Idaho Radio News Etc.

The staff changes at Citadel Boise continue. AllAccess reports that promotions director Ruby Cortez will also grab the title of music director of KQFC, effective immediately.

She replaces Jim Miller in that role. As noted in comments last week – Miller is moving to Coloado Springs.

Update: Forgot to say that it was KQFC. Oops.

An item in the Idaho Press-Tribune the other day lauded KDJQ’s mix of oldies – and the re-entry of Big Jack to the market. (Thanks Seth)

KZMG/Magic 93.1 is now pairing Miggy Santos and Matty each evening from 5pm-7pm. Matty then goes solo for the 7, 8 and 9pm hours.

Good idea.

What I don’t really understand is why a pop station is going jockless from 10-midnight during the summer. It’s almost as if they are willing to deliver the young audience to KSAS (albeit a voicetracked KSAS) or the always inventive Ian at KQXR at the early hour. It’s still lights out – and the station is on auto-pilot…

Here are the ratings in a few key demo slices for the Idaho Falls area

Adults 18-49 Mon-Fri 6a-7p
1 Arrow 107
2 KBear
3 Z103
4 Classy 97
5 The Hawk

Adults 25-54 Mon-Fri 6a-7p
1 Arrow 107
2 Classy 97
3 KBear
4 Z103
5 Kupi 99

Adults 35-64 Mon-Fri 6a-7p
1 Arrow 107
2 Classy 97
3 KBYI
4 Kupi 99
5 KBear

Mornings
Adults 18-49 Mon-Fri 6a-10a
1 Arrow 107
2 KBear
3 Z103
4 Classy 97
5 The Hawk

Adults 25-54 Mon-Fri 6a-10a
1 Arrow 107
2 KBear
3 Classy 97
4 Z103
5 Kupi 99

Adults 35-64 Mon-Fri 6a-10a
1 Arrow 107
2 KBYI
3 Classy 97
4 Kupi 99
5 KBear

Also: Yes, I realize it’s very obvious which station sent these numbers along. Does your station have a success to share? E-mail me.

Bozz & Brian Vistaunet are leaving KTSY — headed for the other side of the Pacific NW (according to AllAccess). “Bozz” — aka Liesl will hit the door on July 1st. PD Jerry Woods is taking over her weekend role. Travis Culver joins the station as APD.

Also: On a personal note – Brian is a colleague of mine at KTVB. He is a consummate pro, and I had the fortune of working directly with him several years ago when I was a newcast producer and he was a videotape editor. We had one particularly big news day — and I was trying to pull out all the stops. He was able to put video to my words – and made that – and every show – sing. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even know he worked at KTSY. He’s one of the good guys – and I wish he and his wife the best of luck.

The FCC nailed William W. Scrugham with a $10,000 fine for operating a pirate radio station at 100.3 FM… in Kamiah.

The Feds and Idaho County officials have been monitoring the pirate broadcasts since January — and contacted Scrugham. He claimed the FCC did not have jurisdiction over “interstate radio transmissions” and went about his business — continuing the broadcast.

The FCC obviously doesn’t agree — and decided to law down the $10k hammer. So far, they haven’t confiscated his equipment.

It is unknown what the “station” was airing or what the signal strength is/was – though it is at least 6993 times stronger than the allowed maximum non-licensed signal strength (which would cover less than a mile).

KTMY/My Country 104.3 is adding a Boise-based jock to afternoons, according to the Idaho Statesman’s Michael Deeds.

“Shotgun” goes off afternoons starting July 10th. Deeds predicts he won’t have much of an impact. We won’t know ’til January either way…

This ad is running on AllAccess:

Here’s a gem from today’s Washington Post.

Well… she USED to be on the radio.

As I first reported last week, Boise State Radio is making several changes to KBSX/NPR News 91.

The station will jettison traditional BBC World Service programming in the overnight hours of Saturday & Sunday – in favor of jazz programming on the FM dial.

BSR currently operates Idaho’s Jazz Station on KBSU/AM 730. Associate GM Jim East says the change doesn’t reflect a decrease in news programming.

“As a result of our internal strategic planning, we have made an even greater commitment to news programming,” East said. “You’ll notice more local news content and with these changes, we’re adding more news/ information programming. However, one of our most common criticisms of Idaho’s Jazz Station is that it’s not available on FM.”

East says the moves will give listeners access to jazz music on a higher quality platform — in a timeslot where it’s not currently available on KBSU-AM. BBC programming will retain its overnight time slot on weekdays.

Will more jazz music be pumping through the FM transmitter in the future?

“I won’t rule out any possibilities at this point,” he said. “Though, I can say that we are committed to be a news leader in Idaho. We want each of our stations (individually) and all of our stations (together) to reach the greatest possible audience.”

Beyond the jazz/BBC switch – East says the other weekend lineup changes will help the station build TSL on the weekend.

“We have long recognized that we depend too much on ‘program roll-overs’ i.e.: playing the same program over again, back to back. This helps reduce program rollovers on the weekends and should help us retain audience longer.”

He says the shows are doing well nationally — and hopes they will take off in the Gem State.

Citadel Boise bumped Mike Sutton up to the director of sales position for the cluster. New GM Mike Owens was the sales manager for KIZN & KZMG, while Sutton held those duties for KQFC & KKGL.

KRVB/94.9 The River’s daily topicals for the morning show with frequent IRN posters Ken & Tim still say “New River Mornings” (at least the donut I heard today does).

The two teamed up last May — so when is “new” decidedly less so? Wasn’t KCIX “Boise’s New Mix 106″ for almost two full years?

KTHI/107.1 K-Hits has a pretty funny staff photo on its website. Listeners sent in photos – some of themselves, some totaly random — and someone at JBG Photoshopped them all together.

KBSX/NPR News 91 is making changes to its weekend schedule. The station will now program jazz in the overnight hours Saturday and Sunday, and is revamping the daytime lineup as well.

Station GM Jim East teases that this is just the begining:

“We’ve recognized that there would be more support for our jazz programming if it was available on an FM receiver,” East says. “This is a first-step towards making quality jazz programming more available.”

Full list of changes here

I’ve been in Hawaii this past week — and the local Hot AC has THE perfect name: Krater 96.

Except when the ratings tank…

Earlier this month, I noted that former KZMG/Magic 93.1 “Voice of God” Jeff Berlin had popped up in a promo for a KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM weekend stunt.

Jeff wrote in to say that the use was not “authorized,” and that he was going to look in to it. He thinks it is likely that the voiceover was taken from the Clear Channel shared promotions pool.

One funny aside – if you pull up Berlin’s bio, it says “Jeff’s voice is heard around the world – from Beijing to Beirut, Boise to Boston.”

The History of Idaho Radio Foundation has set meetings for June and July — and they’re inviting you to attend.

June: Clear Channel Radio’s Boise offices on Park Boulevard, this Thursday at 7pm. The meeting portion should last about 90 minutes, followed by a tour of the studios. The meeting will focus on forming a group to help gather, store & exhibit the materials the foundation hopes to acquire.

In July, the group will meet at Fisher Broadcasting’s Boise studio (aka KBCI) at 16th & Main.

I have some additional details if you need them – drop me a line and I’ll pass them along.

KQFC/The Big 98 is in search of a mid-day talent.

Here’s the AllAccess posting:

KQFC-FM Boise, ID. is seeking a mid-day on-air personality immediately.
The ideal candidate must have a great personality, willing to work long hours, lives and breaths radio, is a self motivator, can work a crowd at remotes, work the phones and make the audience the stars. Must have that extra something to bring to their show to stand out. Individual must also know selector inside and out, take direction and have tremendous people skills to work with record companies.
Boise is situated in the Treasure Valley with great views of the mountains and excellent outdorr amenities including skiing, rafting and hiking. Great school system for families.
Send resume and MP3 to….
kevin.anderson@citcomm.com

Deeds wrote about the Dixie Chicks flap today. Glad IdahoRadioNews.com is such a wonderful source for story ideas.

UPDATE: Yes, I realize I’m a snarky whiner :)

I’m told that today was Colin Cowherd’s last day on stations in the western part of the country. His show (heard on KTIK-AM/Boise and KSEI-FM/Idaho Falls) wasn’t netting decent ratings in this neck of the woods.

That’s kind of odd, since Colin was sports director at KGW-TV in Portland for about five years prior to his ESPN Radio gig.

No word on his replacement.

Update: Cowherd is still on KTIK for the time being, and I haven’t seen any other “official” word… stay tuned.

Citadel Communications has dropped a bucket down in to the company well, and pulled up Sales Manager Mike Owens to lead the Boise cluster of properties.

Owens replaces Kevin Godwin, who is now based in Colorado Springs, and oversees the company’s properties in that city, as well as Boise & Spokane.

Clear Channel radio is toying with the idea of 1 second spots. No, not a typo — o-n-e second.

The so-called “Blinks” would allow a marketer to “extend their brand” according to AdAge. One agency says that a three second blink is more realistic — simply because you already have to be an established brand to get a message out in just one second (think the NBC chimes or the Intel sound).

Intereting concept…

(Thanks, Justin!)

Former Citadel Boise General Manager Kevin Godwin has taken up residence in Colorado springs, as GM of that area’s cluster. He is also overseeing Boise & Spokane as regional VP.

I hear that a known name will step up to the Boise GM slot – and that an announcement could come today.

Time for our third annual review of the FCC-mandated EEO reports for local radio groups.

The FCC requires each station to prepare the report and make it available on each station’s website by May 31st.

Citadel
The group filled nine jobs in the year period -four on the programming side. KZMG PD Brad Collins was referred by AllAccess.com, and some random KZMG on-air personality was also referred through AA. KTIK’s APD came from inside Citadel. A KKGL Announcer came through Idaho Dept. of Labor.

By my count, KZMG hired at LEAST two talent: Matty & Miggy Santos, and are Byl/Doug one person?

Clear Channel
CC filled just four programming jobs – including KSAS PD, KSAS Remote Talent, KSAS Remote/Morning Talent and a traffic producer. Except the report covers June 1, 2005 to May 31, 206 – and the KSAS PD job was filled in March 2005. Also, what ever happened to KTMY’s “local” talent?

Journal
JBG merges the radio and TV reports, so there are a few jobs that could be radio – but I believe are TV side. JBG hired a PD for KJOT apparently (I hate to admit… news to me), and a PD for KQXR (Mat Diablo). Can’t find anything to nit-pick…

Locally Owned
All jobs were Account Executives. No programming positions filled.

Link patrol…
KIDO, KTMY, KCIX and KXLT all have links to an “EEO Report” at the bottom of the page — but each brings up a blank page, with no actual EEO data. KSAS is the only CCer to have a working link.

Update: Fixed about 10 spelling errors. Forgot to paste the cleaned-up version.

BIA is forecasting a very modest 2.3% growth for the top 25 radio groups – less than you can get from a savings account at your local bank.

BIA also ranked the radio groups by revenue — and of course Clear Channel is at the head of the class, with revenue of $3.5 billion.

ABC Radio (soon to be part of Citadel) took home $417.2 million, while Citadel proper had $412.6 million. It’s of note that ABCR has 24 stations, while Citadel has 215. Journal does not rank in the top 10