Idaho Radio News Etc.

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):

Peak Boise SVP Kevin Godwin was part of that panel I teased several times on how PR people and news folks can better work together. I didn’t take notes and this was 24 hours ago, but Godwin hit on how his young company is working hard to recruit new talent – and noted that the group has hired somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 people since launching in April. He expressed frustration that radio has a hard time keeping people (on the content side) in a market the size of Boise.

Godwin also talked about how KFXD/All Talk 63 is working to make Jon & Chris a place where people can come on and talk about a wide variety of issues that may not get full coverage in the media, and emphasized the free-wheeling nature of the show.

Also, KBOI/AM 670 came up during the discussion for a brief moment. Last week, a man shot and killed himself in the St. Alphonsus bathroom. That same day, the media learned of an escaped inmate from the Ada County Jail – who had been publicly identified by the Ada County Prosecutor. During the afternoon, officials, as well as the media figured out that the escaped inmate killed himself. As officials were working to notify the family of the death, KBOI uncorked the news and went on the air with it… hours before any other media — potentially letting the family hear about their loved one’s suicide on the radio. During the forum, KBOI was not identified by name, but when the incident came up, Godwin quickly noted (and rightfully so) that it “wasn’t our station.”

KSRV/96.1 Bob FM has been advertising like crazy of late – with spots all over KTVB & KBCI (including during Bronco football telecasts). The station has revamped its website (though it is still light on content).

The “About Bob” page features some testimonials… including this one:

“I found Bob FM a few months ago and I haven’t changed since” – Kevin G., Boise

You’ll remember that Kevin Godwin-led Peak Broadcasting planned to flip KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM to the Bob FM brand last April, but Tester Broadcasting beat them to the punch by three days… leaving Peak with an unexpected pop station to program.