Idaho Radio News Etc.

A vehicle rammed in to the Plaza 7 building on Fairview – better known as the home to Journal Broadcast Group’s Boise radio operations. The car did not run in to the Journal operations (which would have been quite the feat, considering they are on the second floor), but did cause quite a commotion Monday night.

KTVB’s Adam Atchison reports that the driver of a white van was parked across the street at Los Betos, when he stepped on the accelerator, flew across Fairview, and came to rest halfway inside the building. Just last week, the building’s owners (not KTVB, despite the “Plaza 7″ name) – removed a bunch of trees in front of the building, clearing a nice path in to the building.

Driver’s OK. No other injuries. More at KTVB.COM

Earlier this month, we noted a lineup change at KJOT.

Now comes word of another change – Postal Pete is trading places with Dale Larson in essence. Pete will VT weekends, and DaleCale will return to his night time VT shift.

So the new M-F lineup is…

Mornings – Pete & Joe
Midday – Kristine
Afternon – Dave Sparks
Nights – Dale Larson

The Idaho Statesman’s annual survey of what’s “best” in the Treasure Valley is out – and there’s a bit of a surprise.

KDJQ-AM was the top vote getter! The locally owned frequency got a quick write up in today’s tabloid. KBOI took second place, followed by KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River, KQXR/100.3 The X, and KTHI/107.1 K-Hits.

And Best DJ?

“Big” Jack Armstrong – formerly of KLTB, now doing afternoons on the aforementioned KDJQ.

He’s followed by KCIX’s Mike & Kate, KBOI’s Paul J. Schneider and KTHI’s Tracy & Margo.

In the other media categories – KTVB’s Dee Sarton took the top honors for best TV anchor (the Statesman got the names of both the programs she anchors wrong, natch). She’s followed by KTVB’s Mark Johnson, KTVB’s Carolyn Holly and KIVI’s Don Nelson.

BroncoCountry.com grabbed the top local website spot – I’m a big fan of the site. KTVB.COM took second place over (and yes, I’m quite pleased by this irony:) IdahoStatesman.com. And since I haven’t made this disclosure in a while – I’m employed by KTVB-TV.

By the way, Boise Weekly is currently polling for its “Best of Boise” right here.

KJOT/J-105 got some cross-promotional pub from sister property KIVI/Channel 6. The two did a little break down of KIVI’s “Pigskin Preview” magazine – sharing several random insights, and even handing out some good-natured ribbing to the Today’s Channel 6 folks. They noted that the magazine is full of “chit chat” — and made a rather off-color joke about the placement of Will Hoenike’s head on the magazine’s back cover.

The segment aired during KIVI’s 30 minute football preview show that aired Saturday evening.

We don’t do a ton of “personal” news — but here’s something (from AllAccess last week):

Congrats to JOURNAL BROADCAST GROUP Alternative KQXR/BOISE, ID PD/afternooner MAT DIABLO and PAMELA GENIO on getting married in SOUTH LAKE TAHOE on AUGUST 6th. The DIABLO “party” will happen after the FALL ‘06 BOOK in GREECE and ITALY.

Fox Broadcasting is one of the first advertisers to get on the Clear Channel “Blink” bandwagon. You’ll remember that these are the short ads being sandwiched between songs. AdWeek reports that Fox is pumping up The Simpsons, Prison Break and House with the one to three second ads.

You’ll likely be hearing the spots locally. AdWeek says Fox bought a stunning 15,000 units per day. They will run once an hour for 13 hours a day on 1,100 CC stations.

Oh, and make sure you watch to the end… trust me.

Several markets have launched HD sub-channels with all sorts of wacky formats.

But a quick look at Amazon’s top 100 selling radios doesn’t show a single HD model. (via Hear 2.0)

- Yesterday came news that Americans waste an hour and fity minutes at work each day on average.

- Yesterday came news that Americans are taking less vacation time than ever before.

KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM is playing another track of local music. The station is spinning Arcturus of Mad Ro’s “Idaho” single. You should hear it — but I can’t find it online. The hook “I don’t know… it’s just eye-da-ho” gets stuck in your brain in an odd way…

Idaho Radio News friend Jim Steele dropped me a fascinating note about an Idaho broadcaster.

KLCE 97.3 FM has exploited out a little trick with RDS (Radio Data System) to move listeners from one frequency to another. KLCE also broadcasts on 97.7 from Pocatello. Folks with RDS equipped stereos will be routed to the stronger signal for their area (apparently using RDS’ “REG” protocol – read more at Wikipedia).

Jim says he heard about a 1 second bit of silence while the radio switches. He also points out that this would be smart for NPR networks to use to route people to the best station for their area (eg… BSU Radio’s statewide network).

Well, I’m on XM Satellite Radio’s media list all of a sudden.

But there’s actually an interesting bit of news — KZLA/Los Angeles has dropped its country format in favor of pop (horrors!). XM is ratcheting up the media drum machine to note that they have not one — but FIVE separate country stations. Combine that with Sirius, and that market gets about ten country stations.

So does this one.

Plus the six terrestrial broadcasters (KTMY, KIZN, KAYN, KQFC, KFXD & KSRV) – Boiseans could theoretically listen to sixteen different country stations at once.

I have a general rule on this blog — if I change something, or have to rewrite something, I let you know. Last week I pulled a bunch of stuff with little explanation. Now, some of it is back – in an edited form.

Every quoted number on this site comes from a publicly available source – either R&R or the Idaho Statesman (which published Arbitron material that is not generally publicly available – but they’ve done it, so that cat’s kinda out of the bag). I’ve provided you with some other general information – but you’ll notice there are no numbers. If you want that detail, you should subscribe to the book. However, as a journalist (or in this case – blogger), I think it’s important to tell the whole story. My goal is to provide you with the story – the numbers really don’t matter. If you want them — pay up!

KJOT/J-105 simply blew up in the morning. The station more than doubled fall to spring among people 25-54. Among men in that same demographic, J-105 almost doubled. Pete & Joe are also stunningly popular among women – jumping more than 1200 percent (yes, twelve-hundred percent…).

Remember all the media hype this spring about the rising river? The river is flowing fast & furious! The river is at historically high levels! The river! The River! THE RIVER!

The Boise River wasn’t the only thing rising — but Boise’s River… KRVB/94.9 The River had a strong spring as well.
- Mornings: increases in P12+, P25-54, M25-54 and women 25-54
- Mid-day: BIG increase P25-54, and W25-54 (tied for first place in that demo/time slot combo)
- PM drive: increase in P12+, P18-34, P25-54, M25-54 and W25-54.

Tommy the stuntboy on KCIX/Mix 106 should get some time off in Hawaii.

His music-intensive show, blended with funny stories and personality is scoring with listeners. Mix saw big gains in P 25-54, M25-54 and W25-54. The station is tops among women 25-54 in that demo.

Not to put too fine a point on this — but KCIX is really Clear Channel’s big success story – with strong numbers in AM, mid-day and prime.

KTIK/ESPN Radio 1350 KTIK The Ticket had a strong showing in the morning.

The station jettisoned the latest incarnation of The Spud Brothers (with Chris Brewer and — at last check — J Bates) in favor of syndicated programming. Former KGW-TV sports guru Colin Cowherd’s show from 7am to 10am saw improvements in the timeslot across the board.

Idaho Sports Talk with Jeff Caves saw pretty healthy gains with men 25-54 – landing at number three in that timeslot/demo combination, behind KJOT & KKGL.

KQXR/100.3 The X dropped its local morning show last fall, in favor of the syndicated “Mancow” program.

Unlike the success of Pete & Joe, Mancow is losing listeners in most categories, though it saw a slight uptick among women 25-54.

KDJQ is not in any ratings list I’ve seen.

Why? Did the station not register for the book?

The country instability is affecting Citadel’s country morning shows as well. KIZN & KQFC shed listeners in the overall category, and all five major demos.

The benefit concert at Cowgirls in Kuna featuring Emerson Drive raised $3800 for Eddie Allen.

Eddie works at Citadel’s KBOI – and was attacked one night on the streets of Downtown Boise. The Citadel crew presented Eddie the cash – to help cover medical expenses – last Wednesday. I’m told he was overwhelmed, and didn’t know what to say.

If you would like to help, contact me and I’ll get you in touch with the right people.

This has nothing to do with radio – at all. Yet I’m posting it anyway: http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.html (also from TestPattern)

OK, I’m on a “bad ad” kick. These awful ads keep us all clothed and fed – but, God they’re awful.

TestPattern over at MSNBC.com is doing a survey of the words local/regional ads, and low & behold – a Boise fave made the list:

“The worst commercial EVER is, fortunately for the rest of the world, a local ad for MOR Furniture here in the Bakersfield (California) area. The hysterical announcer is positively beside himself as he informs us that this is a once-in-a-lifetime sale — “for the first time ever” — and that we only have “today, tonight, and tomorrow” to take advantage of the “incredible savings.” Of course, the very next week he enthusiastically informs us of yet another once-in-a-lifetime sale.–Mardi

What’s YOUR “ugh… I can’t take it anymore” local ad?

Wikipedia’s entry on WKRP notes a connection to Idaho/Utah radio.

The entry says KRPN/Salt Lake City identified itself as “WKRP in Salt Lake City: The Oldies Network” in the 1980s. The piece also says the station was simulcast on four frequencies that covered parts of Idaho and Wyoming — as well as Utah.

- The Shamus/Tara/Brad promo running this weekend on KZMG/Magic 93.1 had me laughing — as the trio sung a song about going back to school. The show is doing a contest, where one (lucky?) listener will have the show broadcast live from their house on the first day of school. The trio will bring in a stylist to do the kid’s hair, and will ferry them to school in the Magic Montero. That 9am hour from an empty house might be creepy…

- Heard the ad for “Old School” in Ontario? It’s “stoner-tastic.” The ad features one dooood talking to another on the phone — talking up how great this hippy store in Oregon is. What could they mean when they’re talking about “hand blown glass?”

- Speaking of ads — the spot for Jared: The Galleria of Jewelry featuring “Ryan Mormon” talking about the watches is great. A local guy talking about his local store. It’s interesting that Ryan Mormon ALSO lives in Seattle, and ALSO likes the watches at Jared. THAT’S JARED!!!! (And no, I don’t know why I pick on Jared)

- I heard an Aerosmith song on KTHI/107.1 K-Hits today (“Dream On”) — and it made me think of all the oldies purists out there who probably miss the old KLTB. This isn’t a knock on K-Hits at all — just a different approach.

- Want to be a J-105 calendar girl (aka J-Girl)? Application here. The winner “will be judged and selected by Journal Broadcast Group management.” Rough job.