Big changes impacting Impact
Don Day | July 31, 2008Those big changes at Boise’s Impact Radio Group we broke earlier this week are set to start. Here come the bullet points…
- KQLZ/Idaho’s True Oldies Channel moves from 100.7 to 99.1 starting tomorrow. Impact will stick it to “The Man” and end the format
- 99.1 and 100.7 will simulcast until August 31.
- On September 1, 100.7 FM will start up a new regional Mexican format, anchored by syndicated personality Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo in morning drive.
- Mikey Fuentes is joining the cluster as director of programming. Impact VP cited the company’s hope to compete with the “big three” in the hiring of Fuentes: “To compete with top notch companies like Citadel, Peak, and Journal, we needed an experienced programmer to lead our team and Mikey fits the bill. His format experience is diverse in both English and Spanish. Mikey will not only be launching 100.7 for us, he will also be helping the continuing building process of ‘Bob’ and ‘True Oldies’”
- The group is starting to prepare for the move-in of the former KMCL (now KMXM) at 101.1 FM, and says Fuentes will help shape the new station.
Interesting changes. Good change for the oldies channel. I’m not sure how many Mexican formats there are in the Boise market – 2 or 3?. Listeners to these formats tend to be extremely loyal and don’t change quickly, so this will be fun to watch.
That Impact wants to compete is also a positive step. I had always thought that some of their stations were run more as hobbies than serious commercial entities (computer glitches that shouldn’t be there, dead air, content and commercials mixing at inappropriate times etc).
Boise has three FM Spanish programmed stations now- 99.5, 101.9, and 106.3. On AM, KBSU 730 has some Spanish programmed time slots. You can also hear 1260 KWEI, from Wieser, in Western areas of Treasure Valley (at least in the daytime.) To the East of Mountain Home you can hear 1480 KRXR, Gooding. Twin Falls Eastward, you can hear KFTA 970 AM. I believe that KEZJ 1450 AM in Twin also rebroadcasts KBSU AM’s Spanish programming as well.
It does not appear that the Treasure Valley Spanish listeners are too terribly under-represented. I don’t really know how successful another Spanish station would be in the Boise market. I think, perhaps, it would have more success in the Magic Valley, where all of the Spanish programming is currently only found on AM.
Bring it on, we’ll all just get more competitive and that means a better product for the listener. Yes, it may cut into my Twin Falls market, but remaining live and local, we’ll just step up to the plate even more. Consistency is where it is at. I’ve been at the helm for 9 years, my jocks have been here 8 1/2 and 6 1/2 years respectively. Loyalty to jocks is incredible in this format.
@ El Chupacabras: Despite never hearing your program, I can agree with what you just said. Spanish-language radio appears to be what I wish I heard on my (English language) radio. No wonder the audiences stick with it even in reception areas of static, etc.
Local is always good, but I can tell you as the Operations Director for KRYP in Portland (93.1 “El Rey”), you better watch out for Piolin. I have Piolin for our AM Drive. Spring Book just came out Thursday…
Piolin…
NUMBER ONE 12+
NUMBER ONE P18-34
NUMBER ONE M18-34
NUMBER ONE P25-54
NUMBER ONE W18-34
Oh, and the station overall… #1 12+ …all this after flipping it one year ago.
But the biggest help for us? Being the ONLY Spanish FM in Portland.
I’m not 100% this market needs another Spanish FM, but Piolin will make it alot harder for the locals to compete in the morning.
Dave:
Congratulations on your success. Now I *almost* wish that Salem would have hired me to the traffic department a little over a year ago. :)
It’s incredible what that station’s done (on a former KSRV-esque signal – good but not GREAT) since moving the conservative talk to the AM band.
I was unhappy the hear Oldies music on 99.1 FM this morning. I was a big fan and loyal listener to the Adam Carolla Show, and The Dan Patrick show. I have no interest in listening to Oldies and will not be listening to this Radio Station in the future.
I wish Mr. Fuentes the best of luck and hope he does well. After looking at his resume though, I have to wonder. He has done bilingual HURBAN (Hispanic Urban) and plenty of Top 40, but never Regional Mexican. It makes me wonder if 100.7 will counter program the other stations with a mix of reggaeton and regional Mexican tunes. Great for tweens to 18, but a disaster for upper demos, and for the sociodemographic in this side of the Magic Valley. Piolin is a big player no doubt, but if Fuentes’ programming in the past is any indicator, if you don’t speak proper Spanish (doing Spanglish), uno la riega mucho! Not saying that Fuentes doesn’t, but should be interesting to see what happens. I do see Bustos probably doing more local to compete as well. Radio Variedades has also done some great promotions as of late in their own right and is bringing superstar Pepe Aguilar to the Qwest Arena, and HE’S HUGE!
I am not sure what Mr. Fuentes brings to the table other than his Spanish talents to the up coming New Spanish station. I hope Mr. Fuentes will leave “True Oldies” alone as I think for an oldies format they are pretty much on the beam, finally.
KWEI is not bringing Pepe Aguilar to Qwest Arena, they are just promoting the event is all. Of all stations I believe that KWEI will be the station hurt the most.
i am a hard working person that has to go and work everyday to make ends meet wheather i like it or not. somtimes i need a little help to make it through the day, and until yesterday i had some good friends to help me through, their names are adam carolla, tom leykis, and mike o’meara. i was shocked to hear oldies on the radio this morning, i thought we finally had a good fm talk radio in the valley, i guess i was dead wrong.
belive me i will not be listening to any impact radio stations until at least adam carolla is back on the air in boise.
Elchupacabras:
The comment about Mr. Fuentes programming background is interesting considering the fact that Bill Tanner – who is one of the most successful and highly respected Spanish language programmers/consultant – took over HBC and then SBS and turned them around with no prior experience in the format – and essentially no knowledge of the language.
Good programming transcends all languages and all barriers.
By the way, Mr. Fuentes was born in Mexico and knows the format very well. With Piolin as the launching pad, you can expect Puro Mexico
Ctopp1 … He started his career out at an AC station in San Diego – so I think he can handle the Oldies station.
We want to thank all of you for playing along at home and be ready for some real excitement in Boise.
The Man was Boise’s link to the outside world. I lived in DC for a long time and loved being able to listen to the Don and Mike show (now Mike O’Meara). My other favorite was Adam Corollas. I am really disappointed that The Man was taken away from us. I have been defending Idaho my whole life, trying to say we are not all ultra conservative, “phobic-of-people-who-are-not-white”, afraid of anything alternative people. But when the one station that plays anything close to that is cut and replaced with Golden Oldies…I tend to think I am wrong.
I listen to talk radio way more than any music station. I am not sure why all the programs that were on The Man were not kept. I am very disappointed. I don’t have anything to listen to now.
On the other hand I would love love love to have a Latin music station that plays Latin music from around the planet…not just Mexican. (Mexican music, while fun, is all the same and gets old after a while). Why not play some music from the popular gente out there? I speak spanish, lived in South America and there is so much out there that is never played here.
That would make me less upset that The Man was cut.
Like “The Man” Fan, I too am disappointed. I tried to tune in to Dan Patrick only to find Dan gone. I’ve already replaced 99.1 on my presets. Hopefully The Dan Patrick Show will pop up somewhere else…. ideally I’d like to see it replace the always annoying Jim Rome, but that’s just this guy’s opinion. I don’t know who all makes up Boise’s Impact Radio Group, but unless they own Air 1, they’re now down one more listener.
To Friend of Fuentes:
Thank you for the clarification. I welcome Mr. Fuentes to the state and wish him the best of luck. In fact, next time he is in Twin Falls, I’d love to have a friendly chat, and lunch is on me. And yes, Piolin is big!
Yeah 99.1 fm is not on my preset anymore either. My entire peer group listened to The Adam Corolla show. I hope we can get it “back by popular demand.” Dan Patrick, and the Mike O’meara shows both awesome programs. I am in outbound sales and I listened to these programs every day.
True Oldies will not attract any listeners. Who in the hell needs another station to play Bah bah bah bah bah beranne.
It was nice to have something unique, and national, I felt breifly like I was a part of something. To replace it with a generic oldies station playing irrelavent music is a mighty shame.
When I woke up to find that “The Man” was replaced by oldies, I was truly upset as well. I will most certainly not be listening to this station any longer. Someone around this town needs to pull their heads out of their rear-ends and realize their are some of us who are intelligent and prefer listening to quality talk radio-especially nice to hear on FM. I personally listened to Adam Carolla’s show for entertainment, humor, as well as his good opinions. I grew up in So. Calif., and listened to the generating station, 97.1 FM, from it’s inception. The move up here was for family. I don’t feel the stations keep up with the times still even in this day and age. Very disappointing. Thank God I have XM radio in my car, and I will continue to listen to Adam online, thank you very much. I am very disappointed in this decision. I don’t know who gets to makes these upheavals. Very unsettling. The shows on The Man were at least though-provoking, and on a personal note, I felt a connection to my place of origin.
Goodbye, 99.1!!
I don’t understand why a group would want to abandon Mc Call, where at least they can pick up some money, than to head over to Boise with yet another country signal in the pile. It would make more sense to service Mc Call on KMXM as the primary market and then pick-up gravy money on what they could in Boise.
I was so dissapointed to find yet another crappy station on the airways. Listening to Adam, Pat, and Mike made my commute into Boise a little better and put a smile on my face everyday. I was a loyal listener to the Don and Mike show many years ago until that talk station was overtaken by crappy “lite” favorites. I waited for 10 years for them to get back on the air in Boise, only to be dissapointed again. I do stream all those favorite shows from the internet now. No wonder internet radio is taking over and regular local FM is becomming a dinosaur. I have taken the time to find all the stations that Impact owns and they will never be on my dial. The other big problem is that I am not scared of sharing my opinion and word of mouth can break a business. No good recomendation from Kuna.