Comments on: Guest post: KCID, KGEM & religious radio

By: Edd Wade

Edd Wade — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:05:13 +0000

Hi Don, i had the opportunity to meet you a couple of times when i could come in and do some id’s for Dan Duncan, his “Service 1140 Radio, KGEM”….it was good to hear about you and to know where you went. I returned to the U of O to finish my degree work.
take care and happy holidays,
edd wade

By: Don McBride

Don McBride — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:03:46 +0000

My name is Don McBride. I was the news director of KGEM in the early 1970s, when it played modern country music. In addition to broadcasting newscasts at various times during the day, I also had the “afternoon drive” country show. Dan Duncan was on morning drive time, then Jon Dwayne, then Marty Martin, then me, then Telford Lewis Toffelmier from 7 P.M. until midnight. When Marty left the station, Jon Dwayne took over the afternoon shift, from a studio in downtown Nampa. I left the station in 1973 to become news director of a station in Salem, Oregon. I later taught broadcast journalism at South Dakota State University and Southern Illinois University. Many of my experiences at KGEM were incorporated into my lectures. Bob Wisenberg was the general manager of KGEM back then, and he did a wonderful job of both selling and managing the station.

By: Edd Wade

Edd Wade — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:21:44 +0000

Hi – if i understand the question…the weather instruments at KCID on the corner, caldwell were located in the alley behind the station. i would be glad to show you exactly where the next time i am in the valley which will be about April of this year.
take care,
ed wade

By: John Slayton

John Slayton — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:13:19 +0000

This will be a little off topic to begin with, but bear with me…. There is a meteorologist in Chico, California, who is running a project to photo-document the twelve hundred weather stations in the United States Historical Climate Network using amateur photographers, like me. One of these stations was in Caldwell until 1997. I had the dubious privilege of visiting Caldwell for my uncle’s (Walter Braun) funeral last summer, and while there I tried to find the last location of the Caldwell weather station. NOAA has a web site that lists station geographical coordinates, but these can be, er, ‘creative.’ It put the weather station on a sidewalk on the east side of Kcid Road, clearly not a credible location. But across from that fictitious site is the KCID transmitter, and I speculated that perhaps the weather instruments had been at the radio station.

I have since found a NOAA file with the station history. It lists the weather observers for 1959-1973 as “Caldwell Broadcasting Co,” and from 1973-?? (unknown date, but later than 7/9/75) as “Twin Cities Broadcasting Co.” I have not been able to get much more information than this.

Reading your comments, it’s clear that there are a number of local listeners who are familiar with the station history. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could confirm (or disconfirm, for that matter) that the weather station and the radio station were at the current location. And if there is an old-timer who lives close enough that he/she could meet me at the station next summer and point out the exact location of the instrumentation–well, I’d be little short of delirious.
Sincerely,
John Slayton
juanslayton@dslextreme.com

By: Edd Wade

Edd Wade — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:29:47 +0000

Unfortunately, i missed the meeting in which the Sam Bass sign-on was played for KCID. I had the privilege of working at KCID under the tutilege of Claire Hull, Duane Wolfe, Dale Peterson and Sam Bass from 1970 to 1975, and part time from 1985-87. As a “good life” station (and Dale Peterson would say we were not officially) KCID had the reputation of being a “staid” station but one that earned a very good living for its owners and crew. Many of us at KCID, KGEM, KBOI, and KBBK as well as KYET – CH 7 TV, aided one another with voice overs, commercials, etc. Those were the days of Marty Martin, Dan Duncan, Jeff Grimes, Dale Metzger, The “Real” Jim Neal, Jon Dwayne and Clint Bellows. Quite a few of us would meet at the Boise Airport after a swing shift and do trivia competitions with Sue S. at the Avis Counter. One of the items that kept KCID out in front technology wise was the fantastic efforts of then Engineer Dennis White who was a phenom when it came to imagineering for the station. Had the great opportunity to have lunch with Dale Peterson in 07 and i mentioned that i looked back fondly on those great and unique days in radio and that there were times i wished I had never left. Dale’s response was in regard to radio as we knew it that, “we didn’t leave radio…radio left us.” I’ll always miss those good times but at least there are a few of us who had the privilege to work KCID and KGEM. Best to everyone. Take care. and until that time. Edd Wade aka Charley Edwards.

By: joshzz

joshzz — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:03:05 +0000

Enjoyed your article!

I agree that generic nationally syndicated programming is hurting the quality of radio. The K-Love model is being replicated by many other groups with the intent of reaching the maximum amount of people at minimal cost.

In my opinion, a station that broadcasts at 5,000 watts or more should not be permitted to become a SatCaster.

The good news is that there are some local Christian Stations in parts of the country that broadcast locally with significant local content.

We own a small FM station and a small translator in Southern New Jersey and broadcast Upbeat Christian and other clean music but we always broadcast high school games, local sermons, a weekly local issues program. We host live in the studio band competitions and also give away tickets to local concerts .. for instance we gave away Back Stage Passes for a winner of our contest to meet the JOnas Brothers. We're known as LIFT FM.

We actually have looked into buying a station in Boise, but have not been able to go further with it.

Radio needs to be local- In my opinion the best thing we can do is to support only the local stations & abandon satellite broadcasters.. they'll get the message and will either bring in local talent or get out of the market altogether and sell to someone that wants to do local radio. such as myself.

Keep up the good work! joe

By: Steve S.

Steve S. — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:27:01 +0000

Its sad that Air1 takes all this space over the dial. The 98.7 frequency can be heard in my little car all the way up to Riggins, Idaho! Its unwise that air1 takes the whole dial, cost, etc…. Its annoying to hear the same freq on like a couple turns on the dial.
By the way, it talked about that their is not enough room on the dial (FM side), how does that differ from like Seattle, WA? In Seattle, you can go up one digit on the fm dial and get another station for the area. Its cramped up there!! Why doesn’t the FCC do that in Boise?

By: Doc Brown

Doc Brown — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:27:45 +0000

Very sad deal here. The AM Band is Boise is DEAD.

By: Bill Frahm

Bill Frahm — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:10:50 +0000

Besides “KDJQ” being available, there’s an AM construction permit for sale on 1430 with 50 kw day and just over a kilowatt at night. The day signal is reduced towards Ontario (to protect 1450) and the night will be non-existent in Nampa-Caldwell. Then there’s another rim-shot FM moving in from Salmon(!) licensed to Fairfield on 99.9 (bumping Air-1 off that frequency). Transmitter’s at the same place as 99.1 and 100.7.

By: Peabody

Peabody — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:23:42 +0000

Thank you Don, for the compliment, and for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts and concerns on Idaho Radio News.