Idaho Radio News Etc.

The Idaho Daily Statesman just got results from the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report… and it is not good news.

The paper now distributes an average of 57,846 copies of its paper each weekday. That’s the first time the number has dipped under 60,000 in recent memory – and is a decrease of more than five percent from just six months ago, and more than 10% for the year.

The newspaper also quoted its September pageview figure for IdahoStatesman.com at 7,045,567 views in September.  Using publicly released figures, this would make IS.com the number two news website in the market, behind by more than 14%.

(The in-case-you-didn’t-know disclosure: I am employed by Belo and assigned to work on KTVB.COM)

The Idaho Statesman is cutting more people from its staff – and this latest round of cuts will affect the news product you recieve.

Statesman publisher Mi-Ai Parrish told the Boise Weekly that the latest layoffs (including six in the newsroom) will cause her to reevaluate the way the company delivers the news.

Once the Statesman’s bread and butter – classifieds advertising is on the decline, as it is across the newspaper industry. In Boise, the Statesman now has fewer ads on average than two websites – Craigslist and ZIdaho.com.  Since the news product is subsidized by classifieds lineage in many cases, the paper has no choice but to let people go, or risk drowning in its own red ink.

Why is the Idaho Daily Statesman suddenly giving weekend-only subscribers its Friday paper? The paper started the practice earlier this summer, and is now killing extra trees to give Saturday-Sunday subscribers something they didn’t ask for.

The question is… why? It certainly isn’t out of the kindness of its heart. Is the fast-shrinking paper trying to prop up its M-F circulation report by sautéing the books a bit? Hmm.

The Idaho Daily Statesman lost its lawsuit against the Idaho Business Review. Details here.

Key:

The Business Review said the Statesman was trying to corner the market on lucrative legal ads.

“The Statesman was attempting to gain a monopoly on the publication of a broad scope of legal notices contrary to the Idaho Constitution and, we believe, the Legislature’s intent when they amended the act in 1994,” IBR attorney Newal Squyres said.

PS: Back on the radio beat this evening with a bunch of stuff.

One of the smartest local people in Idaho media is Vickie Holbrook of the Idaho Press-Tribune. Holbrook and fellow editor David Woolsey have started a new “From the Editors” blog at IdahoPress.com – and it’s already worth a read.

Also: With McClatchy freezing every single employee’s pay for a full year, one Statesman reporter is trading his gig on Curtis Rd. for a much more noble cause: he’ll be reporting for the Stars & Stripes military newspaper in Iraq and Afghanistan. Heath Druzin will be based in Germany, but be embedded with troops in both theaters over the next year.

Deeds declares “I Kissed a Girl” the song of the summer. Deeds declares his disdain. Can’t wait until Mike’s infant child hits pre-teenhood!

KZMG’s Miggy and KSAS’s KeKe are featured over here

The Idaho Daily Statesman has a Q&A with new Peak Broadcasting/Boise State play-by-play announcer Bob Behler. Here’s hoping he talks in the booth more than he did to the paper.

An exclusive in-depth Idaho Radio News investigation and data analysis reveals that Behler… didn’t say much. The questions asked by reporter Chris Langrill amounted to 271 words (counting explainer copy, but NOT the story’s intro) – while Behler’s answers amounted to 221 words.

What we know: He drives a Pontiac, saw the Fiesta Bowl, doesn’t like going upside down on a roller coaster, and roots for the San Francisco Giants (which the Statesman spelled San Fransisco… yeah.)

Dave Koehn is the new voice of the Broncos.

That’s what Peak Broadcasting officials and Boise State honchos hoped to announce eight days ago. Unfortunately, Koehn had other plans. He won’t be packing his bags and moving from Texas to the City of Trees — instead he’s headed the other direction to take over play-by-play for the University of Virginia Cavaliers.

The guy in charge of the UVA decision said big things about Koehn: “We feel we have a real star in the making.” So who will be Boise State’s rising star?

The Idaho Daily Statesman’s Brian Murphy said the school had its list narrowed down to four finalists. A well-placed source indicates Koehn was the top pick. Now Kevin Godwin and Gene Bleymaier are trying to figure out who to throw the job to now. Godwin was clearly overly confident in telling the media that a pick would likely be named by June 20th — eight days and counting ago.

Applications were due to a talent scouting firm by April 28th – two months ago today. The season starts in two months and two days. Let’s assume that it takes three weeks for the new hire to get here – that leaves just a month to become an expert on Bronco Football and build chemistry with the also-unnamed color analyst.

There’s still a lot of people cheesed off about the way Paul J. Schneider was treated in this whole mess, especially after Idaho Radio News first reported Boise State’s interest in bumping him from the top job. Now Peak & BSU are facing an ever tougher battle to find the right person as a salve for the open wound ripped open last fall with some of the Bronco faithful.

Also: Someone might want to clue the Statesman kids in about the change in radio stations (look closely):

The Idaho Statesman announced today that it let 16 people go – and will give severance checks to another 24 after the first of the year. The 40 job cuts are about 12% of staff – more than the 10% cuts McClatchy announced company-wide.

I’ve said it before – the Statesman employs lots of dedicated folks – and it is always hard to see job cuts. The bottom line is that the paper is losing subscribers despite the Valley’s growth – and its online operation is flat from last year. As all of our related niches change – (radio, TV, Internet and print) – the one thing we can do is band together and help each other out. So if you known of any jobs the print folks might be interested – pass them along. And if you’re a former Statesman worker, drop me a line and I’ll pass along anything I get.

Also: Since I’m already off-topic, indulge me for another 30 seconds? I’ve been thinking a lot about Tim Russert. I don’t know how we’re going to pick the right person to run this country without his questions, counsel and amazing intelect. Mike Barnicle, a friend of Russert’s and an MSNBC commentator noted this line from Russert – and it’s resonated with me, so I thought I’d reprint it here: “The best heart exercise is to bend down and lift someone up.”

The Idaho daily Statesman’s guide for newcomers is out .
The paper picked a few select stations to highlight – under the guise of “top rated” – though, as usual – it really is just more about some random sample. Why not list them all? The paper dedicated 122 words to radio — but 188 words to JUST describe its own website and blogs (more on that in a second).

RADIO
According to the Fall 2007 Arbitron ratings for Treasure Valley, top radio stations include:
* Country station “Kissin’ 92″ (92.3 FM) – the top station among listeners between the ages of 25 and 54.
* News and talk radio stations KBOI (670 AM) and KIDO (580 AM) are the top two stations among the 12-plus crowd.

Other top stations among listeners 25 to 54 include:
* ’60s and ’70s classic hits station KTHI “K-Hits” (107.1 FM)
* Country station KQFC (97.9 FM).
* ’80s, ’90s and current hits station KCIX “Mix 106″ (106.1 FM).
* Treasure Valley 96.1 “Bob FM” “plays anything” and makes the top 10 stations.
The local National Public Radio affiliate KBSX can be found at 91.5 FM.

The next section is labeled “LOCAL WEBSITES AND BLOGS” – and the Statesman hack proceeds to describe ten of its own little-read so-called blogs. They throw a small bone to Betsy Russel’s site from another Idaho newspaper – and one other blog. All star blogs like NewWest, Boise Guardian, the great sports blogs from the Idaho Press Tribune or others are ignored. But you didn’t except fairness from them, did ya?

Update: Um, yeah. I’m self-serving too. But do I at least get points for admitting it? :)

Idaho Daily Statesman entertainer Mike Deeds says that BCRP will cover Boise. So there… it’s solved then.

He quotes the BCRP engineer – Michael Brown with Brown Broadcast Services – and says that if you can get KQTA/Ke Buena 106.3 in Boise – you’ll get BCRP’s forthcoming station.

If you can tune in 106.3 FM right now, you’ll most likely be able to hear BCR, according to Brown, who’s performed radio engineering since 1974 and FCC application work since 1987. Brown says that comparing a 100,000-watt station and a 7,900-watt station isn’t “apples and apples, but it’s apples and green apples.” The biggest factor for FM stations, by far, is intervening terrain. “The power is important,” Brown says, “but it’s not nearly as important as the terrain.”

Brown favors this map – which he says is more accurate. Also – remember how IRN was the first to note that BCRP would probably have to use a translator to get good Boise coverage? That translator has been secured – and would broadcast at 93.5 FM. Here’s the map of the translator’s signal pattern, according to Brown again.

Our “own” RDS echoes what Brown says in a previous comment

KQTA is 100 kw, and BCRP is only 7.9 kw. More important than power with FM signals is height and line of site. BCRP will do better than you think.

Then there’s this:

“My point is, why would we have spent all this time and effort working on this thing if we didn’t have damn good reasonable assurance that this thing was going to send a beautiful signal into town here?” Abrams says. “I wouldn’t have tried to bring the entire community along if I thought there was going to be marginal reception here.”

KSAS-FM afternoon/evening/overnight/morning/midday jock-of-all-shifts Keke Luv is in the home stretch – with less than 21 hours left until he reaches the 175 hour mark.

His story has been pretty hard to miss – with splashy profiles by both of the Valley’s news organizations — KTVB did a Sunday night feature, as well as shorter stories on Friday and Monday. The Idaho Statesman featured Luv (aka Steve Kicklighter) in today’s edition as well. Oh yeah… and Fox News Channel spent 3:30 interviewing Luv and talking about the charity he’s rooting for – Idaho’s Heart (video below).

I can’t tell you how many random people have been asking me questions about the stunt… and it’s a serious water-cooler topic around town. I have seen nothing like it in my five years covering the local industry.

The buzz continues to build, and with each passing hour, the radio gets a little better. At one point, Luv couldn’t remember what floor of the Peak building the studio was on. (It’s the first floor…) Hooker later said he “almost peed his pants” at the question.

Other notes:

- Listeners are invited to show up in the Peak Broadcasting parking lot to help support KeKe through the home stretch. He’ll be outside starting with hour 174 at 4pm tomorrow
- Get this: Luv will have one day to sleep before getting on A PLANE Friday… He’ll fly to the midwest for his sister’s wedding – where he’ll give her away. Then he will drive to Memphis – and from Memphis to Boise.
- Luv says he plans to keep his usual engagement at Hannah’s tomorrow…
- In the past week – Luv has sat through Miley Cirus’ See You Again at least 86 times. This doesn’t include a promo for Live for 175 that uses that same song as a music bed.
- The Idaho Daily Statesman thinks Peak Boise SVP Kevin Godwin’s name is Steve I guess. It’s not like the guy’s been in the news lately or anything…

(He) intends to continue the celebration of the station’s effort to call attention to child abuse prevention, said Steve Godwin, senior vice president of the station, part of Peak Broadcasting.

EXCLUSIVE

© 2008 Idaho Radio News

Idaho Radio News has obtained a large packet of documents relating to the radio rights process for Boise State University’s football and basketball games – including proposals by Peak Broadcasting, Citadel Broadcasting and Impact Radio (formerly Tester Broadcasting).

The documents outline three very different proposals — and show that only two were seen as viable options by a committee evaluating the bids.

The school scored a package submitted by Peak Broadcasting highest, ultimately granting the rights to the upstart company based in Fresno, CA. Peak will air the games on 580 KIDO, one of the state’s oldest radio stations. The Peak proposal scored 665 points out of a possible 700, while a pitch from Citadel Broadcasting scored 651.4. Two proposals from Impact Radio – an original pitch and a second try scored 458 and 454.

The package of documents contain a variety of surprises and information the station groups have not publicly disclosed.

If Citadel were to win the contract, it would have only kept legendary host Paul J. Schneider for one year of the two year agreement, and has hired Dan Karcher, who is scheduled to start work for KBOI in September. Karcher is a member of the Carl Karcher family – owner of the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain. If Citadel had won the agreement, Karcher would have been involved with pre and post game shows “to become acclimated.”

According to notes of a March 7th meeting, BSU athletic director Gene Bleymaier asked Citadel executives “If we want to make a change immediately, is that an option?” Citadel bosses said they “would do it,” and said that they would have to have someone hired in two to three months.

Citadel would have extended its pre and post game shows in a deal with the Idaho Statesman, and would have put staffers Nick Jezierny, Mike Prater, Chad Dryden and Brian Murphy on the air during the shows. Citadel said the Statesman would “bring a whole new level of improvement to the terms of coverage.” IdahoStatesman.com was mentioned as the “best in the state for updated news.” The meeting notes that they planned to include “websites and blogs” with the agreement.

Citadel’s proposal was nine pages long. Peak Broadcasting’s proposal totaled 39 pages and delved into areas Citadel did not touch. Peak committed to purchasing the naming rights to the Bronco Stadium radio booth – paying a total of $25,000 over the two year agreement for the privilege. Peak also committed to a large scale “Bronco Sports Network,” that not only would expand Boise State’s geographic reach – but would bring the broadcasts to Spanish-language listeners. Peak has contacted stations in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, La Grande, OR and Lewiston/Clarkston, WA (see separate post here).

Peak SVP Kevin Godwin told Dave Burnett on KIDO Friday morning that the hiring of current KBOI host Paul J. Schneider had not been discussed. “We haven’t talked about it one time, even during the presentation.” In the proposal to BSU, Peak said they are “familiar” with the current team and “would make every effort to hire them to continue broadcasting BSU athletics.”

But Peak indicates their preference is to go in a different direction “We would propose a national search for a play-by-play announcer and commentary announcer.” Peak says it will launch a four week recruitment process that would identify the top three candidates – then seek input from Boise State in making a final decision. Peak says it received interest in the position even before the proposal

Impact Radio’s proposal was the leanest of the tree – but did identify its proposed broadcast team: Wayne Dzuback and Chris Wing. Dzuback currently hosts an hour-long radio show on KTMB/99.1 The Man, as well as working in sales. He used to work with Schneider as color commentator for KBOI-AM. Wing is a former Boise State player. Boise State alumn Brian King was proposed as color analyst for basketball games. King currently handles these duties for KTVB-TV.

Impact would have put the games on KTMB/99.1 The Man, as well as KIKX/104.7 in the Magic Valley – and a station currently owned by Blue Sky Broadcasting in N. Idaho. Impact says it has a pending purchase agreement in place for the N. Idaho station. It also would have worked to buy an E. Idaho station or contracted for airtime.

While Boise State took meetings with representatives for Citadel and Peak – they did not meet with Impact Radio.

Why Peak Won
Boise State’s letter of justification for awarding the rights to Peak hits a number of points.

• Peak bid $20,000 more than Citadel – and much higher than Impact
• Peak’s promotional bid component was $5,000 higher
• Peak committed to the naming rights for the radio booth and the school’s “Destination Distinction” program.
• Peak provided more coaches show airtime
• Peak committed to creating a network of stations across the region, something “Boise State sees as extremely important in growing the radio listenership statewide and regionally.”
• Peak’s proposal “demonstrated a true enthusiasm for having these broadcast rights”
• SVP Kevin Godwin and his team are former Citadel employees – and the “affiliation and already existing relationship played into the decision making and made it easier when it came to choosing a new radio rights partner.”

Bottom line
Cash value over two years

• Citadel: $655,000
• Peak: $670,132 (assumes BSU football bowl games both years)
• Impact: $493,200

Value of promotional air time

• Citadel: $200,000
• Peak: $205,000
• Impact: $110,000

Sweeteners

• Citadel: Letter of Intent broadcast, Final Four package giveaway, Homecoming week events, Fall scrimmage event
• Peak: Airing of three women’s basketball games
• Impact: Airing of ten women’s sporting events, creation of two fundraisers

Coach Shows

• Citadel: One hour weekly during FB season, four BBall shows; Bronco Notebook each weekday; Coach call-in each Tuesday
• Peak: One hour weekly from Sept. 1 through April 30; Monday coach call-in; Tuesday wrap-up feature
• Impact: One hour weekly during FB season, one hour weekly during WAC basketball season

Athletic Dept. show
(This would be a weekly show produced in-house by the athletic dept., and is separate from the coach shows)

• Citadel: One hour weekly Sept-April, Sat AM
• Peak: One hour weekly, 6pm Wednesday
• Impact: One Hour weekly Sept-April, Sat AM

The Boise Burn held its annual media football game yesterday – and darn it if those poor kids from the Idaho Daily Statesman didn’t find yet another way to get beat.

A team made up of broadcast media beat a team comprised entirely of Statesman staffers by ten points. KIDO/News Radio 580’s Brian Holmes and other radio guys joined forces with TV folks including KTVB’s Justin Corr and Scott Evans to pile drive the fish wrap’s finest.

We posted a little bit of video here.

Oh brother.

An obituary for a dog that ran in the obituary section of the Sunday Idaho Statesman was published inadvertently, Statesman Sales and Marketing Director Travis Quast said.

“The newspaper does not accept pet obituaries in the obituary section and we sincerely apologize to the families and anyone who may have taken offense to the placement of this pet obituary,” Quast said.

Pet obituaries and in-memoriam ads are accepted and placed on an individual basis in other sections of the newspaper.

For information on placing such ads, call 209-377-6333.

Notice they got their own phone number wrong?

Idaho Daily Statesman columnist Mike Deeds dredged up the strength to write one of those rare columns-on-a-local-topic this week – and looks back at entertainment in the Treasure Valley.

Best Rumor: That Britney Spears was lurking in the Treasure Valley. Sure, I had just written a column with the headline “Britney Spears should take refuge in Idaho,” but I had nothing to do with a September rash of Bigfoot-like Britney sightings. Deejays [sic] had a field day with listeners calling in with details about Britney being at hot spots such as Jack in the Box in Nampa. Some fans reportedly even chased limos in Downtown Boise. I finally got a three-word e-mail denial from Spears’ publicist: “Not in Idaho.”

He didn’t name-check KSAS in the story, but of course the Britney stunt was made out of whole cloth by the gang at 103.3 Kiss FM. And how great is it that he had to ask the publicist if it was true or not. Also, I’m not sure what a “deejay” is… but I think he means “DJ.”

And then there’s KSRV/96.1 Bob FM:

Best New Radio Station: 96.1 Bob FM. I’ve listened to the iPod shuffle-like Bob more than any other station this year while driving. Sad, I know.

Worst New Radio Station: 96.1 Bob FM. No matter where you go, you can’t escape the between-song dolt blabbing, “Bob does this!” and “Bob loves that!” As I listened to that same dude blabbing that same garbage on a Bob station in Austin, Texas, over Christmas, it occurred to me how much I hate that guy.

I’d like to take this chance to thank the Statesman folks for the 1,000+ times they visited ol’ Idaho Radio News in 2007.

The Idaho Daily Statesman is in a world of hurt. With its parent company losing big bucks due to the collapse of classified advertising, one of its top editors is taking heat for saying the University of Idaho should be bombed. Yikes.

The Boise Weekly picked up an earlier report from a Spokesman Review blog that had Mike Prater saying this of the UI on KTIK/ESPN Radio 1350 KTIK The Ticket (there’s your radio tie) last month:

They’re a horrible team, they’re a horrible program. the fans are horrible. The athletic director’s horrible, the president’s horrible. Everybody and everything associated with that program is horrible. They should take a bomb and blow it up and start all over again.

Here’s the audio.

The Weekly’s Shea Andersen also has a dynamite piece on the problems facing the Statesman and other newspapers in our state.

The paper’s owner, McClatchy lost $1.3 billion bucks in the most recent quarter. This is McClatchy’s two year stock chart:

Statesman editor Vicki Gowler: “this is the most challenging time I’ve seen as an editor.”

Boise Weekly: “Gowler said her paper’s circulation is either flat or up only slightly, depending on the edition.”

New Audit Bureau of Circulations figures that hit the street last month show that – despite an increase in population and big efforts by the paper to prop up circulation numbers… fewer and fewer people are getting the paper.

ABC numbers in June of 2006 show the Statesman selling 65,124 copies (link). The latest figure? 61,473 as of September 2007 – a decrease of six percent (link). Not surprisingly, the paper is still quoting the old numbers in its online customer service section.

For reference, Gowler told BW that the Statesman’s circulation is up or flat, depending on the edition. The Sunday edition also lost ground, 86,434 to 83,038.

The Statesman employs some fantastic, hard-working people – truly. I know several of them, and most of them even know how beleaguered their employer is.

UPDATE: Changed the headline from “Prater says UI should be bombed on KTIK” to “Prater says on KTIK that UI should be bombed” … for obvious reasons.

The Idaho Daily Statesman now has a blog page. It features the latest entries from the paper’s in-house bloggers… and links to 17 other local blogs. Guess what one of those blogs is? Umm. Yeah. I don’t get why they’d do that either. But thanks. (Oh, and I just checked the stats… not one click has come from IdahoStatesman.com… ever).

From last week’s column by Michael Deeds:

• OLYMPIC-SIZE FOOL? Even without considering that the Idaho Statesman is helping sponsor the 2009 Special Olympics Winter World Games, it was insensitive for me to write in a Sept. 28 column that “Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics. We get the Special Olympics.” It wasn’t my intent to offend the Special Olympics contenders or readers, merely to note that Salt Lake hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics would be considered a more significant event for a city. I apologize for the unintended offense.

When I read the line on September 28th, I logged on here to make hay of the obvious gaffe – but showed (uncharacteristic) restraint because repeating that nasty comment would just give it more power. It’s good to see the apology.

All of our various businesses are changing: radio, television and newspapers. The oldest medium is also the one hurting the worst: newspapers are in trouble.

Journal Communications, parent company of Journal Broadcast Group – which owns KRVB, KQXR, KJOT, KGEM, KCID, KIVI-TV and KSAW-TV had a tough quarter, with overall revenue dropping 5.6%. Overall income increased, but that was largely due to cost-control and layoffs.

TV revenues also slipped, down a whopping 9.3% (imagine if your boss decided to cut your pay by 10 percent…), though Boise operations were singled out as a bright spot. Radio group revenue fell 5.1%, but here again – Boise was named among the clusters doing OK.

News also came this week that the Spokesman-Review of Spokane will slash 30 jobs from its staff of 130 (SR has a Boise bureau). Also, Idaho Statesman-owner McClatchy fell off the revenue train as well, losing 10% of its quarterly cashflow. McClatchy’s stock chart for the past year is down down down.

My employer, Belo recently announced it would split the company in two – newspapers on one side, TV stations on the other.