Idaho Radio News Etc.

A former Boise radio operations manager once told me the story of a morning host who walked into a meeting, threw a fork down on the table and said “stick a fork in me, I’m done.”  That was his classy way of announcing his resignation.

In the days leading up to the spring book’s release, there had been lots of chatter about a station finally throwing down the fork and flipping formats.

The suspects: KAWO/Wow Country 104.3, KXLT/107.9 Lite FM, KZMG/Magic 93.1 and KJOT/J-105.

But all of those stations seemed to have done just well enough to earn them a reprieve.

KJOT pulled up its numbers substantially. It is still the #2 pure-play classic rock station (behind KKGL), but among adults 25-54, it is beating stablemate KQXR (to say nothing of KRVB).

KZMG continued to see audience erosion just about everywhere – but as I noted here, it looks like Citadel is giving the station one more shot before making a drastic change. Also of note – Citadel has not flipped one single station in the Boise market since it acquired these properties.  The most drastic “makeover” was the rebranding of KTIK to add “The Ticket” to its name upon acuisition, and some slight changes to KQFC’s branding.

KAWO/Wow Country 104.3 is still the #3 country station in the market – but saw improvement in all the timeslots and most key demos. While it is not the station’s best book (that was spring of 2008) – it did show signs of life after a very poor fall 2008 book).

KXLT/107.9 Lite FM may be the closest to the guilatine – its numbers fell from the fall book in many places.  When you take the 12+ view however, KXLT is tied with KCIX/Mix 106 at the moment.  But when you dig into the demos, Mix has a clear advantage.  The one upside at the moment for Lite: zero personell costs.  The station is now completely jock-free — and the only “talent” on the station right now is Delilah.  Peak’s running the frequency cheaply – and always sees a boost from its Christmas music stunt in the fall.

So what does that leave us? KRVB? KQLZ? Journal has indicated that it likes what is happening on KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River – and the station seems to be able to deliver for advertisers, despite its continually low ratings. The station in its previous incarnation – as KFXJ/KF-95 had a similar problem – but The River has been at the bottom of the ratings heap for quite some time now.

KQLZ/99.1 Idaho’s True Oldies Channel is probably safe for now – since Impact has some success in KWYD and KSRV to talk about.