Idaho Radio News Etc.

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.

Interesting results so far on our Impact Radio polls from last week. It’s a 50/50 tie on wether KTMB/99.1 The Man should have been given more time to find his sea legs. But folks aren’t so split on the idea of another Spanish-language station, with 65% saying it won’t work.

Right now, the Treasure Valley is loaded with Spanish stations: Bustos Media has two and KWEI has two. While Hispanics are clearly a growing force – will five stations (four FM) be too much for a population base that is still relatively small?

If Spanish isn’t the right direction (for 100.7 FM), what would you do?

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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.

Impact Radio’s KTMB/99.1 The Man launched a new website – 991theman.net. The site is still a bit light on content, but has a nice layout – and even an ad!

KSRV/96.1 Bob FM attained a 3.0 rating – up 100% from its 1.5 in the spring. Whether or not the station can build momentum is the big question.

You might have noticed something missing though — there’s no data for KTMB/99.1 The Man.

The Boise Weekly’s Deana Darr has a fantastic piece on the race to land the radio rights to Boise State’s athletic events. I talked to Deana on background last week – and she did a great job chasing down all the players.

First, the headlines:

- Journal Broadcast Group did NOT bid on the rights
- Citadel GM Sandy Gamblin: “Certainly, it’s very important to maintain the rights”
- Tester Broadcast Group bid, and would put the games on KTMB/99.1 The Man.
- Peak Broadcasting submitted a bid, but declined to say where the games would go

Journal’s decision to not bid on the rights frankly isn’t a big surprise. They don’t really have a suitable station, and they have a lot of irons in the fire. If the radio rights and TV rights were tied together and Journal had both – that would be something – but the TV rights are not up until next year. Bob Rosenthal is clearly a big BSU backer, but JBG doesn’t seem to be focused on sports.

Citadel has the most to lose – and least to gain out of this. Sure, they’ll save a bundle if they don’t win the rights package, but all that ad revenue goes away. It also hurts KBOI, which has built its identity around BSU. Recent developments, like the rebranding (with less blue and orange) and the expnasion of afternoon news could be a hedge against losing the rights. KBOI also stands to lose Paul J. Schneider if they don’t keep the contract. After 35 years – Paul J. could either go to whomever grabs the rights – or retire. Paul J. is the best-known radio personality in this market, and KBOI doesn’t have an obvious successor. KBOI would also possibly face new competition. If KIDO/NewsRadio 580 pulls in the rights, it boosts them at KBOI’s success.

Peak is possibly the most-obvious second choice to many. The rights would boost KIDO instantly – and could have some benefit to KFXD. Why is Godwin declining to say what station he’d put the games on? This could signal that part of the package is a double pump with football games on both KIDO and an FM station. Of course, all four of Peak’s FM stations are female-oriented. As I’ve reported before, Peak CEO Todd Lawley told staffers last year that he would either get the rights for his group – or make Citadel pay dearly. I highly doubt he gave much thought to a third bidder.

Which brings us to Tester Broadcast. While Dave doesn’t own the stations – he’s a smart operator with the backing of an owner with pretty deep pockets. BSU might be turned off by the KTMB. The station has a very large signal pattern, but there are holes around Boise. Part of the plan may be to find ways to plug those gaps. I think everyone in this town just expects KBOI to take home the rights yet again. Perhaps. People think Peak is the number two choice. Don’t count out TB.

Frank Zang, Boise State spokesman, said the university is not forced to accept just any bid. The selection criteria will take into consideration things like the company’s history in the area, experience in sports broadcasting, creativity of proposal and opportunities for promotions, as well as financial terms and benefits.

Let’s break those things down, by bidder.

Company History
Peak – Brand new. Has established stations. Not locally owned.
Tester – New-ish (a rework of the FM Idaho group, same owners). Has new stations. Locally owned.
Citadel – Established. Established stations. Not locally owned.

Experience in sports broadcasting
Peak – As a company, none. Has some staff members with experience.
Tester – Some. Owns a sports station. Has a nightly sports show. Produced a slew of HS football games last fall
Citadel – Lots. Current BSU rightsholder. Paul J. on staff. Has a sports station.

Creativity of proposal
…we’ll see…

Opportunities for Promotion
Peak – Has a stable of stations with female appeal. Showed commitment to the school with efforts last fall. Tried to attach their brands to BSU without the actual rights – so I would expect this would only continue with the deal in hand.
Tester – Still a small group without a big ratings draw. Would probably have to look for partners and outside media
Citadel – They’d probably have to do better than what they currently offer, but they have experience

Financial Terms
Peak – Just spent a ton of money to just buy the stations – and has to keep them running.
Tester – FM Idaho’s Wendell Starke made a killing when he sold the stations and then bought them at the Horizon Broadcast Group fire sale. He’s been using that capital to add stations, build transmitters and acquire licenses.
Citadel – Just spent a fortune on ABC Radio. Pulled out of Spokane. Boise performs well, but paying up could be hard. The “rest” of the proposal may have to carry them.

I’ve teased the possibility that the school could take the rights in house. It’s still possible. Deana took the speculation around here and pitched it to Curt Apsey”: We’re considering everything and, at the end of the day, going a direction that’s best for all involved.”

Sounds cagey, doesn’t it?

By the way, I have a trick up my sleeve on this story – I should have more tomorrow.

With Dan Patrick no longer part of the ESPN Radio lineup — he landed a job with an indepndent syndication company last fall — airing mostly on Clear Channel stations nationwide. Now Tester Broadcasting’s KTMB/99.1 The Man picked up the show — and slotted it in from 10am – 1pm weekdays. Patrick’s show used to air from 1pm – 4pm on KTIK. Now the program will take on Jim Rome head to head. DP replaces Fox Sports programming.

I threw out the “10 questions” poll the other day not having any idea if anyone would take the time to vote. To my delight, about 90 of you took a few moments.

You think KIZN/Kissin’ 92.3 had the strongest performance in the fall – and will wind up on top of the country roost yet again in the results later this month. Quite a few of you think KAWO/Wow Country 104.3 will not make it to the end of the year as a country station – but a plurality think KTMB/99.1 The Man is the most likely station to flip formats.

The conventional wisdom also seems to indicate KBOI & Citadel will again keep the Boise State Athletics radio contract – in fact, a majority think the station will hang on.

The chattering class overwhelmingly thinks Bob FM will be a niche player.

The smart money appears to be on Peak and Citadel settling their lawsuit out of court.

A whopping 93% of voters say Spanish-language radio will stay at its current level or grow. Almost no one thinks it will shrink.

Even with strong support for Citadel’s position in many questions – many of you think Citadel is most likely to leave the market this year. Most of the questions I asked will have a definitive answer by the end of the year – however it’s entirely possible no group will sell out this year. In hindsight, I should have provide that voting option.

A large majority thinks the Boise Community Radio Project will continue to have trouble getting a broadcast license.

And finally, a plurality thinks KDJQ will be reclaimed by the bank. More on that point soon.

The Boise Community Radio Project has submitted its FCC application as previously noted, to broadcast on 89.9 FM. The city of license for the Boise project would be… Caldwell. Ahh the FCC.

BCRP was the only NCE application made in the Boise valley – though scores of applications were filed statewide (more on that later).

The 89.9 location would be very close to KTSY (89.5 FM) and KBSU (90.3 FM).

BCRP’s supporting documents (view here – PDF) say that current radio programming “fails to reflect the educational needs of our community,” and says there isn’t a whole lot on the air that can “assist citizens in discussing the implications of demographic transition.” Also, BCRP feels Boise’s radio programming “generally fails to examine issues affecting souther Idahoans.”

Currently, the Boise area offers a whopping 150.5 hours of locally produced public affairs, talk or music programming – that is an average of 21.5 hours per day. (See chart below).

Currently, BCRP’s online stream features 6.93 hours of local talk (of which more than half is repeats, boiling down to less than three hours of content), and about 61 hours of locally produced music shows (including about 50% repeated content, most shows do not feature local artists). This averages out to about nine hours per day. The amount of original content is about 30 hours – or 4 hours per day. It stands to reason that if BCRP were granted a license it would increase local content – if the group can find funding.

BCRP takes a stance that BSU Radio provides very little local content:

Community radio is not the same as National Public Radio (NPR). As an NPR affiliate, Boise State University offers syndicated national news, talk and classical music programs. Less than 5% of their [sic] schedule is locally programmed.

BSU Radio produces 47.5 hours of local programming per week (NOT including news), or 6.7 hours per day across its three Boise stations. Almost none of this is repeated. This totals 9.5% of total programming.

Edit: The list below shows the total number of hours per week that a local station airs (not including news updates, remotes or normal music-driven shifts).

KIDO: 33 (mornings, Monday sports show, weekend shows)
KFXD: 20 (mornings)
KBOI: 27 (mornings, Saturday morning shows)
KBSX: 2.5 (City Club, Dialogue, New Horizons [X2])
KBSU-FM: 15 (Laz Spectrum, Private Idaho, Jazz Straight Ahead, Arthur Balinger programming)
KBSU-AM: 30 (Saturday Spanish-language programs, Sunday University Pulse)
KRVB-FM: 1 (The Other Studio)
KQXR-FM: 1 (Xclusive)
KTMB-FM: 5 (Dzuback sports show)
KTIK: 15 (Caves & Prater)
KAYN: 1 (Divas for a Difference)