Idaho Radio News Etc.

Imapct Radio Group OM/PD Mikey Fuentes has decided his new station – KPDA/La Poderosa 100.7 is one of a kind. Check out this fancy footwork, as told to R&R:

“There’s only one other local station in town and they do more of a variety format, so as far as being regional and local, we’re the only one that fills those shoes.”

The Boise market has five Spanish stations of course.  His line to R&R slices out KQTA, KDBI and KWEI-AM – trying to refer to just KWEI-FM.

There are two other “local” Spanish-language stations – KWEI-AM and KWEI-FM.  Bustos Media fields two stations – KDBQI runs a Spanish AC format and KQTA runs Regional Mexican.  Sure, KPDA is local (except in the mornings), and yes it’s a Regional Mexican format – but it’s about as misleading as a presidential campaign ad to characterize it the way Fuentes did to R&R.

Several stations did not register in the publicly released Arbitron numbers: KFXD, KTMB and KQTA.

All Talk 63 has a popular morning duo in place, so its absence is puzzling. KTMB and KQTA don’t have much to brag about – not to mention that KTMB/99.1 The Man… doesn’t even exit anymore.

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.”

The Boise Community Radio Project has the FCC’s go ahead to light up a transmitter in Oregon – with Caldwell as a city of license.

The big question in many minds: This is the Boise Community Radio station… right?

Here’s the service area plot for the proposed station – which will share the tower used by KQTA/Ke Buena 106.3:

You’ll notice Boise is not on this map.

BCRP executive director Jeff Abrams seemed to dance around the subject with the Boise Weekly.

“We fully intend to have our studios remain downtown,” he said.

Not only will the station not have the City of Trees in its service area — the station is hemmed in by KAWZ in Twin Falls, KBSK in McCall and a pending FM application in Baker City. All of those stations are operating on 89.9 FM – which would make an expansion of the proposed BCRP station’s signal area difficult. Plus – they have to protect next door neighbor KBSU at 90.3 FM.

So how is this dog going to hunt without coverage in the Valley’s major population center?

Our resident FCC expert thinks that getting the 89.9 FM station on the air is just a first step — and that the Boise/Meridian/Nampa et al area could actually be served by translators. There are five translators licensed in the Boise area – with two more pending. Since BCRP is a non-comm, it would have the opportunity to buy or lease a translator to rebroadcast the Malheur Co. signal.

Tax dollars to fund BCRP?
The project’s news release says it is seeking $400,000 in construction funds from the Department of Commerce for the Oregon-based station. The organization is also planning to launch a capital campaign to raise an additional $250,000. By contrast, that $250k figure is exactly the same as the Log Cabin Literary Center’s annual budget. The Boise Weekly says the project has applied for a federal grant as well.

Past coverage
- BCRP’s FCC application
- Why BCRP is going after an already well-served niche
- BCRP launches webcast

We’ve been closely watching the Spanish-language stations in the Treasure Valley – which collectively had a strong spring book. With the fall numbers, the stations fell back to earth:

- KWEI-FM fell from 1.1 to 0.7.
- KDBI-FM fell from a 3.8 to 0.9
- KQTA charted for the first time at 0.7.

Several folks wrote to let me know of some of the other great things going on in honor of the Christmas season.

- KQTA & KDBI have been collecting toys for an in-house toy drive for families around the area.
- The Locally Owned stations in the Magic Valley held a Stuff the Bus event earlier this season, collecting toys, food and clothing for beneficaries of the Magic Valley Salvation Army. KIKX, KIRQ, KYUN and KTPZ participated.

It is of note that the Locally Owned staffer that let me know of his group’s activities also wrote to say that the competing Lee Family Group of stations had a “very successful toy/food/clothing drive.”