Idaho Radio News Etc.

KDND/Sacramento held a contest — “Hold your wee for a Wii,” plying contestants with liberal amounts of water, and seeing who could last the longest.

A woman died.

The AP reports an autopsy shows Jennifer Strange died of “water intoxication” — that her salt levels were so diluted that the cells in her body began to swell. Strange wanted to win the popular game system for her three children.

The contest started with half-pint bottles, then moved to large containers. It’s unclear how much water Strange drank.

Update: The station pulled the morning show off the air.

Dave Tester will head a group of Southern Idaho radio stations under the “Tester Broadcasting” banner.

The stations include: KSRV-FM/96.1 The Bull, KSRV-AM/1380 The Cruise, KTPZ/Music Monster 99.1, KAYN/100.7 FM and KMHI/AM 1240 Mountain Home.

The FM Idaho group has taken a number of steps to realign its properties in the past several months – including moving KSRV to Deer Point and launching the “new” Canyon Country (KYUN) at 106.7 FM in the Magic Valley.

FMI also did a license swap last year — putting KSRV-F/A, KTPZ, KAYN and KHMI under the “FM Idaho” name — while swapping KIKX, KTFI and KYUN under the Locally Owned Radio moniker. Construction permits for Hazelton (KMPA 94.3 FM) and Twin Falls (KISY 102.7 FM) are still in the works.

Tester joins the new venture from Citadel Spokane where he held the general manager post. His other radio stops included heading the New Northwest cluster in Billings, and a stint at Citadel Boise. Dave is possibly best known for his sports director role at KIVI in the 90s.

Dave notes that his wife Claudia Weathermon began her career at KSRV – before moving on to a prominent role as anchor at KIVI, and – later, KTRV.

Update: To clarify – the new stations will be pulling away from their Locally Owned Radio sisters – it appears Wendell Starke will have an interest in both groups.

Nielsen’s Broadcast Data Systems service is headed for Boise in 2007, according to R&R. BDS uses digital pattern detection to determine spins on a monitored station.

This will give the market three distinct monitoring services: Mediaguide, Mediabase 24/7 and BDS.

Steve Shannon is adding to his duties with KIZN/Kissin’ 92.3. AllAccess reports Steve picks up the Assistant Program Director title under Citadel Boise group Operations Manager and KIZN Program Director Rich Summers. Steve will stay in the afternoon slot – and Spencer Burke will remain music director.

Steve re-joined Citadel in November 2003 after a stint on the morning shift at KCIX. His first gig in the market was as the original host of the Magic Morning Show on KZMG (during the era when the photo at right was taken for Hitmakers magazine in Feb. 1993).

- Don’t let ads hit the air with “boy-zee” in them. Truly — make sure those spots with tags done by out-of-town outfits have the common pronunciation on them. Nothing signals the audience that the company isn’t connected with the local community like saying that community’s name wrong.
- On that note, there’s a Liquidation World spot that tags with “…in the overLAND park shopping center.” We changed the pronunciation of Overland Road? I did not know that.
- There’s an Apollo College ad running that ends with the phone number — three times. “one eight-hundred-such and such; one-eight hundred-such and such; one-eight-hundred such and such.” Then a quick local tag: “Apollo College… one-eight-six-six-such and such.” Glad you drilled that in to my head… is it 800 or 866?
- The TV ads for KGEM aren’t good. They feature a colorful background with records dropping on to the screen. Each record has the title and artist of the song playing… but the text is so small (and it’s rotating) – so you can’t possibly read it. The station’s new logo spins around as well.

A Merrill Lynch analyst expects Google to team up with CBS Radio in an advertising deal — with much of CBSR’s remnant inventory going to the new Google radio service I noted earlier this week. (via LostRemote)

KTHI/107.1 K-Hits is running Premiere Radio Networks’ “Casey Kasem American Top 40 The 70s.” The three-hour shows are (mostly) exact reruns from a single week between 1970 and 1978. K-Hits is running the classic shows on Sunday morning from 9am-noon.

The shows are both a bit of music history — but radio history as well, complete with original long distance dedications. Plus, no Ryan Seacrest. Or Shadoe Stevens.

KSRV/96.1 The Bull has been a full-power FM covering the Boise market for just about a month now — but it quickly found itself battling one of the market’s “big boys.”

The station lost the right to air syndicated host Lia’s evening program from Jones Radio after making the switch from Ontario to Boise. Clear Channel’s KTMY/My Country 104.3 owns the Boise market exclusive and according to Dale Jeffries at KSRV, his station was initially given 90 days (by Jones Radio) to find new programming for the timeslot. Dale says about a week after the initial notice, Jones claimed CC filed a cease and desist letter and that Lia would have to leave KSRV’s air immediately.

Dale says he continues to work with Jones to find something to fill the shift – but that process is still on-going.

Update: Clear Channel Boise Operations Manager Jeff Cochran says that Clear Channel did not file any legal paperwork in the matter — and that he was told Jones went to KSRV and told them they were in violation of the non-compete, and ended the feed.

Google is running ads all over radio industry sites — looking for voice talent.

Why? Because Google’s taking over the world! Or, at least the ad sales world. As I noted last fall, the search giant is looking to branch out in to the radio business — by applying some of its AdSense techniques to “old” media.

Complete
the application and you could be listed in the company’s “Ad Creation Marketplace” — where advertisers will go to find voice talent for spots. Google is likely to target advertisers currently not spending money in radio, by streamlining the production, insertion and placement processes and making it easier and cheaper to get a spot on the air.

The next step for Google is to secure inventory from stations — either remnant or otherwise — then resell the time.

Google is already doing this with newspapers — and just expanded that program.

ZDNet got an exclusive look at the program — and has some interesting details.

You might have seen the legal notices involving Clear Channel’s Boise radio properties in the Idaho Statesman over the past month. The notices only indicate the transfer of licenses from Citicasters (Clear Channel’s license-owning arm) to “BT Triple Crown Merger Co. Inc.” – a shell company set up to help make CC’s complicated merger and sell-off happen.

Doesn’t mean much — but in case you like reading public notices, there you go.

Citadel Radio Spokane/CDA has a new market manager — Don Morin. He replaces Dave Tester in that role, according to AllAccess.

AA also notes that Tester (formerly the sports director at channel 6) has formed a new company – called “Tester Broadcasting.” I’m still digging for further details on this part of the story.

Morin spent time in Boise – as NSM for both Citadel’s Boise and Spokane clusters.

Jones Radio Networks’ Lia is currently holding down nights on KSRV/96.1 The Bull and KTMY/My Country 104.3. That wasn’t such a problem until KSRV moved it’s transmitter to Deer Point — and secured a much improved signal.

Since KSRV now covers Boise, KTMY’s BOISE market-exclusive trumps KSRV’s ONTARIO deal. Lia will leave KSRV in coming days. I’ve checked in with the KSRV folks to see what will take the airslot — I’ll let you know what I find out.

As long as I can remember, Bronco football has been an exciting way to spend a Saturday. I grew up sitting with my grandpa, dad, uncle and aunt in good BAA seats in Bronco Stadium. Back then I was more interested in wandering around the stadium at halftime – and checking out the video on the scoreboard then the game itself.

As time went on, the seats got a little farther from the field – but the interest in the action between the sidelines grew stronger. After the win over Idaho in 1994 at the end of the Magic Carpet season, my dad and I went down on the field – and he said to me “remember this feeling.” That moment has always stuck in my mind. I’ve never been a big sports fan – but when it comes to Bronco football, everything stops in my house.

This season has been incredible. The doubters said that a weak schedule and some close calls would weigh on the legacy of this team. Many thought a Fiesta Bowl loss was inevitable — but didn’t seem to mind that thought. Just making it was a big deal.

I traveled down on Friday – and the blue and orange clothing was EVERYWHERE. On the streets of Tempe Sunday – one person yelled “Boise…” and the “State” that thundered back gave me chills. Seeing THOUSANDS of Boise State fans gather around a stage in Tempe Beach Park — more than 1,000 miles from home — was unbelievable.

Game day started early for the KTVB crew — at 4:45am after just a few hours of sleep. A 23-hour-day followed, with hours spent preparing, gathering material, stringing cable and coordinating our effort. The game itself was so deep in to the day – after producing three hours of live TV – that it felt somewhat like an afterthought. As KTVB sports director David Augusto and I watched the game – both of us furiously took notes (including a game blog that I wrote with instant details) – we had a special challenge: keeping quiet. The press box is nearly sound proof – and members of the media are expected to be dispassionate observers and not yell and scream. A few people broke this rule – a reporter from a Boise TV station, and the local newspaper’s web reporter. Toward the end of the game, much of the media left the press box to head for the field. Natalie Hurst from KBCI and I were the only two left in our row – and we could not believe the events rolling out below. The series of THREE 2-point-conversion attempts rocked the stadium back and forth – making fans on both sides of the stadium slip from excitement to despair and back. Then, Zabransky picked off. Sooners score. Broncos roar back with Hook & Ladder. Sooners score first in OT (easily). Broncos fight fight fight for a TD. Broncos go for two. SCORE! Ian proposes. Incredible.

I moved to the sideline for the overtime period, and sat near the Bronco stands updating the action on the game blog. Two Sooner fans (surrounded by Broncos) heckled the cheerleaders and Boise State fans. The two LARGE and clearly drunk fans made a lot of noise… and gave me an uneasy feeling. A security guard came up and said to me “I don’t want to scare you, but if Oklahoma wins, these guys will probably jump.” I looked back, and noting their size – and my position on the field – I quickly got up and scrambled to a new spot.

A confession: With Boise State 4th and 18 in OT — I dared the karma gods: I typed “Broncos fail to score, OU wins the game.” Earlier in the evening I began working on this graphic — and when the game seemed to slip away, I felt like I jinxed it. So I thought “maybe I can jinx it back.” I typed out the OU wins phrase — and watched the play. Holy shit. Backspace backspace backspace. BRONCOS SCORE!

Then the two-point conversion — and the game’s over. Broncos win. Wait… Boise State just won the Fiesta Bowl. A BCS game. Against the Big 12 conference champ. This is happening.

The field quickly flooded with media, players, cheerleaders a few fans and others. I began pulling out cable for our live crew – then started snapping photos and coordinating our post-game coverage with our producer in Boise. They threw my voice on the air — and I tried to describe the feeling. To this date — I still can’t find words. It’s incredible. Despite being up for about 19 hours at this point on just about 3 hours of sleep, I felt like I had a good night’s sleep and was fresh and ready to go.

Dee asked me a number of questions about the marriage proposal – and I set out to find out the scoop. I walked up to a pair of BSU cheerleaders and asked them what the girl’s name was so I could feed the info back to Boise. They told me, spelled out — and I promptly forgot. So about 2 minutes later – I went back to the same girls, who then said — “she’s right here!!! This is Chrissy.” I steered her over to Mark Johnson – and had to do the “non-verbal point” — letting him know that he needed to interview this girl — but since he was on the air, I was unable to let him know why. Taking my word for it – his first question to Chrissy was ’so, I’m supposed to interview you – can you tell me the scoop – what just happened’ — and she told her story. This was her first of many interviews — and we got it by dumb luck.

An incredible day that no Bronco fan will ever forget — ever. I never thought I’d recapture the feeling of standing on the blue in 1994 — but somehow that experience was magnified ten times over standing on the green in Cardinals Stadium on the first day of 2007.

Go Broncos.

Paul J: “Zabransky faked the pass, left the ball on the ground, Ian Johnson picked up the ball…”

Left the ball on the ground? “The ball was on the ground, picked up and run in by Ian Johnson.”

About 30 seconds later (after the replay) — the “ball on the ground” reference was missing in a recap.

You can listen here.

The folks at Bronco Country are chiming in

(Props, however, to KBOI for putting the game audio online)

I noted a few weeks ago how KQXR is still advertising Byl & Doug at the mall.

It’s a good thing SOMEONE is giving the team some publicity — because KKGL/96.9 The Eagle STILL doesn’t have the team on its website. Why? They were able to completely overhaul the homepage for the “The Bronco” stunt, but can’t get info on the afternoon team up — nine months after they joined the station.

Leave it to Mike & Kate to come up with something… a little out there.

The KCIX/Mix 106 morning duo are inviting listeners to “write our name in the snow.” The contest rules don’t say how you have to do it — but it doesn’t rule out the “old fashioned” way either. Winner gets OK Go/Snow Patrol tickets (they could call this “OK, Go (in the) Snow… Patrol” contest. Or not.)

Details

I’ve read the contest rules – and it appears the prize will be in fact given away.

Jan 5: This not-so-vague tease was the first word of a big shift
Jan 6: KLTB becomes “My Country 104.3″
Jan 6: KJOT blew out its morning show – preparing for a format update and new morning program
Jan 7: An analysis showed that Clear Channel didn’t even tank its lowest rated Boise station
Feb 2: The departed Kool Oldies had an amazing book
Feb 13: KJOT sells its old van…
Feb 25:…maybe to help cover its property tax bill
Mar 4: BCRP continues to struggle
Apr 3: Jon & Chris exit KIDO
Apr 17: KDJQ goes back to oldies
Apr 17: Byl and Doug start their return
Apr 25:A new host recycled an old bit
May 25: Big Jack comes back
May 25: Proposal could dislodge KQFC, KSAS
Jun 1: Boise stations duck Dixie Chicks, big nerve touched
Jun 7: Eagle FD forgets it is in Idaho
Jun 20: Berlin not happy with KSAS’ use of his voice
Jun 24:One man is slapped with a $10k fine for an illegal radio station
Jul 27: KIDO gets its first new morning show in place
Jul 26: We learn of a Citadel employee, badly beaten
Jul 28: I almost quit, but you talked me out of it
Aug 8: KTMY has a dismal first book
Aug 26: Mancow’s ratings tank
Aug 27: KDJQ named best
Sep 18: Clear Channel dumps new KIDO host
Sep 25: Mancow dropped on KQXR, Ian & Mat Diablo get going
Oct 25: Gaudette joins KIDO-AM
Nov 18: KCID, KGEM flips formats
Nov 16: Clear Channel goes private, announces sale of Idaho stations
Nov 25: Group wants KZMG’s license yanked
Dec 3: KCIX doesn’t give away a house
Dec 15: KSRV begins broadcasting from Deer Point

I’m back after a thrilling few days. How can working a 23 hour day ever be so exhilarating?

A few Fiesta radio-related notes:

- How about Jeff Caves’ excitement when the Broncos won the game? His screaming, hooting and hollering really summed it all up.

- Big J from the KQXR/New Rock 100.3 The X was easy to spot wherever he went. Sunday I spotted him with a large pink fedora (I think KIVI featured him on air) — and on game day his head was painted orange and blue. Both J & Joe from the KJOT/J-105 morning show were doing double duty – serving their usual radio masters – and helping their TV-side colleagues

- Someone needs to alert KSAS! A station in Phoenix stole their identity — calling themselves Kiss FM and using the same logo and imaging! Sue sue sue!

- In the press box, members of the of the media are expected to refrain from cheering. This is incredibly hard – as you might guess. Two members of the press – one from a Boise TV station and one from a local newspaper’s website were strongly reprimanded for screaming on separate key Bronco plays. It was embarrassing for those folks – and hearing a producer for a national TV outlet remark “what is it with these Boise guys?” gave us all a black eye.

Worst Radio Move: In January, 104.3 FM switched from oldies to country, outraging listeners. Judging from ratings for “My Country 104.3 FM” — and the fact the station’s for sale — this horse may be dog food in 2007.

Those are the words of Statesman columnist Michael Deeds. While every word there is based in fact – it paints an inaccurate picture. KTMY/My Country 104.3 is for sale – however, it has NOTHING to do with its ratings performance. As most understand, the station is on the block with the rest of its Boise sisters, and every other station owned by Clear Channel Communications in markets smaller than 100.

So one of two things happened here: Deeds doesn’t understand the mechanics of the Clear Channel story, or he was intentionally misleading his readers to strengthen his point. Either way it is puzzling – to say the least.