Idaho Radio News Etc.

Edit: The missing person has been found. I’ve removed the story to keep it out of the Google machine for the eons forthcoming.

KZMG/Magic 93.1 has a new program director in place — but he doesn’t live here. Louie Diaz took over responsibility for the station – he also oversees KWIN in Stockton/Modesto, CA for Citadel. KWIN is also a pop format, but the stations seem to be quite a bit different in the way they are formatted and set up.

Also, KZMG hits you over the head with the “log on to 931hits.com and enter keyword blank” several times an hour. A funny little glitch in the Citadel server system lets us see how many times the keywords have been entered – and which ones are most popular. The quick answer… none of them are popular.

1. songs (71)
2. bills (52)
3. video (40)
4. vip (34)
5. streets (20)
6. facebook (14)
7. twitter (13)
8. movies (10)
9. moon (10)
10. WIN (9)

It isn’t clear what the timeframe is on that list – but look at KIZN.com’s list as a comparison…

I’ve uninstalled the Disqus plug-in. It wasn’t working correctly, and too many of you said you could not comment. So back to the old system we go!

KTHI/107.1 K-Hits no longer features Larry Doss on its airwaves. Doss, a long-time member of the Boise Journal Broadcast Group staff was let go last week. He was also featured on the KRVB/94.9 The River morning show, among other duties.

K-Hits has filled the gap by rearranging its voicetrackers.

Keith Pettyjohn, Dan Minnaert, Bill Teske appear in the KGEM/Salt & Light Radio 1140 studio earlier this week during the Catholic radio station’s first pledge drive fundraiser. The three-day event helped raise $64,595 for the nascent non-profit radio group.

With a jab at the Statesman, and the Weekly – KQLZ/99.1 The Virus is searching for the “real” best of the Treasure Valley. Folks can enter their ideas here — and they’ll post them here. So far…. the best part of the Valley is the view from Bogus.

KQXR/100.3 The X’s Nic & Big J returned a classic radio feature of yesteryear… Ask a Porn Star.

The station did this once before – and retired the bit. But after 15,000 pageviews for the XRock.com page — the crazy kids decided to return to the feature.

Hear it… here.

One of my favorite parts of the month is getting a copy of The Borah Senator delivered to my desk. It’s where I got my journalism start – and I’m always impressed by what these young journalism students dig up each month. This month they put together a great “Vs.” issue – comparing things like The Flicks and Edwards, Swine Flu and Seasonal Flu and more.

The paper also compared Boise Weekly and the Idaho Statesman’s Scene magazine. Writer Felicia Arnold talked to reps for both BW and Scene – Amy Atkins and Michael Deeds.

The Boise Weekly is a local newspaper that has articles that range from news to opinion, arts and entertainment to previews/reviews, interviews with extraordinary people, and letters to the editor. The Boise Weekly comes out every Wednesday.

“We do cover some of the same stories as the Statesman–that’s always going to be the case for media outlets in a relatively small market–but we work to cover them differently, from different angles, with a different voice. Better,” stated Boise Weekly’s A&E Editor, Amy Atkins.

The Boise Weekly’s competitor is The Idaho Statesman Scene magazine. Scene is a local magazine that expands the community’s horizons and publishes more articles about news, entertainment, reviews, interviews, and calendar listings.

“We focus exclusively on entertainment. They don’t. They’re free. We’re not. Our circulation is twice theirs. Really, it’s sort of apples and oranges,” commented Michael Deeds, Scene editor.

The Boise Weekly and Scene both have their advantages. The Idaho Statesman’s Scene is a little larger, and not free, whereas the Boise Weekly is free and about things around town.

What struck me was the tone of Deeds’ comment to the young journalist. He also has a key fact wrong – since Scene is available free in those teal boxes all over town.

(Disclosure: I am on the Borah High School Journalism Advisory Committee – along with reps from BW, the Statesman and other organizations).

People ask me all the time how IdahoRadioNews.com pays for itself. It doesn’t really of course – this is a hobby (one that I enjoy!). You all have been nice enough to listen to our pitches for DayPower Media — and I wanted to make that pitch again.

My partner and Aletia and I specialize in small business sites. We set them up on a framework that allows the client to make their own updates and changes – and we have a nice roster of folks we’ve been able to help – and many of them are Idaho radio-ites. From PowerSmiles Dental to The Aspen lofts — Body Shop Fitness Centers and Steve Shannon Productions… we’ve done a variety of different sites (with more on the way).

Find out more about us at DayPowerMedia.com – or drop us a line!

- The FameFifteen girls on this new spot for KZMG/93.1 Hit Music Now (of course, that slam came right after a promo for KSAS, so take your grains of salt before getting too worked up):

UPDATE: I can’t get the video embed to work. But FF can (#FAIL on my part) — so go view it there…

I put together a (not complete) Twitter list for Idaho radio. You can follow it here. Who am I missing? I have…

BSUPulse
BootlegKev
MIKEYFUENTES
WowCountry1043
BoisesMagic931
Mix106
JuicyLizzard
mdj681
KQFC
ChadillacKISS
DanMatthewsDJ
931HitMusicNow
991thevirus
JeffCaves
1350KTIK
frosticles
wild101
luckythadj
DavidJDickman
Kissin92
donjarrett
580KIDO
1071KHITS
kekeluv
1033kissfm
complexmixshow
JakeTheSnake808
rickmoorten
DjTetro
Taylor991
kjmackhits

In a few weeks, I’ll be putting together a list of all the amazing things that area radio stations are doing for the community this season. Last year’s list is here — and I’m sure we’ll see a similar effort this season. If your station or group is doing something outstanding – let me know!

KXLT/107.9 Lite FM didn’t waste any time getting in the Christmas spirit. The station has been non-stop holiday favorites since at least Friday November 13th.

KIDO AM landed on a new slogan this year — “Bronco Nation’s News Station.”

The postioner is touted in a TV spot and on the station’s air.

There’s one little problem: KIDO has abandoned local news programing.

After it put an end to its local news morning show and replaced it with an opinion-based show – Dave Burnett stayed on as morning news anchor. Now Peak has rearranged things – and Burnett has moved over to the traffic center, as well as some duties on KXLT/107.9 Lite FM.

The station now airs Fox News updates exclusively – with no straight local news content.

The former Boise Community Radio Project, which later morphed into Boise Community Radio – then Radio Boise — has decided on call letters: KRBX.

The group, which hopes to launch a Boise-area radio station, is eyeing those calls, and has unveiled a new logo:

The group will also be the beneficiary of a Built to Spill show set for Monday at the Visual Arts Collective.

ESPNU somehow… somehow… lost power today and went off the air for an extended period of time during today’s Boise State/Idaho tilt. Only about 45% of the Boise market gets ESPNU… but for most of the first quarter, not one single soul in Idaho was able to see the game on television.

Soooo… what do you do? Turn on the radio!

My colleagues at KTVB (I was off today) caught this on KIDO:

“We want to welcome all the people that were watching ESPNU that have probably turned us on. It appears there was a power outage at the stadium. Fortunately it doesn’t affect our radio broadcast. ESPNU is not with us,”

Tom Sparks died last week in LA of an apparent stroke. Story here.

The “I made the switch” radio games are nothing new. Stations air promos that help build up their brand image by impressing on listeners that lots of people are changing stations.

KWYD/Wild 101 has been airing a series of these promos – featuring voices of purported listeners listing off the reasons they stopped listening to KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM.

On October 17th (and presumably at other times), Wild aired a promo that made a strong claim: that Kiss FM had bilked a listener out of a promised prize. The Wild promo was direct and specific. The female voice in the promo said that she “used to listen to 103.3″ but stopped. Why?

“I was… invited to their Kissmas Party last year and won the Rockband and the Wii, but never got them.”

While that would be a good reason to stop listening to any particular radio station – it also implies that a high-profile local business is cheating someone out of a prize worth hundreds of dollars.

For the last several years, Kiss has held an event each holiday seaseon where qualified listeners are invited – then given one of a number of announced prizes.

IdahoRadioNews.com reached out to managers for both Peak Broadcasting, which owns Kiss and Impact Radio, which owns Wild.

Impact General Manager Darrell Calton would not comment on the record. I had hoped to learn several things – including whether the listener called the station at random or was found through some other method. I was also curious to know the name of the listener and if they had contact information, because I would have liked to verify the claims made in the promo.

Peak SVP Kevin Godwin says he hasn’t heard the Wild promo – but refuted the idea that a listener could have been promised a prize, then not have received it.

“There isn’t a possible way that someone wouldn’t have got their prize for the Kissmas party last year,” he said. “Everyone that qualified actually picked out their own present for the Kissmas promotion at the event.”

Godwin said the station received no complaints from any listener about not getting a prize.

“If we ever make a mistake, we always make good on it and do our best to take care of our listeners,” he said. “We can’t worry about what other stations are saying, we are very focused on only what we can control.”

Someone started a “You grew up in Boise in the 80s if you…” group on Facebook. While the definition of “80s” seems to be a bit elastic, the posts (hundreds in just the past few days) are a great read — from Buttreys to Big Jack and Skateland to WIzzard’s Arcade.

See it here.

Boise radio stations are taking to the TV machine in droves during this book. Spots from KIDO/580, KIZN/Kissin’ 92, KQFC/97.9, KSRV/96.1 Bob FM, KQLZ/99.1 The Virus and more are in the mix.

You put up with a lot from me. You read my rantings. You comment on my blog items. You put up with my typos.

So I have something in return — for 10 of you at least. Leave a comment on this item — with your preferred address in the e-mail field (I won’t publish this of course), and I’ll send out the invite. Google says that it takes a few days – so once I send them out, it may take a bit. If we get more than ten comments, I’ll just randomly pick.

Following up on this – KTSY/89.5 went “all Christmas” on Halloween Day Saturday.

Come Sunday… the station was back to its normal playlist. For now…

With cameos from Don Jarret, Hooker in the Morning and Dan’s dog Lola.

Nathaniel Hoffman wrote up a story on a poll that the Idaho Statesman ran this week. I’ll let you read the story here.

I don’t have an opinion on the reporting one way or the other — except that I’m glad to see someone reporting on the paper. Statesman opinion editor Kevin Richert DOES have an opinion on the piece. But he pulled out one of his favorite tricks — calling out Hoffman by name, then saying this:

In pursuit of one of his journalistic habits — jabbing at the Statesman — the Boise Weekly writer accuses us of push polling, because of a survey question we asked about the Boise Downtown streetcar project.

Sound familiar?

Day… took to his Idaho Radio News blog Sunday to blast the Statesman. No big news there.

This is a device Richert seems to use when he is emotionally tied to the subject. He tries to discredit the source by pointing out that they dared criticize the newspaper in the past.

Kevin’s a smart guy and a great writer. His output is simply amazing. I think you could ask him to defend the merits of a round coffee table vs. a square one and he could give you 500 compelling and convincing words. The bottom line: he can argue anything. It’s the route he takes to get there that leaves me stymied at times.

All I can say is… welcome to the club Nathaniel!