KMXM hopes to become KWYD
Don Day | October 9, 2008Impact Radio Group officials confirmed to Idaho Radio News that the group’s newest Boise-valley station will carry the call letters KWYD. GM Darrell Calton confirms that they have applied for the new calls, but will say little else.
Someone told AllAccess (which used its usual coy writing style) the station will be branded “Wild” and carry a rhytmic format. Impact currently runs the former KMCL-FM in the McCall area at 101.1, but Calton tells me it will finish its move to Boise in coming weeks.
This would give Impact 4 stations, including KPDA/La Pderosa 100.7 (Spanish language), KSRV/96.1 Bob FM (variety hits), KQLZ/Idaho’s True Oldies 99.1 (oldies) and now KWYD/Wild 101.1 (rhytmic). Impact also has two AM stations on the fringes – KMHI in Mountain Home and KSRV-AM in Ontario.
So, I guess the only questions now are: Is KMCL AM going to continue where KMCL FM left off? Is their tower going to collapse again? Was it ever fixed to begin with? Last week when I was in Cascade, I could hardly even hear the station.
I truly feel sorry for Valley County residents that are losing the oldest of only two local stations in the area. KMCL had a long heritage providing diverse programming to that area.
If KMWM can’t become KWYD maybe it could become KFXD or another incarnation of KIDO. I hear KWHT (K-what) is available.
I believe KWHT is licensed to Pendleton area…aka….
K-WHEAT….but I am to tired to go to the fcc webpage and look….
KMCL AM’s of the air. Pile of legal and financial problems.
This is the question that plagues us all: What frequency is the pirate radio station in the north end gonna move to when 101.1 comes to town? They sporatically broadcast on 101.3, which is first adjacent to Impact Radio’s new 100kw signal. That ain’t gonna work. So, with a spectrum as saturated as Boise’s with more changes in the works, (BCRP’s new signal and the 97.7 ~ 102.7 ~ 103.5 thingy,) where is the north end pirate dude gonna go? That’s a tough one.
Who broadcasts the Pirate station in Boise anyhow? I was in boise over the summer of 2007 and I heard a movie playing. How often do they come on the air?
KMCL is not owned by Impact. They had been simulcasting KMXM as a courtesy to the community.
The pirate station at 101.3 FM broadcasts reliably on Sunday afternoons, and I’ve caught occasional Saturday evening and Monday broadcasts. Their transmitter is surprisingly strong, but due to their antenna location, it is confined mostly to the western portion of Boise’s North End, and Garden City. The signal penetrates into downtown somewhat, but is easily shadowed by large buildings.
I don’t know who runs it, but they’ve sure been at it for a while. I tuned them in for the first time back in late 2002 or early 2003. Its seems like the audio quality has improved a great deal since the earlier days. The playlist is just as wierd as it has always been. The dude running it will crack the mic only on rare occasions. Usually, just unrecognizable music or skits play.
Now, if this station intends on continuing its less-than-legal broadcasts, it’s frequency will have to change to avoid interfence both to and from the new 101.1 signal that is coming to town.
Hey, here’s an idea! Maybe the pirate guy should move to McCall, to replace the local service lost to the the move of KMCL.
Is that a mea culpa?
Mea who?
Interestingly enough, I did live right in the heart of down town Boise when I got the station. I remember taking a cab to work the next day. I still got it in the morning in the cab. But it was very fuzzy. I will talk to you later.
As the former owner of KMCL FM and still the current owner of KMCL AM in McCall/Donnelly I would be more than happy to give you the straight skinny on both radio stations and the prospects for broadcast here in the mountains. If you’d like to reach me you can do it through this page or through my web site, sticover.com. The broadcast business “ain’t what she used to be”!
The new 101.1 is on the air as of this evening. I wonder if this is a program test, or is the station is on for good?
They are playing an 80’s-centered soft A/C mix right now- not much unlike the old KMXM in McCall. I have not heard a legal ID yet, or any imaging to speak of. They just have random drops and a Homer Simpson woo-hoo between songs.
Late yesterday evening, I discovered that 101.1 had fired up their new transmitter with no audio, just a carrier. This morning I checked, and that transmitter was off. In fact, I could hear the McCall KMXM signal, and the last song I heard from them was “In The Living Years” by Mike And The Mechanics.
I really enjoy Wild 101.1, it has great selection of music and it’s perfect to listen while at work!!
Jus please, do not start doing what the “other” hip hop radio stations do: play the same songs over and over. I understand that they are hits but, please pretty please do not play the same song over and over…..every 15 minutes.
Otherwise, rock on!! I’ve told all my friends of it…..and they like it to : )
I have been able to get KMXM on my radio at my house and now nothing, I really like the station and am really missing listening while I am getting ready for work, what’s up.
KMXM 101.1 McCall no longer exsists. It moved about 70 miles south and has become KWYD, hence the title of this thread “KMXM hopes to become KWYD”
I take it your in the McCall area?
I’m sure many Valley County residents were very dissapointed to hear the area’s oldest heritage FM station get replaced by a distant, fuzzy signal, playing the same 200 “rhythmic” (a.k.a. repetitious) songs 15,000 times.
It’s not like there was all that much on the dial in Valley County to choose from before this happened. Now the area has only one local FM and one local AM (that has been off the air.) Neither of those stations will adequately cover Cascade southward. If I lived in that area, I’m afraid I’d probably have to invest in a Sirius radio.
Local radio bites the dust again.
Oh, and by the way, I used to be able to get the KMCL/KMXM signal in at my house in Southwest Boise fairly well. You could really hear them loud and clear out south of Kuna and Marsing. So, you really didn’t have to be close to McCall to hear the station.
I remember listening to them in my home about 6 or 7 years ago, back when they let the McCall High School students get on the air. That was some of the worst radio I’ve ever heard, but it was quite entertaining. That is the sort of spirit that radio has lost. For the most part, I would rather listen to bad live radio, than a perfect, sterile automated station.
Its really a disappoinment because I live in Grangeville and could get this really good radio station from the south side of my house with good music and comments now we don’t even know what the weather south of us is doing without that station, a really bad move I believe.
I recently drove west of Boise and 101.1 had a smokin’ signal west of Baker City. But yeah, the few minutes I’ve spent with it in Boise, the signal was spotty, especially around downtown and the north end. Sorry for the folks in Valley County, but it seems to be the nature of the beast these days……moving where the money is. Maybe the pirate radio dude could sneak his illegal signal to 101.5
And moving KQFC to 102.7 brings up another question. Driving into Ontario recently, I was picking up something at 102.7, but didn’t listen long enough to see if it was KORD from Tri Cities. There is also a repeater near Ontario at 102.5 for ‘The Effect.’