Idaho Radio News Etc.

It’s an annual radio tradition — and it’s just a few days away. How will area stations attempt to fool their audiences this year? Hmmm…

UPDATE: Let’s make this your “what did you hear” open thread. Drop your observations in comments here…

KLIX/NewsRadio 1310 will spend Thursday delivering good news to Magic Valley radio audiences. Starting at 5:30am, the station will present nothing but positive news for 24 hours. Stories, interviews and positive news will be featured throughout the entire morning show from 5:30am until 10am, then with updates twice an hour during syndicated fare. A Twin Falls nursery is helping sponsor the effort, and will launch a good news website starting Thursday.

KQLZ/True Oldies 99.1 is back on the air with a promo for its station. The spot isn’t your usual generic “songs we play and our logo” spot. Take a look:

True Oldies 99.1 Spot from Don Day on Vimeo.

Kevin Richert may think I’m a hypocrite – but at least I am willing to take the criticism head on.

After the opinion writer put together a second post on his blog trying to justify his sharp and misleading criticism of this site, I decided the best course of action was to be direct. I wrote a lengthy comment on his blog which I spent a great deal of time crafting. At the end of the post I put forth an invitation to meet face to face. I followed that with two personal e mails.

That was Wednesday night. I think it is now safe to say he doesn’t want to have a personal discussion because he has not returned my messages.

It is easy to feel powerful behind a keyboard. However, it seems Richert would rather write blogs from the safety of the Curtis Rd. building than meet me face to face. That’s his choice, but I find it surprising. My offer remains open.

One more thing. On the very post in which he says that I’m not consistent, he let a comment which labeled me as “bi-polar” stand. He said he removes libelous comments… But I guess he makes an exception in my case. There’s a word for that…

UPDATE: My e-mail box is still bare, but the libelous comment’s been removed… six days after the fact. Wonder why.

Pete & Joe may not be in the top time period on KJOT/J-105 any longer… but they will hold down the longest timeslot on a local station. The pair now host from 1pm to 7pm – a whopping six hours (or a full quarter of the broadcast day). Kristine (mostly) voicetracks from 10am until 1pm, and Dale Larsen holds court on the pre-recorded computer machine from 7pm to midnight.

Two Boise Journal Broadcast Group stations are no longer streaming online: KJOT/J-105 and KTHI/107.1 K-Hits.

Why? This from the Pete & Joe Show Facebook page:

Sorry folks, no live stream for now. That unfortunatly [sic] had to be given the ol’ heave ho due to the economy.

KQXR/100.3 The X and KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River still have live streams — and to my knowledge the AM stations never offered that feature (or websites at all really).

KWYD/Wild 101’s afternoon jock Bootleg Kev has an interview with rapper The Game — and the video’s posted to YouTube.

You’ll get his thoughts on Chris Brown and Rhianna. “It was probably just some cat and puppy fight… It’s just people making it out to be more than what it is like the media always does. I say give the kid a break man. I’m sure they’re going to end up getting back together anyway man.”

KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River participated in a little Dancing With the Stars — Boise style. Bass and dance partner Brandi Breshears tore it up for the Idaho Dance Theater’s 20th anniversary gala.

Oh yeah… and the best part? There’s video.

The Children’s Miracle Network’s annual radiothon raised a pile of cash for hospitals around the country last summer — including Boise’s St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Bustos Media and its radio networks are being awarded for “Best Spanish Radio Imaging” in relation to the radiothon.

Last August, Bustos Media raised $264,202.00 during a three-day Radiothon in benefit of the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN); a national alliance of hospitals helping needy children with critical medical services.

Just about everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. Some of my favorite “tweets” (aka Twitter posts) from the past few days:

@1071KHits: quote of the AM “The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar.” http://bit.ly/yofWp

@kekeluv: Just woke up! Now, I can’t sleep! Welcome to my world ever since last april! Eating cereal, working on Taylor Swift promo, headed 2 work!

@580KIDO: Who is the sexiest cartoon character of all time? Dave and Brian will let you know what America decided just after 8am.

@donjarrett: has exceeded the maximum attention span of a 6 year old….and the drama begins in 5…4…3…2…1….duck & cover!

@kissin92: Billy Currington joins Cody Alan on CMT Radio Live 7pm – 12m on Kissin’ 92. Catch him tonight! www.kizn.com for everything Kissin92!

@miggy05: Ordering Twilight on PPV Iam Scured !!! hahahah

@DJDickman: @luckythadj get off the railing. Safety first!

@LuckyThaDJ: @miggy05 your down for shots ? Lol no friggin way ! Have a good night man

@Wild101: Thank You Everyone For The Love And Thank You For Keeping It Locked On Wild 101 Idaho’s Party Station!!!

@frosticles: The president giggling on 60 Minutes didn’t bother me. I figured the laugh meant, “Look how much work I have to do.”

Two of Boise’s rock stations are holding bracket contests…. but neither deal with basketball.

KKGL/96.9 The Eagle is doing its annual rock band bracket contest. Last year AC/DC won it all — and so far the band is still in the game — but number one seed Led Zeppelin got knocked off by #16 Jackyl in the first round. Wowza! Check out the bracket here.

KJOT/J-105 is holding the “babe bracket” with the Pete & Joe Show.

These ladies have adorned the walls of pre-teen bedrooms, high school locker rooms, college dorm rooms and have finally been sent to the garage – courtesy of our wives.

We’ve progressed to the “Flirtatious Four” with Raquel Welch representing the 1970s, Heather Locklear from the 1980s, Claudia Schiffer from the 1990s and Kate Becinksale from the 2000s. Get in your votes here.

The Ontario, OR Argus-Observer is the latest newspaper that serves Idaho to cut its Monday edition. The Idaho Falls Post-Register did it earlier this year — and now the Argus-Observer is following suit.

The newspaper’s Steve Krahl strikes an optimistic tone:

By making this change, we will be able to continue providing local news coverage to our readers and online viewers and continue to be the most effective advertising source for local businesses. The Argus Observer has been the western Treasure Valley’s local newspaper for more than 100 years, and we look forward to serving our community for the next 100 years.

Video:

My mother always taught me not to engage a bully — but you should be aware of this – and judge for yourself.

From Kevin Richert on his blog:

Don Day isn’t happy with the Statesman.

Don Day is also a hypocrite.

Day, who works at KTVB, took to his Idaho Radio News blog Sunday to blast the Statesman. No big news there. This time, he is mad because we have removed a link to his blog from the IdahoStatesman.com blogroll.

“Statesman doesn’t want to link to criticism,” reads his headline.

Umm, not exactly.

Richert goes on to note that my post about the Statesman’s 10% layoff and significant pay cuts had the comments turned on — but my post about a single layoff at KTVB did not.

After I saw Day’s posts last week, I encouraged our online team to remove the link to his blog.

I only wish we’d done it sooner.

Three things here. One, I’m not mad about the link loss — amused is the right word. Two, I usually don’t post TV news on this site — but wanted to be fair to the Statesman… ironically… and give you the full picture. Three, I also noted WHY comments are turned off:

I try not to report much TV news here primarily because of the comments… I cannot be a fair arbiter of comments that affect my friends and co-workers (whether they be at KTVB or another station in the market). Even though I haven’t posted KBCI or KIVI’s layoffs here — I think it’s fair to mention this.

Kevin left all that out. You can decide why.

If one of you writes something nasty about my employer… it puts me in a tricky spot. At the end of the day, my loyalty is to a company that has employed me for the past decade.

And as you’ll note, there has long been a link to Michael Deeds’ column in the right hand rail of this site… lest I be accused of being a hypocrite for something else.

(Disclosure: I sit on the board of the Idaho Press Club with Kevin. He doesn’t talk to me much.)

“I’m tired of seeing people become unemployed in this town.”
-Todd Lawley, 2/13/09, speaking of the Fresno, CA market

Peak Broadcasting laid off another employee late last week — less than three weeks after employees were forced to take a ten percent pay cut. At the time, folks were told this would help avoid further staff reductions – but now that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Multiple people in the Peak staff meeting where the pay cut was announced say that a Peak manager told the assembled staff that the company was healthy, and would use the cost savings to buy more stations. Either that’s untrue (meaning these cuts are happening because Peak’s in trouble), or the company is taking money from its employees to buy new stations. Either way… it isn’t a good thing.

Previous coverage: Analysis: Peak’s tough situation; Is Peak’s maneuver legal… or fair?

The Idaho Daily Statesman removed the link to IRN from its blog page. Is it something I said? They took the link off the day after we were the first to report about the 10% pay cut…. so apparently the answer is yes.

Citadel Communications’ stock has jumped ten times since its low this month — but unfortunately the low was a single penny and the current level is just 8 cents. If you put $1,000 into Citadel’s penny stock at its low and sold Friday you’d have about $8,000.

The company said this week that its radio stations had a punishing fourth quarter – generating revenue of $59 million in the fourth quarter — down from $78 million in the same period of 2007.

Peak Broadcasting

Rick says he’s thankful to Peak managers for the chance to work at Wow – and names Todd Lawley, Kevin Godwin and Bill Figenshu. You can reach Rick at rick@therickstewart.com, and read his full message after the jump.

Since the first of November, Peak has cut at least seven full-time programming-side staff positions by my unofficial count.

Read the rest of this entry »

Former KZMG night/morning host “Big Boy” made another move up the ladder — he’s now doing nights at 92.3 Now FM in New York City.

Big Boy left Boise for Memphis – then Detroit – now NYC. He is now going by Chunky on the air.

He’s had a few bumps along the way… and even a pop song.

And I hear he beeps when he backs up.

AP:

A 27-year-old former radio personality in northern Idaho faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to a felony possession of child pornography. Ryan Chambers made a federal court appearance Tuesday in Coeur d’Alene.

Story

UPDATE: Yes, this is the Ryan Chambers that used to work for CC Boise.

No… that headline isn’t riddled with my usual typos — that’s a lyric from a song getting airplay on Idaho CHR stations.

Begging to if you seek Amy? It’s the latest single from Britney Spears — If U Seek Amy — and it’s a not-so-coy attempt to spell out the F- word on the radio.

All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy

Clever.

The song is on Spears’ album released earlier this year — but it’s just breaking on pop stations nationwide – including here in Idaho. Stations are referring to the song as “If You See Amy” – but the song still sounds like “seek.”

MTV.com has a good backgrounder here. Listen and watch the video here

In my new outreach effort to spend more time listening to stations that don’t get enough coverage here, I’ve been listening to KIZN/Kissin’ 92. The station goes out of its way to engage listeners and have fun. Each hour is packed with different contests – whether it be the online prize club, fly-aways, text message contests or other ideas – Kissin’ seems to be working very hard to ply its audience with free stuff. The talent always seems happy and upbeat, and the on-the-street remotes I’ve heard have been well-targeted to the audience.

The imaging of the station is tight and well-thought-out. The station uses a similar-sounding imaging package to sister station KZMG/Magic 93.1, but Kissin’s package fits the station better and is produced in a way that works for the format.

Overall you can tell from listening to the station that a lot of work is being put into holding on the number one spot in the market.

KJOT/J-105 is revamping its schedule, and in the process will become the latest station with a syndicated morning show.

The Pete and Joe Show will air in the morning drive for the final time this Friday. Starting Monday, the Syndicated Todd ‘n’ Tyler show will take their place.

Pete and Joe will remain with the station and move to PM drive.

How that affects current afternoon host CB is unknown – but he voicetracks the shift and acts as producer for Tracy and Margo on KTHI/107.1 K-Hits.

The latest meeting is Friday – and will focus on KFXD-AM’s history.
Read the rest of this entry »

The KTVB News Group announced today it cut two positions – one full-time and one part-time. Until today, KTVB had been the only local media company to not cut jobs. Story here.

I try not to report much TV news here primarily because of the comments… I cannot be a fair arbiter of comments that affect my friends and co-workers (whether they be at KTVB or another station in the market). Even though I haven’t posted KBCI or KIVI’s layoffs here — I think it’s fair to mention this.