Idaho Radio News Etc.

You might have noticed the job posting below – for a KCIX/KXLT program director.

This is the latest in a series of moves at Peak involving its AC stations.

• Earlier this year, immediately after Peak announced it would be slashing employee paychecks, Mix/Lite program director Brent Carey decided to hit the road, along with Mix APD/night guy Lucas.
• In March, Peak consolidated responsibility for the stations with KIDO OM Jason Wilmot.
• Earlier this month, Peak parted ways with long-time Mix host Tom Collins — saying the layoff was dictated by the economy.
• Separately – but related – Peak laid off Rick Stewart in March – he was program director at KAWO. Then earlier this month, they decided to hire a new KAWO program director.

You also might want to take a moment to read the job posting.

After the jump. If you apply make sure to tell them you saw it here.
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Following up. From the AP:

A former northern Idaho radio personality has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. U.S. Attorney Jim Peters says 27-year-old Ryan Chambers was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene on Monday.

Story

Have an extra corner on your website? Rich and the Citadel crew have provided this compact graphic with details on the missing Boise boy. You are free to use it on your site as well. You can either save it or just pull it straight from my server.

145 years ago, The Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman rolled off the presses for the first time. Now, nearly 150 years later, the publication is still humming along cranking out news each day. Rocky Barker has a nice recap of the orginization’s history.

If you’re so inclined, IRN would appreciate your vote in the best blog/blogger category. Survey here.

The Treasure Valley is a beautiful place. Lush trees, a meandering river, relatively low pollution and pristine foothills.

Many local radio stations talk about the quality of life here – in promos, in job ads and in their overall imaging. But most of those same stations think it is OK to junk up the environment with their roll-a-sign banners. Here’s an example from today:

Both KSRV/96.1 Bob FM and KAWO/WOW Country 104.3 left a few segments of those cheap plastic banners hanging on some poles near Bronco Stadium. In this case, there was no active remote going on nearby… in fact — there wasn’t any activity whatsoever.

While this example uses these two stations – they are not alone — it’s something you see all the time.

While I may personally consider this to be unsightly – it’s more than that. It’s a violation of Boise City Code:

No person shall post, paint or attach in any way any sign as defined in this Code on any curbstone, telephone pole, telegraph pole, electric light or power pole, wall, hydrant, bridge or tree on a
public street, sidewalk or on a public property except as provided in Section 4-7-14.

No person shall paint, paste or attach any sign whether or not defined in this Code on any building, structure, sidewalk, street or property of Boise City except as provided in Section 4-7-14.

PS: Section 4-7-14 (referred to twice above) gives “Municipal, County, State and Federal government and special nonprofit” groups some outs to that clause — but there is no special carve out for radio stations.

Not so long ago, banners were an expensive and prized material. The vinyl signs were carefully collected after each remote or event and reused time and again. The 1990s advent of the cheap plastic roll signs changed that practice – and made it easy for stations to leave behind their banners long after they have packed up the station van and headed back to the studio.

Perhaps station personnel think they’ll get some boost in the ratings numbers if they “forget” to take down their signs. Maybe. But I guess I wish they would respect the beauty of our area by collecting their visual collateral rather than leaving it behind.

UPDATE: As of 6:30pm Sunday night, the signs are gone.

Radio stations are mostly known for playing music – but in the morning, time is often taken up by a healthy dose of talk, traffic and spots. Using yes.com, here’s a spot check of the number of songs played on local stations this past Thursday.

Numbers below reflect the number of songs played in the 6am, 7am and 8am hours – divided by three to devise an average.

KIZN – 7.67
KZMG – 3.33
KRVB – 7.67
KSRV – 12.33
KQFC – 10.33
KQLZ – 13
KQXR – 6.33
KWYD – 10
KSAS – 7.67
KAWO – 8.67
KCIX – 6.67
KTHI – 8
KXLT – 11.33

The winners: KQLZ, KSRV, KQFC and KXLT. The losers? KZMG with an average of less than 4 songs an hour is in a class by itself, making stations like KQXR, KIZN, KRVB and KSAS look chock-full of music in the 6-7 song range.

Note: I did not include KJOT or KKGL because the Yes.com data had an error for these stations. I’ll revisit the rockers and their syndicated morning shows later.

Keep Smilin’ Tiger! It’ll make Everyone wonder what you’ve been up to!
- Del Chapman’s final words EVERY time he signed off his radio show!

Art Gregory and the crew will honor Del Chapman at a meeting next Wednesday at the Hillcrest Library near Overland and Orchard in Boise. Free lunch! Details after the jump…

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If you’ve been following our comments thread – you know by now that the Boise-area community stepped up in a big way, aided by the organizational initiative of Impact Radio – as well as big media push across the Valley. The group decided to help raise money for Ryan Stockdale – and brought $84,065.70 into coffers – which should be enough for him to get a vitally needed surgery. Bravo!

KXLT/107.9 Lite FM is now completely jockless…

Mapleton Communications, which owns a Spokane cluster of stations serving N. Idaho is now property of it’s largest lender. Lazard Group now owns all 41 Mapleton stations. The Eugene newspaper has a good write-up.

I’ve spent the last few days in Hailey, Idaho covering the story of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl – and have had a chance to listen to a few of the south-central stations I don’t get to hear from home.

KZDX/99.9 The Buzz has a provocative promo on the air that features a robotic DJ voice (which sounds intentionally awful) – then tags with the KZDX voice guy saying “don’t expect our DJs to get pink slips and be replaced by robots. 99.9 The Buzz — live and local radio the way it’s supposed to be.”

KTPZ/94.3 KTPZ now features a healthy diet of syndicated programming – with Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, Ryan Seacrest from 3-7pm and “Party Playhouse with Jackson Blue” each evening from 7pm-midnight.

You’ve likely heard the story of Ryan Stockdale — the Middleton dad of three young children who have a rare blood disorder. The family was feature on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2007. More recently, Ryan has developed what are called “suicide headaches” — something his wife described as “giving birth through your eye socket times ten” in an interview with KTVB.

The family has been unable to get its insurance company to pay for a procedure that would help eliminate the headaches – a fact that has garnered significant local media attention.

Impact Radio swung into action, and began a marathon radio broadcast yesterday at 2pm at a local Syringa bank branch. As of 11pm last night, Impact’s Darrell Calton tells me they had raised $6,000 – and that’s well before they hit the morning drive this morning.

KSRV/96.1 Bob FM, KWYD/Wild 101, KPDA/La Poderosa 100.7 and KQLZ/True Oldies 99.1 have been broadcasting live, helping rake in donations for the family.

Calton says he is putting $1,000 toward the cause — and hopes executives at other clusters will join him.

UPDATE: My colleague (and fellow blogger) Maggie O’Mara says she checked with Impact this morning — and the total raised through Impact’s efforts has ballooned to $35,000. WOW!

This will surprise no one: Tom Collins is back in the ranks of the employed.

Tommy was on the air this morning at KZMG/Magic 93.1 – acting as local anchor for Kidd Kraddick in the morning – as well as host of the station’s mid-day shift.

Let’s raise a glass to Tommy — and to some smart managers at Citadel.

The Associated Press reports Journal Communications has agreed to sell KCID-AM and KGEM-AM. The buyer is listed as Salt and Light Radio — the same group that purchased KDJQ last year, before the deal with owner Rob Coombs fell through.

The surprise here might be the small price tag: Just $950,000 for both frequencies.

This will be the second shift in Journal’s Boise concentration of assets this year, after the acquisition of KNIN-TV. Journal will now be made up of KIVI-TV, KNIN-TV, KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River, KTHI/107.1 K-Hits, KJOT/J-105 and KQXR/100.3 The X.

This will mark the separation of two pairs of long-time assets — KCID-AM and KTHI-FM used to share call letters, and KJOT-FM and KGEM-AM were also paired as an AM/FM combo dating back to the 1980s.

Here’s a spot for KWIK FM & AM… according to its YouTube uploader, it’s from 1984.

The Boise Weekly is conducting it’s Best of Boise survey right now. Here’s your chance to push up your station or DJ to the top of the list. Fill out the survey here.

Last year’s winners were KRVB, Ken & Tim, and some honorable mentions.

<shameless> PS: There’s a best blogger category… in case you know anyone like that </shameless>

And then there were… none. KXLT/107.9 Lite FM morning host (and sole personality) Claire Day is leaving Peak Broadcasting.

Day is finishing her second tour of duty with the Peak/Clear Channel cluster of stations — having previously left in 2003. This time she’s leaving radio for a gig with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office as a dispatcher.

Peak has already posted a PT traffic job (see below), but it is unclear what the plan is for her KXLT shift.

Claire Day’s last day is this Friday.

Peak Broadcasting is looking for a part time traffic reporter. Job posting after the jump. If you apply, make sure to tell them you saw the posting on IdahoRadioNews.com!
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On July 10th, CountryAircheck.com’s e-mail newsletter featured a “gig alert” – with a posting for a program director at KAWO. It said Kevin Godwin “is seeking a PD/personality for the position vacated in March by Rick Stewart.”

One strange thing here – Rick Stewart told IdahoRadioNews.com at the time that he “fell victim to the almighty budget cuts” – a declaration no one at Peak seemed to indicate was untrue. Why is Peak staffing up WOW with an additional position, after cutting utility player Tom Collins earlier this week at KCIX?

Here’s the CountryAircheck.com posting — tapes are due today.

KKGL/96.9 The Eagle is lining up a float trip for 50 listeners later this month. The station will load up a party bus, hit the Payette River for an afternoon of rapid jumping… nosh on some barbecue, then hit up the Dutch Goose for a party. The station is qualifying people now for the day o’ fun.

I finally changed the header image to something that represents Idaho radio. Extra credit to the first person to name that location…

UPDATE: I think that’s the most comments I’ve bulk approved at once… Points all around. That’s the KFXD (now KIDO) tower site, taken at sunset last week.

The results are in – and readers of the Idaho Statesman have named their picks for the best radio station and talent in the valley.

KCIX/Mix 106 takes top honors for top station — while morning hosts Mike & Kate grab the prize for best DJ. Even Tommy gets a mention in the write-up…

“Honorable mentions” go to about half the market:

• KBOI/News Talk 670
• KSRV/96.1 Bob FM
• KTSY/89.5
• Boise State Radio
• KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River

And talent:

• Tracy & Margo, KTHI/107.1 K-Hits
• “Big” Jack Armstrong, KQLZ/99.1 Idaho’s True Oldies Channel
• KeKe Luv, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM
• Pete & Joe, KJOT/J-105
• MISSED ONE! Brenda and Kevin Mee, KIZN/Kissin’ 92.3

Figured this was worth some home page love. From Tom Collins:

Dave Arthur called and said something about how he likes to give a eulogy while people are still alive to enjoy it. I can’t thank you all enough for the kind words and encouragement. It means the world to me. When I was let go from KF95, the best thing that could have happened was Stephanie Kelly calling the very next day to ask if I wanted to work for K-106. Hopefully this will also turn out well. Some mentioned the helicopter dream, however I have a lot of hours to rack up….and probably should have a job to pay for them first! Now, before I start getting all verklempt…thank you all again. Hey, Google says it’s Nikola Tesla’s birthday today!