Idaho Radio News Etc.

Thanks for all your e-mails. Here’s the second draft. I heard from just about every group down there — except Lee Family. If someone can share logos, I’d love to include them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Who will come up with rights to the Boise State football contract? The deal with KBOI/Citadel ends after this season, and you can expect a royal fight to snag the deal.

Let’s look at the players, shall we?

Citadel – KBOI-AM is the long time home of the contract, and Paul J. Schneider is entering his 35th season broadcasting the games for the station. KBOI builds it station-image around Boise State – with a Blue & Orange logo and “Broncos Radio” positioner. Citadel also cross-pollinates the rights on other stations, including KTIK and the FM stations, helping bring a boost to the entire cluster. Citadel will have a big fight on its hands to keep the rights in house.

Peak – CEO Todd Lawley told his staff last March he intended to ‘make Citadel write a very very big check’ to hang on to radio rights. This shows that he either intends to pay up for the rights – or drive up the price to an astronomical level for Citadel. Lawley said that there isn’t a bigger brand than Boise State athletics in Boise – and clearly thinks that brand should be attached to his properties. Where the money will come from could be the lingering question. Also, the other factor is – would Peak hire Paul J., or would this be the end of the road for his association with Boise State? Could PB already be lining up potential talent for the games?

Tester – The FM Idaho/Tester group publicly stated its desire for the rights when it announced the flip of KTMB to 99.1 Man FM earlier this summer. The group has built a station with a HUGE FM footprint (from Twin Falls to Ontario, north to McCall in essence) – and would give the games generally better audio quality than an AM play. Tester Broadcasting/FM Idaho has pretty deep pockets, and has put in some serious capital upgrades of late. Also, snagging the rights would instantly give the group “status.” Right now I think most people still think of Boise as a three-group town – but the BSU rights would help bring the Tester group into parity with Journal, Citadel and Peak.

Journal – It doesn’t seem like JBG’s style to plunk down a huge sum of cash for the rights, but Bob Rosenthal is clearly a major BSU backer (and still the PA announcer). I don’t want to stray in to TV territory here – but a package deal between KIVI and a Journal radio station could be an option.

Boise State – Could the University take the rights in house? Yes. It would have to begin producing the games itself, but the cost factor is fairly low on that score. The State of Idaho owns radio stations already housed on the BSU campus (KBSU is home to BSU women’s basketball broadcasts). Boise State could keep the rights for itself, hire whomever it wants to do play-by-play – and sell the game itself. The only tough part of that deal would be Boise State Radio’s current lack of commercials. Bringing in BSU sports and stuffing it full of spots would be somewhat of a mismatch. Instead, the school could produce and sell the games itself, then buy airtime from one of the above-named radio groups.

Kim Bartlett of KMVT-TV channel 11 in Twin Falls is leaving for a post at KBCI in B-town. A source says Gina Jameson will make the leap from radio to TV to take on Bartlett’s anchor role. That opens up her slot as program director of KBAR-AM will be filled by Kelly Groce (aka Ranger Rob).

Idaho High School Sports

Remember this? The case of sexual harassment involving Calvary Chapel in Twin Falls got picked up far and wide – but the settlement in the case barely made a blip on the radar (save this from AllAccess):

In a settlement of the legal conflict between Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls Pastor Mike Kestler and the founder of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA based Chuck Smith, the Smith family’s CSN International is transferring 25 radio stations (18 full-power stations plus seven FM construction permits) and three FM translators to Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls for $200,000 plus FM translators K210DZ/Willits, CA and K210DQ/Laytonville, CA.

Kestler alleged in a suit that Smith backed a sexual harassment case against Kestler as a means to wrest control of the radio operation from the Idaho church.

Just a moment ago (at 12:27am MT) as I was arriving home from a loooong day, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM put its nighttime DJ on the air live via cell phone from a nightclub. He was carrying on about fallopian tubes for reasons I don’t quite understand.

As the song ramped up (a remix of “My Humps” by Fergie), he kept talking. As the ramp ended and the song started, he continued to talk… carrying on about those “tubes.”. He then said “they cut me off,” and an unidentified male said “no, you’re still hot.” The jock then said “Shit.” — and his mic was abruptly cut.

UPDATE: The same jock was on the air Saturday afternoon. Just before 5:30pm, he was talking about how “trashed” he was the previous night – apologizing for stealing pool balls from a bar and other transgressions. If he waited until after that 12:27am hit to drink, that gave him only 90 minutes or so to get “trashed.”