Idaho Radio News Etc.

KIZN’s Rattlesnake Jake…

KAWO’s Tarzan Dan…

KSRV/96.1 Bob FM has been advertising like crazy of late – with spots all over KTVB & KBCI (including during Bronco football telecasts). The station has revamped its website (though it is still light on content).

The “About Bob” page features some testimonials… including this one:

“I found Bob FM a few months ago and I haven’t changed since” – Kevin G., Boise

You’ll remember that Kevin Godwin-led Peak Broadcasting planned to flip KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM to the Bob FM brand last April, but Tester Broadcasting beat them to the punch by three days… leaving Peak with an unexpected pop station to program.

KQFC/Idaho Country 97.9 has a new logo:

The mark is also featured on a series of billboards around town. One features a woman’s high heel-adorned foot with the tagline “country is an attitude!”

So KJOT/J-105 has been celebrating Rocktober for about 400 years.

This year, cross-town rocker KKGL/96.9 The Eagle has its own stunt: Proctober. As in… proctology… as in… checking your colon. As in… well – you know.

The Eagle has been giving away free prostate cancer screenings.. and Doug broadcast live from a proctologist’s office this afternoon.

J-105: celebrating butt-rock. The Eagle: celebrating… yeah. That.

The folks at Idaho Community Radio say they didn’t file a non-comm. application with the FCC, even after having engineers and prominent DC FCC lawyers take a crack at the notion. ICR’s experts all said there was nothing to apply for here in the Boise valley.

ICR says they are still working on other solutions.

The Boise Community Radio Project says they applied for a non-comm. license during the window that closed October 22nd. They want 89.9 FM.

The Idaho Press Club will host a session on November 7th that you might find of interest – Hacks & Flacks. Content people (the hacks) and PR folks (the flacks) will unite for one evening to talk about how the two groups work together – and how to improve relations down the road.

It’s an all-star panel folks – Mark Danielson (my former KTVB boss, now general manager of KIFI Local News 8), Vickie Holbrook (editor, Idaho Press Tribune), and Kevin Godwin (Peak Boise SVP) represent the content side. The PR reps. all used to be news folks – Melinda Keckler (Scott Peyron & Associates, former anchor at KBCI), Andrea Dearden (Ada County Sheriff’s Office – former KTVB weekend anchor) and Lynn Hightower (Boise Police spokesperson, former news director/anchor/weather/reporter for KIVI).

The event takes off Wednesday Nov. 7 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm at the Linen Building at 1402 W. Grove. It is free for Idaho Press Club members, $10 otherwise.

I’ll be there – you should be too (and anyone who attended the last session can attest to the fact that these get-togethers can be… lively). E-mail idpc@mindspring.com to RSVP.

From last week’s column by Michael Deeds:

• OLYMPIC-SIZE FOOL? Even without considering that the Idaho Statesman is helping sponsor the 2009 Special Olympics Winter World Games, it was insensitive for me to write in a Sept. 28 column that “Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics. We get the Special Olympics.” It wasn’t my intent to offend the Special Olympics contenders or readers, merely to note that Salt Lake hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics would be considered a more significant event for a city. I apologize for the unintended offense.

When I read the line on September 28th, I logged on here to make hay of the obvious gaffe – but showed (uncharacteristic) restraint because repeating that nasty comment would just give it more power. It’s good to see the apology.

All of our various businesses are changing: radio, television and newspapers. The oldest medium is also the one hurting the worst: newspapers are in trouble.

Journal Communications, parent company of Journal Broadcast Group – which owns KRVB, KQXR, KJOT, KGEM, KCID, KIVI-TV and KSAW-TV had a tough quarter, with overall revenue dropping 5.6%. Overall income increased, but that was largely due to cost-control and layoffs.

TV revenues also slipped, down a whopping 9.3% (imagine if your boss decided to cut your pay by 10 percent…), though Boise operations were singled out as a bright spot. Radio group revenue fell 5.1%, but here again – Boise was named among the clusters doing OK.

News also came this week that the Spokesman-Review of Spokane will slash 30 jobs from its staff of 130 (SR has a Boise bureau). Also, Idaho Statesman-owner McClatchy fell off the revenue train as well, losing 10% of its quarterly cashflow. McClatchy’s stock chart for the past year is down down down.

My employer, Belo recently announced it would split the company in two – newspapers on one side, TV stations on the other.

The Boise Community Radio Project hopes it will one day occupy 89.9 on the FM dial across the Treasure Valley. Project organizers jumped on an application window that just closed, and feel confident they have a good shot at securing an allotment: “Boise Community Radio has focused, successfully, we hope, on recognizing the FCC’s new evaluation criteria and using it to our advantage as a community-based organization”, BCRP Jeff Abrams said in a prepared statement.

No word will come from the FCC for quite a while, but the filings will show up on fcc.gov sometime soon, according to BCRP.

BCRP is the latest entrant into the want-to-be-community-radio space. The Idaho Community Radio folks banded together in the 1990s, and have since reignited their efforts to start a community-based radio station, and is not related to Abrams’ project. I’m checking with ICR to see if they filed.

Let’s play a game of “do you believe.” Arbitron launched an internal investigation after it found that two employees of WSRT in Traverse City, MI may be involved with a book tampering excercise. The married employees – a female AE and male PD were fired after Arbitron found out the family filled out three diaries. This letter – purported to R&R to be from that AE, Glenda Lee – paints an… odd… picture:

“I am the wife (although maybe not for long) of the programmer involved with the station. He knew absolutely nothing about diaries until we were approached by our GM last week. I did know. I thought that I had declined the offered diaries. They came anyway. Just for fun, just for the opportunity to do something I had never been able to do, and never intending for the diaries to be mailed or seen by anyone other than me, or perhaps my husband AFTER the ratings came back, I filled out three of the diaries. One was filled out based on my own listening, one as I thought he would fill one out, and one as a much younger woman (wishful thinking maybe) just for kicks. Again, these diaries were NEVER intended to be submitted or seen by anyone outside of myself. While I did not mail these diaries myself, it is my fault for leaving them laying around on my desk where my son saw them and put them out for the carrier, thinking that I DID want them mailed. However, when the ratings came back, and up until the day my GM brought this to my attention, I too had no knowledge or expectation that the diaries — my play diaries — had actually gone into the mail.

“When confronted, I compounded the issue by lying, both to my GM and to my husband. This is all on me. No one else. I accept full responsibility for the rather wide path of destruction created by my stupidity and have offered to sign an affidavit accepting full responsibility to clear the names of both Northern Broadcasting, and the most honest and upstanding human being I have ever known. Without ever meaning to cheat, I cheated. He did not, nor did Northern Broadcasting, have any knowledge of my actions. My profound apologies to everyone that I have hurt by my actions.”

Correction: Earlier this week I wrote that KCIX was touting its ticket giveaway to the Pat Monahan show as “exclusive,” even though other stations were giving away tickets. I mis-heard the promotions, and failed to understand the “exclusive” part was for a separate show for Mix listeners only. Soooo… I messed up. I regret the error.

KQXR/100.3 The X program directory Jeremy Nicolato answered “10 Questions” for AllAccess.com. I can’t direct link you there because of the site’s firewall, but if you dial up the site, log-in, punch 10 Questions then click on the X logo, you’ll see the interview.

AA asked what people would find unique about the Boise market…

Nobody wants to leave Boise! A majority of the people that are working in this market have been here for a very long time, and it’s by choice. For instance, Big J, my right hand man, has been here EIGHT years. There’s also vets like Tim Johnstone (who does mornings on our sister station The River), he helped launch The X, and he’s been here ever since. Boise is a great place to be personally and professionally, it isn’t one of those “stepping stone” markets for the most part.

Just here at The X, it’s nice to see the passion again. You get spoiled working in a major market sometimes. You see people “show and go” and half-ass it just to collect a paycheck. You don’t have that luxury in a market like Boise. So everyone that works here does it because they love the business and they love their jobs. They’ll work their ass off to get ahead and to help the station be the best it can be. Everyone here at The X is willing to go above and beyond to help the station win. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Peak Broadcasting continues its run of great website launches – this time with the new 63kfxd.com (just plain kfxd.com works as well). The site is a bit different from the average radio site, with navigation built around the logo on the home page and a fairly simple approach inside the site. I like how the contact page lets you reach out to SVP Kevin Godwin with a direct e-mail link – and the use of vintage KFXD studio pictures, emphasizing the station’s long history.

The station is also offering its program audio online. 1033kissfm.com and mix106radio.com are the final two Peak sites left to launch on the Statioinality platform.

(Disclosure: I helped create the site’s co-branded traffic page as part of my day job.)

…no, that’s not the name of a new series on TLC. But check out the inside of former KZMG/KXLT/KTSY guru Dave Arthur’s garage:

That old logo reminds me that I saw that logo sticker on a 1970s Cadillac with a gray-haired dude driving about six months ago. Yes, in 2007…

Also: If you have a cool photo of something old – send it my way. Past features have included this KZMG Hitmakers cover, this Boise Weekly KFXD cover, this Q-104 hat , this KFXD sign and these old pics of the KF95 wall — and I’m sure there are others I’ve posted and forgot about.

KJOT/J-105 is giving away a trip to see the Broncos play Hawai’i in Hawaii… just like KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM. The J-105 folks are getting listeners to sign up at the Chili’s on Broadway across from the Stadium before the games.

The Kiss Kids were plastering cars in the Chili’s parking lot with fliers that tell people to “win a trip – find out how on 103.3 Kiss FM.” The owner of Chili’s told them to stop – and sent the flier to BSU officials, I’m told. The flier had a Boise State logo on it (which is a trademark, one the school likes to protect – especially against non-sponsors).

Trying to cash in on the BSU mojo without paying a dime. Nice.

Notice where she puts her hand early in the clip…

Two items from the “less than truthful” files tonight…

KSAS BSU Rendezvous promo “padded”
KSAS has a promo on the air that so packed for of lies it makes you laugh. It’s for the station’s SINGLE trip to see Boise State play Hawai’i on the islands. Let’s dissect:
- The promo says its the trip “money can’t buy” (unless you have $1,365 and a computer)
- It says you also get tickets to the Kiss FM exclusive Haunted World (exclusive how?)
- Notes that the trip is from the “BSU Broncos and 103.3 Kiss FM,” which – since the school has no involvement, isn’t true
- And of course they’re doing the usual trickery to make it seem like lots of people are winning, when in fact just one person will win.

KCIX and the non-exclusive exclusive show

KCIX told listeners last week that it was the only station giving away tickets to the Pat Monahan show (Monahan is the lead singer of Train). Which isn’t true – since several of the Journal stations also gave away passes. This was in error – see this.

The last time I was beating this dead horse, “Muck Raker” made a good point:

In some quarters this would be referred to as the sacrifice of long-term listener relationships at the expense of an attempt to score short-term gains. Others would call it deception, nefarious prevarication or just being cheap.

Know of a station not stretching the truth? Drop me a line.

Anyone betting on Peak or another local group picking up Clear Channel’s Twin Falls and Pocatello clusters lose their wager. GAP Broadcasting will purchase the CC stations in thirteen markets – Twin Falls, Pocatello, Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Shelby, MT, Casper, WY, Cheyenne, WY, Duluth, MN and Burlington, IA.

GAP will start running the stations via LMA right away. Blue Points Media was going to be the big winner in the CC Idaho lottery before pulling out and folding its tent due to credit problems. BPM is still set to close on several stations – including KSKI and KECH in the TF/SV market

GAP bought 52 CC stations in Texas, and another 7 in Louisiana from Apex Broadcasting.

KZMG/Magic 93.1 is running promos for its upcoming flyaway blitz. The station says it will give away a trip every 93 minutes, and is emphasizing that the contest will be an actual trip, not a qualification for a chance to win “like some other stations.” The “Flyaway Frenzy” hasn’t yet started.

As you know, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM has been giving away a series of trips this summer, with a large number of qualifiers that it poses as winners of the big prize.

KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM morning dude Hooker has dropped the name given to him by Jeff Cochran – but the station is still calling the morning show Hooker in the Morning.

Confused? Yeah, me too. He’s now going by John – as in “Hey, it’s John and Chad, and we make up Hooker in the Morning.” The pair are doing a marathon today – blowing out the midday, afternoon and night shifts (they’re still on the air as of 7:30pm) to qualify people for a chance to win a BSU/Hawaii trip.

New habits die hard – both Lucky the DJ and Chad repeatedly called John “Hooker.” Color me utterly confused

The History of Idaho Broadcasting Foundation will hold its next meeting at the Bustos Media offices in Nampa. Bustos regional VP Ed Distel will come to Boise from SLC… and Bustos is providing lunch for everyone! Art will share some vintage ads, and a tour of the facilities is in the offing.

The meeting is set for October 19th from 11:30am to 1:30pm at the Bustos studios. Directions and more info after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

In case you haven’t seen it, Idaho Statesman writer Michael Deeds now has a blog – the cleverly named “Words and Deeds.”

The site promises “entertainment news, opinion, and madness from Michael Deeds.”

You’re welcome.

Bill Wippel wrote a guest editorial for the Seattle Times late last month that highlights a few good deeds from N. Idaho/E. Washington radio stations of years gone by – and notes that you’d never see “hokey” things like this in today’s modern radio age…

- KOFE in Pullman donated an entire day’s worth of proceeds to the Chamber of Commerce. Chamber members bought ads for their competition, and did the voicework. For instance, one bank made (light-hearted) fun of their competitor and so on.
- KOZE in Lewiston broadcast the play-by-play of a parade in nearby Pomeroy, WA
…etc.

Wippel talks about how the continued relaxation of FCC rules has taken the community out of many radio stations:

The FCC has watered down what is required to receive a radio broadcast license. Each station can renew its license by just a postcard. No promise of news, community involvement or public service is necessary to renew its license.