Idaho Radio News Etc.

Let’s pretend you bought stock in the three major Boise radio companies when this site started in September 2003.

Citadel. Clear Channel. Journal. Which one would be worth the most money?

Citadel was worth $18.85 per share. A share of Clear Channel stock went for $17.93. Journal stood at $16.45.

Today? Citadel: one cent. Journal $4.09. Clear Channel: $39.48.

Journal’s dropped by nearly two-thirds. Citadel’s stock is worthless. But Clear Channel? You would have more than doubled your money.

Go figure.

I was looking through an issue of The Blue magazine tonight – the publication dedicated to Boise State sports. KBOI had a full page ad with a large football – and three simple copy points: “Live. Local. Legendary.”

It occurred to me that the station never stopped being the Broncos station. Two years ago, Peak Broadcasting got organized — and paid big — to swipe the rights to broadcast games from KBOI, moving them to KIDO.

But after KBOI accepted defeat – it set its sights on two things: keeping the Broncos as part of its brand, and getting the team back on its airwaves.

KBOI set up shop before each football game at a less-than-glamorous location: Baja Fresh. But they continued to crank out pre and post game shows, and had a big advantage: Paul J. Schneider. The long-time announcer of football and basketball was swept aside as part of the transition, but still was a very strong presence in the mind of fans. He continued to anchor the station’s morning show – and is arguably the best-known personality in Boise radio.

Meanwhile, the station kept its rather large news staff, and as Peak cut KIDO to the bone – KBOI grew. It picked up Rush Limbaugh, strengthened its news team, and kept hammering away on Broncos news. The games might not have aired on the station, but it was very much part of the scene.

Now KBOI gets the games back – and will likely bring Bob Behler on board as well. While Paul J. won’t be behind the play-by-play mic, he’ll continue to be part of the news coverage, and Citadel will likely find creative ways to wrap itself around the Broncos brand even better than it had before.

Citadel Communications, which owns six Boise radio stations, has declared bankruptcy.

The pre-negotiated filing allows the company to rework its debt and stay afloat. The company didn’t make any noise that it was going to shed assets.

“Citadel, like many radio, television and newspaper companies, has seen its revenue and profitability decline due to the downturn in advertising spending by companies particularly in the auto, banking and restaurant sector,” CFO Randy Taylor said.

KIZN/Kissin’ 92 is holding its annual Keep Kids Warm auction on-air this week. They are also selling $10 Kissin’ frogs to help the cause.  The program started with Rivers & Valley way back in 1996 when a kid called in trying to win a contest. That one call has led to more than $650,000 in donations over the years. See the auction items and get more details here.

KBOI/News Talk 670 is featuring a Make-a-Wish child each week throughout the month, and helping raise money to make those wishes come true. It’s a really neat, personal way to do it – and you can read the stories and see the pictures of the kids here.

Peak Broadcasting GM Kevin Godwin issued a statement today on the loss of the rights to Boise State sports to Citadel and KBOI/KKGL.  Godwin says – in a nutshell – that there was no way to make money, and that picking up the rights would have cost jobs and more. He also says current play-by-play man Bob Behler is under contract to Peak until July – and “any mention of his future employment outside of Peak Broadcasting is premature.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the release on the story you read here first:

Read the rest of this entry »

Longtime former KIDO/580 AM producer Ray Amaya pulled a “Tom Collins.”

Tom Collins (to’m kol’enz)
1) adjective – To be unceremoniously dumped by Peak Broadcasting for reasons only clear to management – only to quickly snag a job with rival Citadel Communications days later
2) noun – A tall iced drink made with liquor, such as gin, and lemon or lime juice

No, he didn’t morph into a nice summer drink — he quickly transitioned to KBOI after KIDO let him go just a few weeks ago. Amaya is being heard all over the airwaves doing news and more for Boise’s only remaining news radio station.

And, in a modified-reverse Collins, Melissa Dawn is back at Peak. “Modified,” because she left Citadel on her own accord, and “reverse” because she went from Citadel to Peak. Dawn took over Claire Day’s morning traffic duties for the cluster more than a month ago.

One other side-note – am I the only that finds LiteOnline.com’s blank staff lineup page ironic — or maybe just appropriate?

Citadel might not have the rights to the Broncos any more, but that doesn’t mean its stations don’t have the right to have fun… with the Broncos.

KKGL/96.9 The Eagle has been cranking out parody songs this season – so far they’ve had one for each game, starting with “el Ducko,” (“quacking and flapping their wings and their jaws/Revenge for a cheap shot is driving their passion/helmet to helmet is against the law” and “they traveled to Boise to play on the blue turf, they’ll lose again and they won’t know why//the Ducks will fly over the blue turf of Boise, dive into the blue and the ducks, they will… die).

There’s another ditty about Miami of Ohio (“change the f to an r and it’d be much better”) that is kinda… lame.

But the third effort – titled “Rock ‘n’ roll Fu Manchu” knocks it out of the park (to mix sports metaphors).

Coach Pat Hill Can’t Win the WAC
Fresno fans need to cut him some slack
They play anyone any time anywhere
What really rocks is his facial hair

He’s got a… rock/and/roll Fu Mancu (rock and roll Fu Manchu)
Another loss to BSU (BSU)

Played the dogs last year and we blew them out
61-10’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout
Coach Hill’s job might go out with the trash
Pro-wrestlin’s next with that pro-wrestlin’ ’stache

He’s got a… rock/and/roll Fu Mancu (rock and roll Fu Manchu)
Another loss to BSU (BSU)

Can Coach Pete Shave it if they looooose?

Rock ‘n’ roll Fu Manchu

Citadel Boise has a new sales executive – one with a long history in the market. Blair Crook, who has stayed in one job as his bosses have changed over and over (independent, Jacor, CC, Peak…). Crook was one of the original AEs for KCIX/K-106 and was a founder of the popular annual Mix 106 Easter Egg Scramble.

He is now on the beat for Citadel…

This will surprise no one: Tom Collins is back in the ranks of the employed.

Tommy was on the air this morning at KZMG/Magic 93.1 – acting as local anchor for Kidd Kraddick in the morning – as well as host of the station’s mid-day shift.

Let’s raise a glass to Tommy — and to some smart managers at Citadel.

In March, we noted that Citadel Broadcasting’s stock scraped the bottom of the barrel — costing just $0.02. It popped up to about 4 cents a share later that week — which led me to ask if you’d take the bet and put $1,000 into the stock – taking home about 20,000 shares.

If you’d made that bet – you’d be… in the exact same position. The stock ended the day at $0.043 — just more than four cents per share. The stock has not traded higher than 13 cents.

Related: Journal Communications is currently trading at $1.10 – up quite a bit from the March low of $0.39.

Citadel Communications’ stock has jumped ten times since its low this month — but unfortunately the low was a single penny and the current level is just 8 cents. If you put $1,000 into Citadel’s penny stock at its low and sold Friday you’d have about $8,000.

The company said this week that its radio stations had a punishing fourth quarter – generating revenue of $59 million in the fourth quarter — down from $78 million in the same period of 2007.

Citadel Communications joins some big national brands like Arby’s and Krispy Kreme on a new list provided by credit rating agency Moody’s.

Unfortunately, it’s a list no one wants to be on. Moddy’s says Citadel is on the “bottom rung” — a list of about 280 companies most likely to default on their debt in the coming year.

Moody’s thinks about 45% of the companies on the list could default within a year.

On the stock watch – Citadel (CTDB.PK) is hanging at four cents.

The Citadel stock watch continues – Friday’s close left the stock at $0.049 – less than five cents per share. You can’t buy a piece of candy for five cents anymore, but you can buy a share in one of the nation’s largest broadcasting companies.

CTDB.PK, (the company’s new ticker symbol) has a market capitalization of $13 million…

The big question: if you had $1,000 to spare, do you think buying 200 20,000 shares in Citadel would be a wise investment?

On one hand the stock could double in value to a dime and your investment would double. On the other, the company could go bankrupt and you would have nothing.

Citadel Communications stock finished the day at $0.02, plunging almost 90% on the day.  The stock was dumped from the NYSE last Friday and is now traded over-the-counter.

That puts Citadel’s market capitalization at a puny $2.70 million… meaning if you could wrangle all the sellers – you could buy the company for less than $3 million

Both Peak Broadcasting and Citadel Communications announced they would slice paychecks for employees this month.  PB said it would pull 10% from all non-sales employees, while Citadel Boise asked for a 5% slice.

Peak and Citadel are doing what they think the must to survive, and clearly taking money from employees pockets is not an action taken lightly. However there’s a unique wrinkle here: the presence of personal service contracts.  Employees – especially on-air talent – are asked to sign these agreements.

The bargain is simple: you sign a piece of paper guaranteeing you compenstation and a series of raises, and in exchange you promise not to work for a defined set of competitors. In some cases it is just the local market area, but in others it can apply to larger geographic areas or markets by rank (i.e. you can’t work for stations in anything smaller than market 50, for example).

Employers like this deal because it legally binds you from going to work across the street (disclosure: I am employed under a PSC).  Employees don’t generally have a ton of choice in the matter since this is generally a requirement of employment — but they do provide some stability and a guaranteed raise each year.

Multiple source tell me that in Peak’s case, the company is requiring the contracted employees to take the cut.  They have been told they must sign a document agreeing to the pay cut.  However, it’s the other half of the deal that is at best problematic.  Employees tell Idaho Radio News that they have been told if they did not sign the agreement, they are subject to immediate termination without cause.

Those employees have a contract – a piece of paper that guarantees them a job. Peak is telling employees that they must sign the pay cut addendum or be terminated.  Experts I’ve talked to indicate this could be tricky for PB if an employee chose to challenge the tactic. A check of court filings shows no current lawsuits by employees against the company.

Yahoo HotJobs has some excellent advice:

If you have an employment contract, you may be able to refuse the cut altogether or at least quit and collect unemployment, but only if the contract states terms of compensation and says that your employer cannot alter the terms without your consent. The pay cut could constitute a breach of contract and an attorney can help you negotiate the terms of your release or fight for your full pay.

Another avenue is to contact your local unemployment office.  IRN regular Jim Smith has offered to talk to anyone with questions – wheter it is from Peak, Citadel or elsewhere in the state. Call your any Job Service office statewide and punch in extension 3283.

KZMG/Magic 93.1 morning host Melissa Dawn has left Citadel.  She came to the group from KXLT/107.9 Lite FM and anchored news for KBOI for the better part of a year. After Citadel parted ways with Dan Tooker, Dawn moved over to Magic and was paired with Matt Johnson.

Melissa’s departure was penciled out before today’s pay cut was announced.

EXCLUSIVE

Peak Broadcasting was not given the opportunity to renew its contract to carry the Rush Limbaugh Program on KIDO, according to Peak SVP Kevin Godwin. Peak acquired KIDO in 2007 after Clear Channel Communications decided to exit the Boise market.

In the end, another Clear Channel subsidiary – Premiere Radio Networks – gave its former corporate sister the short end of the stick when it comes to Rush.

With KIDO’s Limbaugh contract expiring at the end of 2008, Premiere informed Peak Broadcasting that the program was moving to Citadel-owned KBOI – end of story.

“The decision was made by two very big radio companies to pull the program from 580 KIDO and give it to a giant national radio company,” Godwin said. “We didn’t… get a chance to bid on the program contract and were told that even though we did an excellent job of promoting and broadcasting/streaming the program, that no amount of money could be spent by us to keep his show.”

Idaho Radio News attempted to contact Premiere Radio Networks on this topic – but a spokesperson for the syndicator didn’t answer direct questions on the matter.

Peak has a number of Premiere programs on its Boise stations – including Glenn Beck, Delilah and After Midnite with Blair Garner. Another Peak station – KMJ in Fresno – still carries Rush. Godwin says he isn’t worried about the other shows – for now.

“We have extended contracts on all of our other programs, and I believe they will be loyal,” he said. “However, the only way you can be 100% sure on keeping a product is if your company owns the program.

Limbaugh’s program has moved stations in a few other markets over the years – most recently in New Orleans, LA – but generally the switch is to a Clear Channel outlet. I couldn’t find another example of the show moving to a Citadel-owned outlet – though the two groups teamed last summer to co-syndicate Sean Hannity, another conservative talker.

As we reported last week, Dan Tooker isn’t alone after being cut from KZMG/Magic 93.1.

KTIK’s J Bates tells Idaho Radio News he will no longer handle anchoring duties for the station, but he’ll continue to be part of Bronco game day coverage on KBOI.

KZMG morning producer Casey Acevedo left the station – but was not let go.  She’s tells me she has moved to a producer job with Entercomm in Austin, TX.  She’ll work for the evening “Your Time with Kim Iverson” show.

PJ Stover tells Idaho Radio News that she’s also looking for a gig, after being let go from KQFC.

Rattlesnake Jake moves from KIZN nights to KQFC mid-days as “Jake Austin.”

It’s not just Dan Tooker – a total of five employees were cut today I’m told.  Still working to confirm some of the names – but at least one other on-air person was let go.

Anyone feel like we just got over the first hump of the roller coaster and more loops are coming at us?

Halftime of the BSU-ISU tilt had a little Boise radio free-for-all, with Journal Boise General Manager Bob Rosenthal doing a wonderful tribute to Citadel morning show veteran Paul J. Schneider, with Peak Broadcasting’s KIDO-AM doing…. something else.

Schneider and his family appeared at the 50-yard-line to accept a tribute from the school. Since Rosenthal is still the stadium announcer for the games, he got the honor of toasting the Citadel employee. KIDO was doing the usual half-time fare, and passed on the opportunity to have one competitor talk about another competitor on its air.

I spent a bit of time listening to both pre-game shows, but it appears Peak’s got the advantage – if nothing else it has access to coaches and players, and has a location just a few feet from the west-side gates, whereas KBOI is across the street at Baja Fresh – and only has access to Statesman reporters. Having Paul J. is a big asset, but is it enough?

Don Morin has been named general manager of Citadel Broadcasting’s Boise properties, Idaho Radio News has learned. Morin is a familiar face to some of the Citadel die-hards – he previously served with the Boise group as LSM. He’s bounced around the NW with stops at New Northwest in the Tri-Cities and Citadel in Spokane.

Morin replaces Sandy Gamblin who was let go last month.

Related: Behler was Peak’s third choice

© 2008 Idaho Radio News

The battle for the rights to broadcast Boise State University Athletics on a local radio station has been unusually contentious – and public.

Idaho Radio News obtained nearly 200 pages of documents related to Peak Broadcasting’s acquisition of the radio rights to Boise State University sports. The documents were obtained under Idaho’s open records law, and were so voluminous that the university had to spend staff time to cull and redact the records (don’t worry taxpayers, I paid the $47 bill). IRN also reviewed an audiotape of a June meeting of the Idaho State Board of Education where Citadel tried to push for a rebid of the contract, and Boise State was put in the position of defending its choice of Peak Broadcasting.

We’ve also looked at several versions of the contract and e-mails between Peak executives and Boise State officials.

The records help paint a better picture of not only how Peak was awarded the contract, but how and why it landed on Bob Behler and Jadon Dailey as its broadcast team for this fall’s football games.

Citadel’s last stand

Peak Broadcasting and KIDO were officially awarded the contract in April – with the new deal set to start as soon as the 35-year relationship with Citadel and KBOI ended in June.

Just before KBOI’s clock ran out, Kelly A. Cameron, an attorney for Boise firm Perkins-Coie made a short presentation on behalf of Citadel to the State Board.

“I’m not here to today to convince, but to raise our concerns,” Cameron said.

Cameron helped lay out Citadel’s case for why it wasn’t considered fairly. The bottom line, in Citadel’s estimation: cash. Citadel claimed it put forth more money toward the deal, and other factors like “enthusiasm” shouldn’t be considered.

“The financials of Citadel’s proposal was [sic] just superior,” he said. “Our suggested remedy for this would be to rebid.”

Later that day, the Board took up the matter, and Kevin Satterlee, attorney for Boise State said that while Peak’s bid was technically worth more, the incentives put forth by Peak far outweighed the cash.

Satterlee also emphasized that Peak’s bid included incentives for post-season play, which if the football team reached a bowl game or men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA or NIT tournament in one of the two years, Peak’s bid would actually pay out more money.

It’s the network

One of the key factors in awarding the bid to Peak was the creation of a region-wide network of affiliated stations. Peak’s proposal provided for stations across Idaho and throughout the region. Once the deal was signed, Peak SVP Kevin Godwin lined up affiliates in Ontario, McCall, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and into Oregon and Washington. Citadel’s proposal provided for two markets: KBOI and a Spokane affiliate.

“KBOI has a very strong signal that reaches out across some parts of Idaho,” BSU President Dr. Robert Kustra said. “As strong as that signal is, it misses quite a bit of Idaho, and it misses our surrounding states. KIDO in their proposal offered to extend coverage of Boise State University athletics beyond the KBOI contract by signing up affiliates throughout the state and beyond the state.”

Satterlee estimated the value of that network at between $700,000 and $1 million – if Boise State were to go out and purchase airtime for its games to air on those stations.

But Cameron said that was unfair – since Citadel’s network, such as it is, also has value.

“I’ve not seen any basis for $1 million,” he said. “Peak didn’t put that number in (the bid). Citadel had also proposed a network, not the same as the network Peak proposed, but certainly not at a value of zero.”

The $700,000-$1 million figure determined by the school appears to have come from an estimate given by Godwin. In a spreadsheet outlining the value of promotions and airtime on the eleven stations in the Bronco Sports Network, Godwin came up with a figure of $496,642 per year – or $993,284 over the life of the contract. The value of just the airtime alone is estimated at $729,284.

Citadel valued its network at $350,000.

Broncos En Espanol

Another key factor cited was the creation of a Spanish-language affiliate. But Peak tried to finesse that part of the deal to a degree that Boise State felt compelled to remind Peak of how important the Spanish-language portion of the broadcasts were to the winning bid.

Godwin wanted to remove the Spanish-language portion of the deal from the final contract.

“(E)verything looks fine except for the commitment you are asking of us for Spanish broadcasts,” Godwin wrote. “I would prefer to leave that out of this contract and work with [sic] to secure a subcontractor agreement outside of the contract.”

Godwin said he “put the brakes” on the Spanish portion of the deal (with KWEI) because of liability concerns.

“We will work diligently to get a local Spanish broadcasting partner and secure the subcontractor agreement. But as for this BSU/Peak contract…there are two many variables & uncertainties at this point for us to commit to that network addition in our agreement.”

On June 12th, BSU General Counsel Satterlee said in no uncertain terms that this line of thinking wouldn’t fly. The “ground breaking” addition of the Spanish-language affiliate was key to the award.

“I… appreciate that we need to make sure that Peak and the University are covered as far as the liability of a third party station being involved,” Satterlee wrote to Godwin. “However, it is the fact of that new ground breaking that was the basis of the award of the contract to Peak. It was Peak’s proposal that included a Spanish language broadcast as part of the radio network and it was the creation of the network that was a pre-requisite to the contract award.”

“We need to find a way to make this work,” Satterlee wrote.

The formation of the Bronco Sports Network – and the Spanish portion of it in particular were noted at the June 19th State Board of Education meeting.

“Peak has committed to running our games on a Spanish station in the Treasure Valley, and that’s never been done before,” Satterlee told the board.

No value in the value

Another key point by the BSU team was that some of what Citadel proposed to do – and put value toward – actually didn’t have any value to the school.

The top item was the creation of an hour-long Saturday morning radio program. Satterlee said they tried this one time before and it “failed because it was too much of a burden to the University.”

Peak also proposed a weekly hourlong show – but the actual time-slot gave it more value in Boise State’s estimation. Peak’s show is slated to air on Wednesday evening, instead of the hectic Saturday morning period.

“Saturday morning is not a good time to have our athletics staff try and make a radio show when there is [sic] football games all through the fall and basketball games all through the winter,” Satterlee said. “While there’s quote-unquote value in the Citadel bid, there wasn’t any value to the University.”

Citadel also put $200,000 of value toward a NCAA Final Four tournament contest.

“While it does promote listenership to that station, it doesn’t promote value to the University,” he said.

The ‘inappropriate overture’

After Satterlee had a chance to defend the University’s choice of Peak Broadcasting, Dr. Kustra addressed the board one more time.

He said that his group went out of its way to be fair and equitable to all sides – and he was as surprised as anyone about the choice of Peak Broadcasting.

“I never in a million years thought the contract would be awarded to KIDO,” he said. “KBOI had a long history with Boise State, and if anybody had asked me to make the call, I would have assumed – and I did assume – that the contract would have stayed where it was for a number of years.”

Kustra said he doesn’t know Kevin Godwin – and said he doesn’t think he’s ever met him.

He mentioned several “overtures” on behalf of groups that wanted “this contract very badly.” He told the board that no back-channel requests ever came from Peak. But clearly someone at Citadel did something that Kustra thought to be improper.

“It’s particularly distressing that we bent over backwards to be fair, to be objective and to ignore some overtures that I think that were improper,” he said. “And in the end, the contract went to someone I didn’t even know.”

Godwin expressed gratitude to officials in the Athletic Department.

“Guys, I didn’t attend the SBOE meeting, but I know Kevin and Dr. Kustra put a lot of effort in defending your decision regarding the rights and I wanted to tell you how much we appreciated that.”

In the end, the State Board of Education approved the deal, and just a few days later, KIDO relaunched with a new BSU-themed logo and slogan. Over at Citadel, general manager Sandy Gamblin was fired from his post just two weeks after the decision.

More than three years ago, Citadel employees lost their right to look at this site at work. They were told how vile it is – and told not to participate.

I thought that was dumb. This takes the cake though. Citadel employees also can’t check their personal e-mail at work. No kidding. Gmail, etc. is cut off on Citadel terminals.

No wonder Citadel folks are so loyal!

Citadel Boise market manager Sandy Gamblin has been let go multiple sources confirm to Idaho Radio News. The “why” is unknown, but sources say this is not an amicable parting of ways.

Gamblin came to Citadel Boise from the company’s Reno operation after “the Mikes” (Owens and Sutton) left for Peak last year. No word on a replacement or any of the particulars.