The changes in the Boise market never stop. KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM transitioned to 103.5 FM on Thursday. The move was smartly marketed as an “upgrade” and is part of a number of station moves around the state.
A new station, KPHD/102.7 FM will soon light up in the market. It is currently broadcasting in the Elko, NV area, but once it begins to air in Boise it will have full market coverage (map at right). It is presently owned by Kevin Terry, who also owns a group of stations in Montana. It is unclear if Terry will operate the station. I’ve heard unconfirmed reports an existing local group will run the station.
KZNO/102.9 The Zone in Twin Falls is also moving – to 103.1 FM. KSKI Sun Valley will move from 103.7 to 94.5. Those three moves make up enough space on the FM band for the new signal at 102.7 (essentially moving all three around to open up the slot).
When first proposed this was even more complicated and impacted another half a dozen or so additional stations. To give you an idea of how long this process took, I first wrote about it in 2006 – more than seven years ago.
As for Kiss – the station put a big push into the move. The transition itself had a few neat hooks for radio geeks. Music director Chris “Lucky tha DJ” Stewart played “Ooops… I Did It Again” by Britney Spears as the penultimate song on 103.3 FM. This was the very first song played when Kiss took over for a rock format in 2000.
They then played a song related to the station’s long-standing child abuse prevention awareness campaign. After an extensive bit of imaging, the station segued to 103.5 FM — and played… Baby Got Back by Sir Mixalot.
Then, since it was Halloween, Stewart played Thriller by Michael Jackson. Thriller is a favorite of Darrell Calton at rival Impact Radio – who often plays the song on loop when launching new stations in the market. Hoss Grigg, the first program director for Kiss FM told me the station actually played Thriller during its transition from rock to pop as well. Neat symmetry.
You can hear an iPhone recording of the flip here:
(Don is the Internet Sales/Product Manager for KTVB, and the former editor of IdahoRadioNews.com).