Idaho Radio News Etc.

Those big changes at Boise’s Impact Radio Group we broke earlier this week are set to start. Here come the bullet points…

• KQLZ/Idaho’s True Oldies Channel moves from 100.7 to 99.1 starting tomorrow. Impact will stick it to “The Man” and end the format
• 99.1 and 100.7 will simulcast until August 31.
• On September 1, 100.7 FM will start up a new regional Mexican format, anchored by syndicated personality Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo in morning drive.
• Mikey Fuentes is joining the cluster as director of programming. Impact VP cited the company’s hope to compete with the “big three” in the hiring of Fuentes: “To compete with top notch companies like Citadel, Peak, and Journal, we needed an experienced programmer to lead our team and Mikey fits the bill. His format experience is diverse in both English and Spanish. Mikey will not only be launching 100.7 for us, he will also be helping the continuing building process of ‘Bob’ and ‘True Oldies’”
• The group is starting to prepare for the move-in of the former KMCL (now KMXM) at 101.1 FM, and says Fuentes will help shape the new station.

Big things coming out of KMCL — but the AM and FM.

KMCL-FM is now KMXM-FM, and is set to move to Parma (as previously reported), under the ownership of Wendel Starke and his FM Idaho group. The station would presumably become part of the former Tester Broadcast Group — now Impact Radio. For now, it still serves the greater McCall area.

The AM station – which we reported was sold from David Eaton to Holly Larsen (d/b/a Mountain Air LLC) – is still in Eaton’s hand. It appears the $50,000 did change hands, causing Eaton to cancel the purchase.

Also on the AM front, it sounds like bad weather has caused problems for the transmitter. This, from an FCC filing requesting the ability to broadcast from a… shorter tower:

UNFORTUNATELY, THE LICENSEE HAS SUFFERED THE LOSS OF THE TOP 40 FEET OF THE STATION’S ANTENNA TOWER. CURRENT CONDITIONS AT THE TOWER SITE, WHICH IS BOG-LIKE MUCH OF THE YEAR AND WHICH IS PRESENTLY BURIED UNDER SEVERAL FEET OF SNOW, PRECLUDE THE PLACEMENT OF THE HEAVY EQUIPMENT ON THE SITE THAT WILL BE NEEDED TO REPLACE THE LOST TOWER SECTIONS, UNTIL THE SNOW MELTS AND THE SOIL DRIES OUT THIS SUMMER.