Magic 93.1 – with new program director Brad Collins already making major shifts. The heritage top 40 station has changed its imaging, tweaked its branding, and overhauled the playlist. In the not so recent past, you could hear the top hit of the week played 90-110 times in a seven day stretch. The current tops (Sean Paul’s “Temperature” and Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day”) are only hitting the airwaves 68 times each. The station also seems to have opened up a gold wing of the library — with songs like 1999’s “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit and 1997’s “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind seeing rotation.

Of Magic’s Top 30 titles – 712 spins would be classified as rock or traditional pop, with 462 spins sounding urban. In the Kiss top 30, 700 fell in to the pop/rock category, and 892 spins were urban. Magic’s expanded playlist is more like the station of old – in the pre-Kiss days of the late 1990s. A key difference now is that the station cannot afford to simply ignore vast portions of hip-hop and rap like it once did. The changes position 93.1 not just in Kiss’s listener footprint, but could help it vie for a share of KCIX/Mix 106’s audience – at least the listeners who can tolerate some urban cuts. I wouldn’t be fall-down shocked to hear Mix start throwing around the “no rap” slogan.

Magic is starting to act like the underdog — with the revival of that pointed “all today’s hits, not just some of them” slogan and a bit more aggressive on-air banter. It’s a far cry from the “old & crusty” Millionaire skit on Kiss or Eminem parodies on Magic – but for the first time in a good long while, it seems like KZMG’s station runners actually wants to win this battle.

Also: KZMG is upping head count — adding a new afternoon host (Valentine moves to mid-days). You can hear Miggy Santos 2pm-7pm weekdays. They are also searching for a weekend talent. (Updated – it’s Miggy not Micky)

Byl and Doug are now on afternoons on KKGL/96.9 The Eagle. The pair admitted that the pirate radio stunt was just a joke…

Oh, and by the way — have you stopped by billanddoug.com?

Also: At the top of the 2pm hour, they played a series of calls — the highlight might have been when a caller chimed in with “you guys rock! Mancow blows!”

Tuesday, B&D played gonzo radio some more – with a little bit involving PD Scott. They layered in a recorded “message” left on their answering machine, with Scott saying something about calling the FCC. Scott then said “live” that they better knock it off — and that they’d already burned their bridges with “one radio group in town.”

I was unable to listen Wednesday — I’m sure “4/20″ will be interesting.

Check out this gem from the wayback machine — courtesy our friend Dave Arthur:

Featuring…

Dave Arthur

Steve Shannon (as “Condom Man”)

Deb Courson

And the featured interviewee…

“Captain” Mike Kasper

Also pictured is the “in/famous” Evan MC and GM Bruce Wetton.

Dave notes that this came out the month KFXD decided to drop the Top 40 format and rebrand as “The Legend KF95.” That was February 1993 — the begining of almost exactly six years without a pop/CHR competitor in the market (in 1999 KARO dumped rock and became KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM).

Dave also shared the Arbitron 12+ ratings for the time period. KZMG went from a 2.4 in Spring 1991 to a 7.2 exactly two years later – spring 1993. KFXD dropped from a 10.0 to a 3.6.

I’m going to lob this one, and remind you of my conflict of interest: I work for a local news website.

With that said, a new report from respected media research firm Borrell Associates studied the online revenue for the 212 top TV markets. The executive summary has a nugget that I find interesting on several levels:

“In fact, the largest local website in most markets will generate more in ad sales this year than the largest-grossing radio station in that market.”

Said another way: some websites are out-earning radop stations, according to the report.

I’m not going to pretend if I know that to be true in this market – I don’t know the numbers on either side of the game. But consider this: The Borrell survey estimates that in 2004 (the most recent year data was available) – $5.91 million was spent in Boise on online advertising – up 20% from 2003.

Update: My overzealous editing removed the reference to “in Boise” in that last sentence, so I put it back. Also, websites aren’t out-earning TV stations — they are out-earning radio stations.

KKGL/96.9 The Eagle has launched its buzz-building campaign for Byl & Doug in the afternoon.

The pair are “playing” pirate radio — with a little radio theater, they are busting over the Eagle’s airwaves. The recorded drops are playing over the top of songs, in the middle of Bob & Tom, etc.

The bits urge listeners to check out bylanddoug.com – and call 573-3434. At the end of the phone number is a pre-recorded message that makes one think the radio duo can’t hear you.

Also, the bit I heard included a cameo from Jon Duane (They said something like, “wait… now WE’RE being taken over!”)

Boise station KDJQ-AM is set to dump the Spanish format and jump back on the oldies bandwagon. The 50,000 watt AM station at 890 AM launched one year ago with a “unique” oldies playlist – with a lot of b-sides and other tunes in the mix.

In September – after a summer of oldies – the station went all-Spanish.

From Rob:

I would like to get the word out that we will be having a meeting this Thursday, April 20th at the station for anyone that would be interested in participating in the new format. We need volunteers, investors, air people, sales people, and anyone else that wants to support local radio and “Help KDJQ Save the Oldies”

Again, The Meeting will be this Thursday, April 20th at 6:30 p.m. at the station–located at 1050 Clover Drive next to Veterans Park and behind the Dutch Goose on State Street in Boise and anyone interested is welcome

Big announcement later today on IdahoRadioNews.com. I’m wating for one more little detail before I post…

KCIX/Mix 106 had a very special guest…

Tommy, Bridget the Midget, Kate & Mike. Clearly not in that order.

When do Byl & Doug take over afternoons on KKGL/96.9 The Eagle?

KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM picked up another Z100/Portland jock. “Chase” takes the night shift from Kane. VT.

KKGL/96.9 The Eagle is running a new TV spot, with a unique element: Cat Lee in the corner signing the spot for the hearing impaired.

One wonders why the hearing impaired would care about an ad for a radio station… Perhaps folks who lost their hearing from too much classic rock now have the station on in their car, but stare at the station’s RDS tag on their car display. Or something.

Anyway, taped bumpers from Bob & Tom are intercut with the basics (3 minutes or less of commercials, 6 in a row, a few music interludes).

KZMG/Magic 93.1 has made a number of changes in the past two weeks.

- New PD Brad Collins is taking up residence along side Shamus & Tara on the Magic Morning Show.
- Tara appears to be taking a part voice-tracked/part live approach to the midday shift – pulling daily double duty
- A new voice of God is in place, with a new female accent voice.
- Is former KSAS production dude “Matty” the new permanent voice of nights?
- Boise no longer has two “#1 Hit Music station/channels” — Magic dumped the positioner for “Playing all today’s hits, not just some of them.” That of course isn’t a new trick– both Magic & Kiss used the tag when Kiss launched in 1999.
- Talent are referring to the station as “Magic 93.1 KZMG” about half the time.
- The playlist seems to be shifting a little less urban the past few days — but at the moment AllAccess is offline so I can’t take a look at MediaBase… we’ll check back later.