JOURNAL TO SELL KCID, KGEM
Don @ IdahoRadioNews | July 21, 2009The 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.
I wonder what will happen to the Idaho and Idaho State football and basketball broadcasts, along with College of Idaho basketball games, as they were carried on the two frequencies. Not many options in the Valley for the sporting events.
That sucks. We had just converted the KGEM studio into a nice little after hours swinger bar. But I suppose the KCID studio will still be used for broom storage, at least.
*SNORT* @ Ian’s comment. I remember the KGEM “studio” on my tour through that building. The rest of the facilities post-move from the insane blue “trailer” were quite nice, though.
While its nice to see some diversity in ownership, I only hope that the new owners will develop a wider variety of programming than most religious stations. Meaning have some local community events like the local sports and news etc…. Its do-able, feasible and necessary in the present Boise Valley Radio paradigm.
The games could stay with an invocation and pre-game Mass. (Lord knows the Vandals could use all the help they can get!)
Yes the Vandals could use all the help they could get these days!!! Hail Mary anyone?
I see from our “Local” Boise paper that the plan more or less is to use one station for English and the other station for Spanish…
So how many local stations will that now have a religious format…. Let me see if I get them all or not….AM…. KSPD 790….KBGN 1060….950AM ( K_ _ _) on the FM 94.1 KBXL…. 89.5 KTSY…and then there are the lower powered Non-Coms…..and fringe stations from translators etc…..
Anyone know of any I missed?
I have always wondered why there was no involvement from the LDS in local media since there is such a large population of their believers in the valley…. Is it just KSLUtah, that the Church has ownership over?
I guess this means the audio of Channel 6 news will be completely gone from the radio?
And to think, KCID 1490AM used to be on the corner where the world turned in Caldwell…….then we added
107.1FM KCID……….Both were run by a staff of 4 sales people and 2 full time on air people and 3 maybe 4
part-timers. We ran news, agriculture programs, yes music and a lot of sports. caldwell and vallivue football and basketball including district and state championships, NNU (then nnc) and college of idaho and albertson college basketball including district and national tournaments including the N.A.I.A national
men and womens tournaments. We even threw in some BYU COUGAR FOOTBALL. With the excception of BYU we ran all those games each year with local announcers. thanks to Dale Peterson, as owner manager and the late Duane Wolfe owner, we pulled off some good radio on my watch from 1974 to 1995.
I miss the old days……………….cf
KCID-AM was a true LOCAL radio station. There will never be a studio location like that one again. It looked like a station should look and what you expected from a station as well. The entire operation was a tribute to the people that owned it, ran it, listened to it and supported it with their advertising dollars. Its a shame that in such “modern times” with the technology that exists today, it has become what it and other once great service stations have become….mere shells of their former glory. Be greatful that you and others like you Old DJ have -your memories of what was and might, with a great deal of dedication, could be again someday!
Even though this story was originally posted several weeks ago, I am surprised that there have not been more comments, concerns, and possibly a little outrage.
Outrage, you ask? Why would there be? The reason would be simply this: There is only a finite amount of spectrum space on both the AM and FM dials. This means that only so many stations will fit. Once the spectrum is full, it’s full. This means there will be no more room for new stations that could potentially have unique or local programming. Today, the spectrum is nearly full, and much of that spectrum space is already being hogged by religious broadcasters. With Boise’s packed dial, religious newcomers have resorted to buying up existing commercial stations, as in the case of KGEM and KCID. Once these organizations acquire these signals, they will usually never amount to much more than a repeater for a satellite service. Also, history has shown that once a religious broadcaster gets a hold of a signal, they never let go. This amounts to a sad future for two stations with such an interesting past.
This should be at least a little cause for concern for Boise residents, because the process of signal acquisition by religious groups will inevitably have a negative impact on the quality and localism of radio programming. Whether you really think about it or not, the radio spectrum is all around us all of the time. Anyone with a radio or TV has access to the contents of our broadcast spectrum. It does not only belong to the FCC or broadcast corporations. It belongs to all Americans, and we should all care about it’s content.
Now, before I go any further, let me say that I do understand “Salt and Light Radio” is a network that we currently aren’t hearing here in Boise, and they are apparently going to offer Catholic based programming in both English and Spanish. Please understand that I have no problem with their organization, or their message. I have not heard their broadcast service. I am only taking issue with the amount of spectrum space that all religious broadcasters are consuming. Let me explain…
Somewhere around ten years ago, vacant channels on the Boise area FM dial started getting snatched up very quickly by religious broadcasters. Today, about 1/3 of the FM band is comprised of formats labeled as Religious, Christian, or Inspirational. Many of these stations are just broadcasting sterile sounding network satellite feeds. Many more are just translators that are re-broadcasting the same sterile sounding satellite feeds.
When you get down to brass tacks, you’ll see that, on just the FM band alone, there are 11 religion-based signals in Boise. (88.1, 88.3, 88.7, 89.1, 89.5, 90.9, 94.1, 95.7, 98.3, 99.9, 106.7.) Many of these are just low power translators, but a few, like KARO 98.7, are full power blow torches.
Perhaps there would be a legitimate reason for having this many religious stations in one market, if all of these signals had different and unique programming. However, that is not the case. Here is a perfect example of a religious organization, The Educational Media Foundation, wasting valuable spectrum space. Three of the signals I previously mentioned, (88.3, 98.7, and 99.9) are simultaneously broadcasting identical program material- Air1 “Christian Alternative.” As I mentioned before, KARO 98.7 is a 100 kW blowtorch, so the other two signals are unnecessary. They do not offer significantly improved signal quality to areas not adequately covered by KARO, and it is worthy of mention, that both of their directional antennas are oriented to cover Boise.
Right now on the AM band, there are three religious formatted stations. (790, 950, 1060) These are included in the total of 10 AM stations that adequately cover Boise. Once 1140 KGEM and 1490 KCID become religion based stations, 5 out of 10 AM stations in Boise will broadcast religious formats. That’s half of ‘em, folks.
Here’s the worst part. The dial is packed so full of signals, that local and community stations are finding it difficult or impossible to squeeze their way into the market. It appears that only two FM frequencies (that are at least 3rd adjacent to existing stations) are still vacant in the Boise market. To my knowledge, they have already been applied for. (This lack of spectrum space is the reason for the big proposed frequency swap involving that 97.9-102.7 & 103.3-103.5 thingy.)
The AM band still has a little space left, but not much. Any remaining available frequencies would likely provide less than desirable nighttime coverage. (As did the now defunct KDJQ.) All of this simply means that as the number of religion based broadcasters increase, the number of other options naturally has to decrease.
- – - – - I N T E R M I S S I O N – - – - -
(Sorry for the long winded post. Take a breather. Go get yourself a cookie. You deserve it. Thanks for bearing with me. …And now, the other half…)
Another byproduct of this transaction will be the cessation of any commercial AM stations in the Boise area broadcasting music. Fortunately, occasional musical programs are offered by KBSU AM (Assuming they don’t entirely lose their budget.) However, if you want music any time of the day from your antique radio collection, or your ’75 AMC Pacer’s factory AM radio, you better have a sensitive receiver and a good antenna. AM 1240 KMHI (Mountain Home, Classic Country), and 1380 KSRV AM (Ontario, OR, Country) will probably be all you can get. You’d better like country music.
It is sad that we have so many signals available to us, yet there are very few that actually offer any kind of quality local programming. Sadder yet: as of now, Boise has no community radio station at all. BCRP has been trying to get a signal on the air for years, but due to the saturation of the dial, they have had to settle for a transmitter site near Vale Oregon. As of yet, they are still off the air.
Back to KGEM and KCID: Why should we care? It’s only AM, right?
While it’s true that AM radio has some disadvantages, such as audio quality and interference, it is safe to say that AM is far from being dead. Look at the success of News-Talk formatted stations such as KBOI. Many markets have very successful AM stations that consistently stay at the top of the ratings heap.
KGEM and KCID’s lack of success in recent years was not due to the fact that they are AM. No, these stations died a slow, miserable death of starvation. Little to no funding has been given to those stations, and they have been broadcasting dull, lifeless satellite feeds. That is the fault of Journal Broadcast Group. Over the last about 7-8 years, they have directed most of their Boise radio budget to their FM’s, and sunk the big dollars into TV. While the company obviously has bigger goals, it is still a shame that KGEM and KCID were neglected as they were. Even in their pitiful state, Arbitron still indicated that they had some listeners.
Don’t think that these stations were let go because don’t have potential. KGEM, in particular, has gobs of potential. It’s signal is fabulous because it’s towers are right smack dab in the middle of the Boise bench. It broadcasts at 10,000 watts, day and night. At night, I have heard KGEM clearly as far away as Portland, Oregon. A few live bodies and some quality programming could have made something great out of this station.
KGEM also has a colorful history. Unfortunately I don’t know very much of it. I have heard a few tales like how irrigation line was used in place of copper transmission line during war-time shortages. During the Cold War, KGEM was required to install a bomb shelter, which back in the day, was fitted with a fully functional studio. Duck and cover! During the 1960’s KGEM used to be Boise’s popular music station. (Frostop diner story, anyone?)Sometime after that, KGEM simulcast the country music that was on KJOT FM, then re-established it’s independence after KJOT became J105 back in ’85. During the 80’s and early 90’s, KGEM actually broadcast in AM Stereo! I’ll bet you forgot about that that little attempt at a cutting edge technology that never really was. As recently as 2001, KGEM had a live, local morning show. Unfortunately, the budget was severed and the format was changed to “Good Time Oldies.” The Old Cassia building was left and all but forgotten about.
KCID doesn’t have the high powered signal, but it has always been the little local station that could. Back in the day, KCID AM and FM brought local programming with a personal touch to Canyon County. Lately, KCID AM has been treated more like the nuisance in the broom closet at the Journal building.
All of what these stations could have been, now will never be. Well, as long as the FCC approves the deal. I hope that Salt and Light Radio thanked you for the great deal, Journal.
I woke up trying to tune into KGEM but got nothing. I didn't realize they were being sold along with the other station we listen to KCID. Those were the only stations I listened too. I loved KGEM because there was no senseless chatter or put down of the artists that they played. It was smoooooooth. Thanks guys for a great staion. Guess I will go back to listening to my tapes, cassettes and jukebox.
rodder