Month: November 2012

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IdahoRadioNews: It’s Christmas! …already?

Two Boise stations have flipped to the Christmas format for 2012. KXLT/107.9 Lite FM has flipped to its traditional menu of holiday standards as of November 10th.

But the surprise entrant in the space for this year is KJOT/Variety Rock 105.1. The station, which has been home to rock music for about 30 years, is instead playing Christmas music.  Owner Journal Broadcast Group has been playing musical chairs with its three rock stations (KQXR/100.3 The X and KRVB/94.9 The River being the others) for quite some time, and it seems KJOT is the odd one out.  The station has not seen success in quite some time, despite transitioning from heritage rocker J-105 to the current skew a few years ago.

I would say it is likely that Variety Rock has played its last rock hit. Something new in the new year? Already hearing rumors on what that format could be… time will tell.

Related: Journal hired Susan Groves to replace Dan McColly as operations manager for its Boise stations and as program director of KRVB. The news was announced on October 2nd – and on November 18th, she had been “let go.”

Standard disclosure: Don Day wrote the IdahoRadioNews.com blog for more than six years and currently manages digital sales & products for KTVB.

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Lottery results are in

And it’s a split decision.

While we first got wind of this a couple of weeks ago, last Friday the Idaho Lottery made the news official:

Drake Cooper and CLM have both been awarded marketing services contracts.

Drake will handle all strategic planning and creative services while CLM will handle all media services.

From the folks at the Idaho Lottery:

“The current incumbent, Davies Moore of Boise, has been a pleasure to work with, has done an excellent job for the Idaho Lottery, and was in the running for elements of the contract going forward. However, good government practices require that we take significant contracts out for competitive bid when those contracts expire on their terms,” explained Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson. “The announcement of our Intent to Award these contracts to both Drake Cooper and CLM was a result of their responsiveness to our Request for Proposals. I´m confident both local agencies will meet our marketing and advertising needs by providing the best value possible to the citizens of Idaho.”

“As a responsible state agency, the bidding process is healthy for us to achieve our goals and maximize our benefits to Idaho’s public schools and the State’s permanent buildings,” added Sherie Moody-St. Clair, Idaho Lottery Marketing Director. “We’re fortunate in Idaho that we have so many talented advertising agencies to work with. By separating the services, this unique idea will allow us the opportunity to have more resources available to provide responsible and effective marketing campaigns.”

Both contracts begin on January 1, 2013.