Idaho Radio News Etc.

The Best of Weekly rolled out its annual Best of Boise reader’s picks this week. This summer, we got the chain newspaper’s chain survey (mmm…. McDonald’s french fries!) – and now we get the local newspaper’s local survey!

See, Boise Weekly (mostly) limits its winners to locally-established businesses and people.

Just like last year, we’re honoring only locally owned and operated businesses that meet our local-business criteria because, let’s face it, this is about honoring the best of Boise, not the best of (insert random U.S. city here)

So. Um. Most media companies aren’t locally owned (shh, don’t tell anyone). In fact, other than the Boise Weekly itself and Impact Radio – Boise has no major commercial media outlets that are actually… local.

Editor Rachel Daigle told me the media carousel presents a unique challenge.

“It’s the one category we have such an issue with year after year,” she said by e-mail. “There are so few of we media people who work for truly independent companies in town.”

But a local DID win the “best radio station” category – albeit one owned by the State of Idaho. KBSX/Boise State Radio News 91 grabbed the top honor.

We like to think BW’s audience is NPR/Boise State Radio’s audience. Why? Plain and simple: Professionally, we respect the hell out of what 91.5 delivers; personally, we’re big listeners ourselves.

Second place was KRVB/94.9 The River – with KSRV/96.1 Bob FM snagging third.

The best DJ category went to a pair of familiar names: Ken & Tim:

Rock test! Name the reigning champions of Best of Boise’s best DJ category. Here’s a hint: There are two of them. Is it A: Bill and Ted, B: Amos and Andy or C: Ken and Tim? Here’s another hint: Their names are in bold nine lines above. Ken Bass and Tim Johnstone, The River’s dynamic morning duo, have been claiming numero uno in this category for so long that we can appropriately refer to them as “The Reigning Champions”

The dynamic river duo also won this award in 2008. And 2007. And ought-six. They didn’t win waaaay back in 2005… but that might be because they didn’t work together then. Just a hunch.

KCIX/Mix 106 morning hosts Mike & Kate got second place this year – with KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM host KeKe Luve grabbing third.

Congrats to all the winners!

Earlier this month, Boise State Radio was looking for opinions on its KBSX weekend programming. Today comes a memo from program director Ele Ellis outlining a bunch of changes – including new time slots for Car Talk with Click and Clack and Wait Don’t Tell Me. Idaho resident Diane Josephy Peavy’s essays are also on the move. You can read the whole memo by clicking down yonder…
Read the rest of this entry »

One advantage of listener-supported radio over advertiser-supported fare is the engagement with the audience. While commercial stations do listen to their fans, that group isn’t usually as vocal – nor as important. If you cheese off your audience at a commercial broadcaster, your ratings may suffer for a time – but overtime you’ll probably survive (depending on degree of course). But if you are Boise State Radio and you don’t heed your audience, they can vote with their pocketbook. To that end, BSR has a survey up on its site right now gauging opinion to see what it should do with programming in coming months.

The Idaho Press Club handed out its annual awards last night. Staffers from newspapers, radio outlets and television stations (as well as some PR flacks and others) gather each May to celebrate the best in Idaho journalism. The warm-up comedian worked Paul J. Schneider into his monlogue (with a joke about the media’s coverage of his “ouster” that escapes me), and another riff about NPR’s Diane Josephy Peavy (who lives near Carey). There was also a joke about Idaho Daily Statesman entertainer Michael Deeds – who was actually in the room and also won an award.

Idaho Radio News was given the second place award for Best Website in the online publication/magazine division. The excellent Sun Valley Guide took first place honors.

Pay special attention to second place in the “Use of Sound” category…

GENERAL EXCELLENCE
1st Dave Plourde – KCHQ – FM – “Q102 News”

GENERAL NEWS REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Sadie Babits, Don Wimberly, Krisi Packer, Adam Cotterell – Boise State Radio – “A Senator in Trouble”
2nd Glenn Mosley – Northwest Public Radio – “Moscow Shooting”
3rd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Police Have No Leads in Weekend Murder”

SPOT NEWS REPORT
1st Krisi Packer – NPR News 91/KBSX – “What Do You Think Boise?”
2nd TIE
Samantha Wright – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Crash!”
Samantha Wright – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Space Rock”
3rd Adam Cotterell – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “PETA Protest”

SERIOUS FEATURE REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Krisi Packer – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Summer Feeding Program”
2nd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Goodbye Old Friend”

LIGHT FEATURE REPORT
1st Samantha Wright, Krisi Packer — NPR News 91 / KBSX – “On the Road – Construction”
2nd Adam Cotterell – NPR News 91 / KBSX – “Tamales Not Turkey”
3rd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “A New Face for Jazzfest”

PUBLIC AFFAIRS PROGRAM
1st Sadie Babits – Boise State Radio – “The Power of the B-17″

USE OF SOUND
1st Krisi Packer – NPR News 91 KBSX – “Corn Maize”
2nd Andrew Jacobson – KUOI FM Moscow 89.3 – “Moscow is Quiet”
3rd Sadie Babits – Boise State Radio – “On the Red Carpet”

Disclosure: I’m now on the board of the Idaho Press Club. Amazingly… no one said “nay” while voting on the new slate of directors that includes me.

Local radio groups are jumping on the expo bandwagon in a bigger way – either by putting them on or partnering up.

- KRVB/Idaho’s 94.9 The River and Boise State Radio are the radio sponsors of the “Idaho Green Expo” set for May 17th & 18th. The first-time event will gather together green experts and exhibitors for the two day event
- The Citadel stations are building on the success of decade-old Kid’s Fair with the Today’s Women’s Expo. The May 31st event will follow the Kid’s Fair blueprint with exhibits and demonstrations for women – as well as a number of keynote speakers.
- Peak is dipping its toe in the water with Idaho’s Largest Garage Sale – which will bring together countless folks with stuff to sell and (they hope) lots of buyers as well. The first-time event launches May 17th & 18th at Expo Idaho.
- KWEI Spanish Radio put on the Hispanic Health Fair at the Hispanic Cultural Center earlier this month. It’s another new event that targeted the Valley’s Hispanic population with health information and resources.

The Idaho Daily Statesman notes today that several public radio programs will be visiting the Boise area in coming months:

The comedy and quiz show “Whad’YaKnow?” will tape at the Morrison Center May 23.

The oral history-oriented “StoryCorps” will collect local tales from May 15 to June 7.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of the foodie show “The Splendid Table,” will appear in Boise in June.

And NPR correspondent Don Gonyea will talk about covering Obamamania in July.

Read the full piece here. Though the story says all the above programs are “NPR fixtures” and paints the picture that these are NPR shows. They aren’t. Splendid Table is produced by American Public Media, Whad’Ya Know? is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and StoryCorps is produced independently – though all often air on NPR stations.

Boise State Radio already has a wide variety of stations throughout the state – but it just launched its first digital mutlicast station: KBSU HD2. The station plays a 24/7 jazz format – and got off the ground. BSUR dumped “Idaho’s Jazz Station” from AM730 last summer as part of a realignment of its programming. Only people with an HD radio can receive the new station – and right now – there aren’t many who fall into that category. The state-funded KBSU is the first station to launch a digital multicast program in Idaho (that I’m aware of).

Another great media-related piece from the Boise Weekly, as Amy Atkins has a Q&A with Boise State Radio’s University Pulse General Manager Jeremy Miller. Miller talks about the way the service is funded (from a $2 fee that every student pays), how it started – and what’s in store for the future. UP plays for 12 hours each Sun day over-the-air on KBSU/730 AM and via a 24/7 Internet stream. All the programs are pre-recorded according to Miller, with the exception of one Tuesday night live show. Also, BSR’s program stream is played at all times in the Student Union Building and Rec Center on campus.

The Boise Community Radio Project has submitted its FCC application as previously noted, to broadcast on 89.9 FM. The city of license for the Boise project would be… Caldwell. Ahh the FCC.

BCRP was the only NCE application made in the Boise valley – though scores of applications were filed statewide (more on that later).

The 89.9 location would be very close to KTSY (89.5 FM) and KBSU (90.3 FM).

BCRP’s supporting documents (view here – PDF) say that current radio programming “fails to reflect the educational needs of our community,” and says there isn’t a whole lot on the air that can “assist citizens in discussing the implications of demographic transition.” Also, BCRP feels Boise’s radio programming “generally fails to examine issues affecting souther Idahoans.”

Currently, the Boise area offers a whopping 150.5 hours of locally produced public affairs, talk or music programming – that is an average of 21.5 hours per day. (See chart below).

Currently, BCRP’s online stream features 6.93 hours of local talk (of which more than half is repeats, boiling down to less than three hours of content), and about 61 hours of locally produced music shows (including about 50% repeated content, most shows do not feature local artists). This averages out to about nine hours per day. The amount of original content is about 30 hours – or 4 hours per day. It stands to reason that if BCRP were granted a license it would increase local content – if the group can find funding.

BCRP takes a stance that BSU Radio provides very little local content:

Community radio is not the same as National Public Radio (NPR). As an NPR affiliate, Boise State University offers syndicated national news, talk and classical music programs. Less than 5% of their [sic] schedule is locally programmed.

BSU Radio produces 47.5 hours of local programming per week (NOT including news), or 6.7 hours per day across its three Boise stations. Almost none of this is repeated. This totals 9.5% of total programming.

Edit: The list below shows the total number of hours per week that a local station airs (not including news updates, remotes or normal music-driven shifts).

KIDO: 33 (mornings, Monday sports show, weekend shows)
KFXD: 20 (mornings)
KBOI: 27 (mornings, Saturday morning shows)
KBSX: 2.5 (City Club, Dialogue, New Horizons [X2])
KBSU-FM: 15 (Laz Spectrum, Private Idaho, Jazz Straight Ahead, Arthur Balinger programming)
KBSU-AM: 30 (Saturday Spanish-language programs, Sunday University Pulse)
KRVB-FM: 1 (The Other Studio)
KQXR-FM: 1 (Xclusive)
KTMB-FM: 5 (Dzuback sports show)
KTIK: 15 (Caves & Prater)
KAYN: 1 (Divas for a Difference)

Boise State Radio raised a total of $285,000 during its recent fall fundraiser – a record according to the station.

Also: The station has added an interesting new bit of local programming. This from the latest edition of the station’s e-newsletter:

Speaking of local programming, I hope that you have been taking advantage of the local broadcasts of the Boise Philharmonic replaying on KBSU-FM. We’re very excited to be bringing you this broadcast as well as our on-going partnership with the Boise Philharmonic. You can find out more details on these shows at our website, radio.boisestate.edu

The broadcasts started October 15th and continue through May.