Idaho Radio News Etc.

The “I made the switch” radio games are nothing new. Stations air promos that help build up their brand image by impressing on listeners that lots of people are changing stations.

KWYD/Wild 101 has been airing a series of these promos – featuring voices of purported listeners listing off the reasons they stopped listening to KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM.

On October 17th (and presumably at other times), Wild aired a promo that made a strong claim: that Kiss FM had bilked a listener out of a promised prize. The Wild promo was direct and specific. The female voice in the promo said that she “used to listen to 103.3″ but stopped. Why?

“I was… invited to their Kissmas Party last year and won the Rockband and the Wii, but never got them.”

While that would be a good reason to stop listening to any particular radio station – it also implies that a high-profile local business is cheating someone out of a prize worth hundreds of dollars.

For the last several years, Kiss has held an event each holiday seaseon where qualified listeners are invited – then given one of a number of announced prizes.

IdahoRadioNews.com reached out to managers for both Peak Broadcasting, which owns Kiss and Impact Radio, which owns Wild.

Impact General Manager Darrell Calton would not comment on the record. I had hoped to learn several things – including whether the listener called the station at random or was found through some other method. I was also curious to know the name of the listener and if they had contact information, because I would have liked to verify the claims made in the promo.

Peak SVP Kevin Godwin says he hasn’t heard the Wild promo – but refuted the idea that a listener could have been promised a prize, then not have received it.

“There isn’t a possible way that someone wouldn’t have got their prize for the Kissmas party last year,” he said. “Everyone that qualified actually picked out their own present for the Kissmas promotion at the event.”

Godwin said the station received no complaints from any listener about not getting a prize.

“If we ever make a mistake, we always make good on it and do our best to take care of our listeners,” he said. “We can’t worry about what other stations are saying, we are very focused on only what we can control.”

Nine years and one month ago, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM signed on the air – designed to destroy KZMG/Magic 93.1. It took nine years and a raft of changes (and maybe a little help from Wild 101), but Magic 93.1 is dead. Not dead like this – but gone.

In its place – Citadel has launched… a similar station. 93.1 Hit Music Now hit the air this week – and is a bit like Magic 93.1’s sister. It lives in the same house (at 93.1), has the same parents (Rich Summers and Don Morin) and looks sorta the same (lots of pink and black) — but is different somehow.

The new 93.1 kept the same staff – including Tom Collins, Matt “MJ” Johnson and DJ Dickman (though he now goes by DJ David, more on that here). But what had been a tired, listless presence has been chucked out the window. Now the station seems insanely focused on three things: playing lots of music, putting a ton of listeners on the air and throwing elbows at Kiss FM.

Kiss FM seems to be the girl that everyone wants to date. Wild 101 took to the air and quickly started throwing sharp elbows at Kiss. It worked. While KSAS retained much of its ratings, Wild saw a big boost – and became the top pop station in Boise — fast. Now, in a bit of a “me too” move, Magic — er — 93.1 Hit Music Now — is mocking Kiss.

“It’s good to know 93.1 Hit Music Now plays more music every hour than Kiss FM,” one liner reads. That liner is read… by… you guessed it… Kiss FM’s old voice guy. Now passing around a voiceover talent like a piece of used chewing gum isn’t that strange – there’s something else about it. When KSAS switched this guy for someone new about two years ago – they didn’t evolve much. The current talent sounds pretty similar. So now the two stations have twin voice guys, but 93.1’s guy is still saying “Kiss FM” — a lot.

93.1 has also given its music an overhaul. It’s still pop, sure – but it is all very upbeat and happy and — well — poppy. Song after song of tunes with a high BPM rate. Even downbeat songs like Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” get a magical makeover – with a dance version subbed in for the traditional cut.

The station is working very hard to deliver on the promise to play a lot of music. 12, 13 even 14 cuts an hour. It has revamped its clock structure – with one long stretch of spots at about 20 after the hour. DJs are limited to reading short liners, seguing between songs – or teeing up an audio drop from a listener.

Those listeners are on the air a ton. Not for long, mind you – usually quick drops. “I’m stuck behind a train and the only thing keeping me going is 93.1 Hit Music Now,” etc. Several drops an hour ask for people to “pick up their cell phone and call 424-9300.” MJ even asked for folks from a specific city to call in during the 6pm hour.

Several of these goals run into one roadblock: Kidd Kraddic in the morning. Kraddic’s show is low on music and high on chat. Low on listener interaction and high on host to host interaction. Magic did make one change – swapping out the 9am hour of the Kraddic show (which was actually the first hour of his show playing out of sequence — after the hosts had already said goodbye) for… music. And listener interaction. And shots at Kiss.

The station had to do something. It was more than time. A parade of program directors and of morning hosts and of philosophies and styles stopped working. The Magic name – however heritage – was outdated. Magic is something that conjures up images of Siegried and Roy or a card trick or… well… not really anything hip. Citadel has never changed format on a station in Boise – ever. You can almost imagine a meeting of top Citadel managers trying to decide what to do with KZMG. Look around at the landscape – what would you flip the station to? Maybe there’s a great idea out there – but right now one last Hail Mary with pop seems like the only option available.

Tom Collins sent along this pic of himself and Curt Caldwell atop the then-KF94 boombox in the 4th of July parade in 1994ish.

Also – Darrell at Impact says his group steam cleaned the inside to “get rid of at least the last decade’s collection of germs,” and he says they are putting in a sound system and video screens for the iPod windows.

What goes around…. usually comes around. In this case, it’s the KF-95 boombox – which has found another life in the hands of a completely different radio station.

This once-blue trailer dressed up like a boombox started life at KFXD/KF-95, at a time in its life when pop music was all the rage, and KZMG/Magic 93.1 hadn’t yet gone pop. The mobile studio allowed talent to broadcast live, and had working speakers mounted in the side. (I used it as a place to change into the KF-95 dragon costume a time or two. I still haven’t wiped off all the germs.)

But now the boombox is in the hands of KWYD/Wild 101. Journal acquired the trailer along with the other KFXJ assets. After sitting behind the old Cassia building for a while – it was painted red and retooled for KQXR/100.3 The X.

So did Journal sell it to Impact? Not really. I’m told the Impact folks purchased it from a guy who bought it from JBG. They then went about making it a little big more modern (really, when was the last time you even saw a good ghettoblaster?). A fresh coat of paint and graphics – as well as an iPod center piece help launch the boombox into its third decade.

Party on Wayne.

Impact Radio Group has a lot to crow about after this book.  It has joined the ranks of “the big three” radio groups in Boise — which now can only be termed “the big four.”  Two of its stations pulled solid ratings and even went to #1 in some demos.  The cluster of stations has been trying to make a go of it in this market for more than a decade – starting with splashy studios in the Boise Spectrum – through to a failed co-ownership deal with the Boise Hawks – a “relaunch” of the stations and rebranding under Dave Tester – to the latest effort.

All along, the stations could never quite make it work. That just changed with the success of KWYD/Wild 101 and KSRV/96.1 Bob FM.

But Impact is still a long way from where it likely wants to be.  For now, it only has four stations in the Boise market — and two of them are essentially invsible.

KQLZ/99.1 Idaho’s True Oldies Channel tied with KGEM in among A25-54 in both mornings and total day. But even in the older demos – like A35-64, the station is not setting the world on fire. In fact, it gets beat by the very young-skewing KSAS/103.3 (among many others) in both mornings and total-day among older adults.

Then there is KPDA/La Poderosa 100.7.  The station isn’t in the book. Anywhere.  Just like KFXD last year, the station isn’t listed on the stations page, isn’t in any of the listings — nowhere to be found. It is not alone among Spanish-language stations. Bustos Media’s KDBI/La Gran D 101.9 is also missing — though both KQTA and KWEI are listed.

KWYD/Wild 101 host Chris Hall – aka CK – is off the air and no longer with the station. His picture and bio have been wiped from the station’s website. IRN has learned the change is not a layoff.

This should shock no one, and as our poll earlier this summer predicted – KWYD/Wild 101 saw a strong ratings increase in its first full ratings period. The Urban CHR station notched a 4.8 12+ rating, good enough to beat all but four other stations in the Boise market.

Wild also topped direct competitor KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM – which took home a 4.4, and KZMG/Magic 93.1 at 3.1.

The question now – will the station be able to keep up the momentum and maintain its spot at the top of the pops?

You’ve likely heard the story of Ryan Stockdale — the Middleton dad of three young children who have a rare blood disorder. The family was feature on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2007. More recently, Ryan has developed what are called “suicide headaches” — something his wife described as “giving birth through your eye socket times ten” in an interview with KTVB.

The family has been unable to get its insurance company to pay for a procedure that would help eliminate the headaches – a fact that has garnered significant local media attention.

Impact Radio swung into action, and began a marathon radio broadcast yesterday at 2pm at a local Syringa bank branch. As of 11pm last night, Impact’s Darrell Calton tells me they had raised $6,000 – and that’s well before they hit the morning drive this morning.

KSRV/96.1 Bob FM, KWYD/Wild 101, KPDA/La Poderosa 100.7 and KQLZ/True Oldies 99.1 have been broadcasting live, helping rake in donations for the family.

Calton says he is putting $1,000 toward the cause — and hopes executives at other clusters will join him.

UPDATE: My colleague (and fellow blogger) Maggie O’Mara says she checked with Impact this morning — and the total raised through Impact’s efforts has ballooned to $35,000. WOW!

Boise stations KZMG/Magic 93.1, KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM and KWYD/Wild 101 are all paying tribute to Michael Jackson this afternoon — by playing a heavy diet of songs from the best-selling popstar.

• KZMG started the trend at 3:52pm – and has been non-stop Jackson since (as of 5:40pm).
• KSAS started at 4:07pm and played about half a dozen songs, and has talked about it quite a bit throughout the afternoon. Program director KeKe Luv tells Idaho Radio News “Michael Jackson was possibly the Elvis of our generation.”
• KWYD flipped into Michael mode at 4:41pm, and is still playing a heavy portion of his songs.
• KCIX/Mix 106, which promises “the best of the 80s, 90s and now” but is voicetracked in the afternoon — has not played a single Jackson track.

This echoes a similar trend decades ago when stations started playing non-stop John Lennon songs after that icon’s death.

UPDATE: About 20 minutes after this post, Mix 106 played a Jackson tune, according to Yes.com. At 7pm, when the station switches voicetrackers, it played “If Today Was Your Last Day” by Nickelback (basically a song about one’s last day on earth), followed by Beat It. Then, back to the music.

KZMG is running a series of promos – one of which is voiced and written as if the station is talking to Michael directly… ‘you will be missed Michael, from all of the Treasure Valley and the staff at Magic 93.1.’

KWYD laid off the all-Jacko all the time vibe, but in the 9pm hour has played several Jackson tracks.

Impact Radio continues to beef up its stations and hopes to take a tough economy and make it work to its advantage.  As we’ve chronicled here, the other three major Boise station groups have all let employees go – but Impact has continued to add programming staff, with ten hires over the past six months.

Company senior VP Elliot Klein tells Idaho Radio News that the company is changing its promotional approach to the market — with efforts to promote the stations every month, not just during Arbitron rating periods.

“Most of my experience has been in markets that were surveyed continuously anyway and that’s the way Impact is going to promote its stations in Boise,  on a 24/7/365 basis,” he said. “We can’t afford not to!”

A big piece of that promotional puzzle is a year-round contract with Lamar Outdoor Advertising for billboards.  You’ve likely seen the electronic signs that promote KSRV/96.1 Bob FM, KWYD/Wild 101, KPDA/La Poderosa 100.7 and KQLZ/99.1 Idaho’s True Oldies Channel.  The electronic nature of the boards allows Impact to be nimble with marketing messages and change up the approach quickly.

Klein says another digital approach is also paying dividends — text messaging. More than 12,000 listeners have opted into text messaging products — and he says that’s generating non-traditional revenue for the group.

“On WILD we are receiving more than 160,000 incoming texts per month from our listeners,” Klein said.

Each station is also working in social media applications like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

While the stations are emphasizing new ideas, the approach is old-school – with people who focus on broadcasting first, with the hope that the business end will pencil out by doing radio right.

“Impact is now being run by broadcasters not CFOs or CPAs,” he said.

KWYD/Wild 101’s afternoon jock Bootleg Kev has an interview with rapper The Game — and the video’s posted to YouTube.

You’ll get his thoughts on Chris Brown and Rhianna. “It was probably just some cat and puppy fight… It’s just people making it out to be more than what it is like the media always does. I say give the kid a break man. I’m sure they’re going to end up getting back together anyway man.”

Just about everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. Some of my favorite “tweets” (aka Twitter posts) from the past few days:

@1071KHits: quote of the AM “The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar.” http://bit.ly/yofWp

@kekeluv: Just woke up! Now, I can’t sleep! Welcome to my world ever since last april! Eating cereal, working on Taylor Swift promo, headed 2 work!

@580KIDO: Who is the sexiest cartoon character of all time? Dave and Brian will let you know what America decided just after 8am.

@donjarrett: has exceeded the maximum attention span of a 6 year old….and the drama begins in 5…4…3…2…1….duck & cover!

@kissin92: Billy Currington joins Cody Alan on CMT Radio Live 7pm – 12m on Kissin’ 92. Catch him tonight! www.kizn.com for everything Kissin92!

@miggy05: Ordering Twilight on PPV Iam Scured !!! hahahah

@DJDickman: @luckythadj get off the railing. Safety first!

@LuckyThaDJ: @miggy05 your down for shots ? Lol no friggin way ! Have a good night man

@Wild101: Thank You Everyone For The Love And Thank You For Keeping It Locked On Wild 101 Idaho’s Party Station!!!

@frosticles: The president giggling on 60 Minutes didn’t bother me. I figured the laugh meant, “Look how much work I have to do.”

KWYD/Wild 101 is running promos it calls a “Boise radio dial update.” The promos feature “station Tragic” followed by a 1997 Elton John song – then station “Miss” with Achey Breaky Heart.

Then station WILD comes up — playing an urban CHR hit.

Good thing Wild doesn’t rhyme with anything…

Idaho Statesman photographer/reporter Joe Jaszewski takes a look at Boise’s newest radio station – KWYD/Wild 101 – for a story in today’s business section.  Read the piece here.

KWYD/Wild 101 is hold the first ever Stripper Bowl this Sunday.  But the strippers won’t be the type found at the Speramint Rhino or Night Moves… instead, Wild is teaming up with downtown bar Liquid for an evening of manicures, massages and… “men in tight tight uniforms.”

Listeners can win their way in this week by listening to the station.

KWYD/Wild 101.1 was off the air again today — at least the fourth time I’ve tuned into hear static over the past two months. Proof I suppose that putting a new station on the air isn’t the easiest engineering task there is…

KWYD/Wild 101 is no longer bumping through 15,000 songs in a row – now commercial breaks are in place, as well as a smattering of on-air talent.  Mornings on the new rhythmic CHR station are hosted by “C-K” (just don’t get in an argument with him and yell “F-U”), while a mid-day mix show is hemmed by DJ Complex, and nights are hosted by DJ Class1c.

The new talent floated into place several weeks ago and are still getting their collecitve feet wet.

KWYD/Wild 101 has been off the air for the last several hours… do ya think they’ll start the 15,000 songs in a row over? (Kidding)

- The station is running promos saying “You don’t have to sit through THIS (song clip) to get to THIS” – with a segue to another cut.  The problem is the playlist isn’t distinct enough for that to work.  One of the sweepers uses Avirl Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” as an example of what they don’t play – but later that same hour I heard Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” in rotation – which might as well be the same song. Another promo says Ashlee Simpson is a “no play” but Pink is A-OK. I don’t think the audience will get the difference.

- Sweepers emphasize “15,000 in a row” – but why not make it more obvious that it’s “commercial free.”  With KAWO/Wow Country 104.3 and others using that “104 in a row” fib all day long, you have to be more obvious and say “15,000 songs in a row without a single commercial. ”

- I can’t find a website, the station isn’t on MySpace, or Facebook and they didn’t send their news release to area news orginizations.  Maybe they want a soft launch – but early buzz is your best shot and right now… there’s none. They have a HUGE ROCK to throw with the 40 days straight stunt – but so far they’ve just set it lightly in the pond… creating no ripple.

Is there a market in Boise for three CHR stations, plus KCIX/Mix 106?  Folks who like a little Akon in their musical diet are well served – with three stations playing rhthymic cuts.

KWYD/Wild 101 lit up its new transmitter this week – and is bounding out of the gates with 15,000 songs without a paid commercial.  Former CHR powerhouse KZMG/Magic 93.1 also had a major change this week, when it took Dan Tooker off the payroll and re-tooled its morning show with Melissa Dawn and MJ.

KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM had a remarkably strong book in the spring, fueled by huge female demos for its Hooker in the Morning Show – and also saw strength across the board (which may have been the glow of its “Live for 175″ sutnt).  The station has been well-programmed and seems to have found a niche musically that works — so it has the three Ms – Music, Mornings and Marketing going strong. The somewhat cheesy but effective “Whose House” and “Muawwww” buzzwords seem to stick with the audience and engage in a way that I wouldn’t have expected.  Even if they don’t know how to spell them on a billboard.

KZMG/Magic 93.1 is having trouble on all three fronts. We’ve talked at length about its problems finding a morning show that sticks around – with an average of more than two per year over the last five years. If there’s one thing that’s consistent at 93 – it’s change.  The station’s marketing position isn’t clearly defined either, and with Citadel’s cash woes, it doesn’t seem there will be much of a change.  The station is understaffed and outgunned.  PM dude Miggy Santos is a big bright spot for the station – but of late, he’s the only thing it has going for it.

That brings us to Wild. Impact has launched four very distinct FM stations in the past two years – oldies, Spanish-language, variety hits and now rhythmic.  The station is ignoring KZMG all together and focusing in on KSAS.  The news release from Impact yesterday noted that most markets in our region have a Rhythmic station – from Seattle to Spokane to the Tri-Cities and even Colorado Springs (which is in many ways similar to B-town).  No one has ever tried it in Boise, though both KSAS and KZMG have toyed with the idea and even have programmed closer to that edge at times – always to retreat back to the pop middle ground.  If the Wild folks are smart they’ll find a way to build buzz very fast.  40 days without a commercial can be effective – witness what KCIX/K-106’s launch as an AC station did all those years ago with 106 days of commercial free music.  But they’ve got to let people know the station exists.  So far there’s been no general media play, and they didn’t blow up someone’s favorite station, so there isn’t even buzz on that front.  The imaging so far is pretty basic. The Mac vs. PC ad takeoff is overdone (even another local advertiser is doing it right now), and KSAS is smart to not step into the snakepit that KZMG did in the late 1990s by acknowledging their cross-town rival.  It remains to be seen if Wild will pop – or be able to make revenue.

Three pop stations pulling a 2 to 3 share isn’t going to work. If however just two stations are left standing – it’s very possible that KZMG won’t be one of them without something changing.  Ending the Tooker experiment early was probably the right call – the show just didn’t have the right tone somehow, and seemed entirely out of place on a pop station.  MJ and Melissa could have a better go of it – but the rest of the station has to improve if they are going to last for more than six months like so many shows before them couldn’t.

KWYD/Wild 101.1 is up and running. Yesterday I tuned in and heard silence (can you hear silence?) – today the station is looping Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on the eve of All Hallow’s Eve.

A single bumper says “It’s coming” tomorrow morning at 10am.  So peel your ears and get ready for a rare station sign-on.

The station that once served the McCall area is now largely gone for those listeners. FM KDZY/98.3 stands alone as the only commercial FM with roots in Idaho’s heartland.

UPDATE: After the Thriller stun, the station debuted as “Virus 101″ at 10am – but changed AGAIN to Wild 101/Idaho’s Party Station at about noon today.  The music was more Alt. Rock for the first two hours, but now sounds thematically similar to KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM – and is probably as urban as Boise will ever get (but still pretty poppy).

This isn’t Impact’s first shot at pop  – after several attempts with KTPZ/Music Monster 99.1.

The station is running promos ala the “I’m a Mac & I’m a a PC” making fun of “Whose House.” VERY reminiscent of Kiss signing on and targeting KZMG with lots of promos mentioning the cross-town comp.

So the All Access note posted in comments here isn’t correct… :) (Unless they decide to change formats for a third time today…)

UPDATE 2: The station is pumping 15,000 songs in a row – which at an average of 4 minutes per song works out to about 40 days, taking us into December commercial free.