On January 1, 2011, the Idaho Falls-based KIFI-TV, Local News 8, officially took over operations of its cross-town competitor KIDK-TV.  Under an Operational Shared Service Agreement, Fisher Broadcasting will still own KIDK, but KIFI will provide sales, promotional, administrative and operational support services for both companies. The newsrooms also were combined. “It has been a whirlwind,” says Mark Danielson, KIFI General Manager.

KIDK-TV started as an offshoot of KID radio in 1953, and enjoyed high ratings through the 1980s. But in recent years, it has been trailing behind its competitors and had fallen on tough economic times. A few weeks before Christmas, Fisher Communications informed its 43 employees that it would be turning its operations over to Local News 8, a subsidiary of Missouri-based  News-Press and Gazette Co., and laying off about 27 employees.

Danielson says it took about a month to physically combine the two staffs at KIFI’s Yellowstone Highway facility. KIFI owners had to make major technical upgrades so employees could control six stations out of the KIFI building. Those six stations are KIFI, an ABC affiliate; KIDK, a CBS affiliate; Telemundo; CW; NOW, a 24-hour news channel; and KXPI, a My Network.

According to Danielson, they want to keep KIDK’s identity intact as much as possible. KIDK has its own on-air talent, its own on-air look and its own sales staff, but reporters’ work appears on both stations.

Danielson describes the complex technological choreography that happens in order to broadcast different newscasts from a single studio: KIFI’s talent does a newscast from 5:00-5:29 p.m. At 5:29, sets change, graphics change, and KIDK’s talent takes the desk for their newscast. When they finish at 5:59, everything flips back for KIFI’s 6:00 p.m newscast. That’s right – they’re one-minute changeovers.

KIDK’s on-air talent then produces a newscast at 9:00 p.m. which airs live on KXPI and is taped delayed for airing at 10:00 p.m. on KIDK. KIFI’s staff then produces a live newscast at 10:00 for its viewers.

Not everyone is happy about the change. Bob Ziel, a retired KIDK reporter laments the station’s loss. “I worry about the loss of competition,” says Ziel. “Very often, the lead story is the same. They have essentially blended into one.” Danielson says much of the news content is the same between the two stations, but different on-air talent can provide their own unique material.

Competition is an issue in the Idaho Falls market. KPVI, the Pocatello-based station in the market, currently has no reporters in its Idaho Falls bureau, leaving KIFI as the dominant TV station. One public relations officer joked that now when he calls a press conference, he is lucky if one photographer shows up. The change may also impact competition in the Boise market. Because of the combined newsroom, KIFI can share its stories with KBOI and KIVI, its sister affiliates, but not with KTVB, as it once did.

And what do viewers think about the change? So far, Danielson says he hasn’t received many calls or emails.

Ziel worries about the people who were laid off and wonders what will happen to KIDK’s building. The old station sits on valuable property along 17th Street, one of the city’s busiest roads.

Danielson hopes the shared services agreement will lead to a better product for viewers. “It is complicated, but it were easy it wouldn’t be fun,” he said. His goal is to make KIDK a strong competitor, and if that happens, he said he’ll see the marriage of these two stations as a success.

Joan Cartan-Hansen is a producer, reporter, writer and host for Idaho Public Television, and is the treasurer of the Idaho Press Club board.

By Deanna Darr

Idaho Press Club members can join in the celebration of some of the best journalism to come out of the state last year at the Best of 2010 Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, May 7.

This annual event is one of the ways the Press Club works to support and improve journalism—by recognizing and awarding excellent work in both print and broadcast journalism, as well as in public relations. It’s also a great time to celebrate our profession by gathering with others from across the state.

The banquet will once again be held in the Boise Centre, in the middle of downtown Boise. It will begin at 6 p.m. with a social hour with the program and dinner beginning at 7 p.m.  In addition to honoring all of our award and scholarship winners, there will be a few laughs and some hearty celebrating.

Plan to get to the event nice and early to hear one of Boise’s favorite bands, Hillfolk Noir, which will be performing during the social hour beginning at 6 p.m.

For dinner this year, those who attend can choose between a basil and pine nut crusted chicken breast served with St. Maries wild rice and sun dried tomato beurre blanc, a grilled top sirloin with a brandy black peppercorn sauce and served with Ballard Family Farms white cheddar mashed potatoes or butternut squash ravioli with fresh spinach and sun dried tomato sauce.   In a new feature, you’ll also be able to order wine by the bottle at your table; there also will be two bars.

Please consider attending regardless of if you’re nominated for an award. Bring a date, your co-workers or your fans and join us for an evening celebrating journalism.

Prices for the banquet are the same as last year—$35 for members or $40 for non-members. You can pre-register by either sending in the form included in this newsletter, or save yourself a stamp and do it online through the Press Club website at idahopressclub.org.

Deanna Darr is the features editor of the Boise Weekly, and is a member of the Idaho Press Club state board.

By Betsy Russell

With all the turnover in Idaho news organizations, we often lament the loss of institutional memory. Here’s a case where a longtime Idaho journalist, Tim Woodward of the Idaho Statesman, has reminded us all of someone we may never have heard or met, but who is an important part of the fabric of Idaho’s journalistic history.

Tim himself is an Idaho journalistic institution; I’ve been in the state 25 years, and Tim came before me on the Boise downtown redevelopment beat, writing stories that shone an important light on what it all meant when I looked at them years later to make sense of what I was covering there in the late 1980s.

So I’d like to thank Tim, for his reporting, for his work, and for the article that’s reprinted below, which was first published in the March 13, 2011 Idaho Statesman, under the headline, “Vern Moore, 1916-2011 – Idaho’s Walter Cronkite.” It is reprinted here by permission.

Betsy Russell is a Boise-based reporter for The Spokesman-Review, and is the president of the Idaho Press Club.

Vern Moore, radio icon and journalism pioneer, was Idaho’s first television news anchor; he died Feb. 17 in Coeur d’Alene. His obituary devoted a little more than a paragraph to his broadcast career. Some readers may have missed it entirely, never realizing that we had lost a local icon.

Moore was the patriarch of broadcast news in Idaho. Thousands of Idahoans grew up hearing his voice and seeing his face. He was etched in our memories, like Howdy Doody or Walt Disney or Edward R. Murrow.

Moore’s was a voice of KIDO Radio for 42 years. He helped build Idaho’s first FM station and was the state’s first television news anchor. His were the first words spoken on live television in Idaho, at 2 p.m. on July 12, 1953. Congratulatory messages came from all over, including one from Groucho Marx:

“I played Boise once, and I hope your opening was better than mine.”

A Portlander in his youth, Moore came to Boise and spent most of his life here because of a coincidence. KIDO’s owners, Curt and Georgia Phillips, happened to be in Portland and heard Moore’s voice on a high-school radio station. They liked it and offered him a job. He accepted, rode to Boise with them in their Packard and stayed 65 years. He was then 19 years old.

KIDO was seven years old. The Phillipses had bought it in 1928, after reading in The Statesman that it was being auctioned. Until then, it was Boise High School’s station. Curt Phillips died in 1942, and Georgia, later Georgia Davidson, went on to start KIDO Television, now KTVB-Channel 7. So in a small way, KTVB began with an ad in The Statesman.

Like many Idahoans, I grew up watching and listening to Vern. He was the senior anchor, a name you trusted.

Later, I got to know him personally. He was a chief petty officer at Boise’s Naval Reserve Station when I was a recruit there. He joined the Navy at 16 and had served in two wars but, compared with other senior enlisted people, he was humble, soft-spoken. An easy man to be around, despite his seniority and local fame. I liked him instantly.

That didn’t change when, six years later, we were covering the local-government beat, him for KIDO and me for the Statesman. That was when I learned some of the history mentioned above. For most of it, I’m indebted to Art Gregory of the History of Idaho Broadcasting Foundation. Gregory visited Moore in Coeur d’Alene last summer and returned with 800 tapes to add to the foundation’s archives.

“I don’t even know everything I’ve got yet, but there are tapes of Vern interviewing (former governors) Bob Smylie, Cecil Andrus, Don Samuelson. … He probably recorded everyone in Idaho broadcast-news history.”

Gregory worked with Moore at KIDO and knew him as “a consummate professional. He was always businesslike, but he was also a kind, gentle man.”

My impression exactly. He always got his story, but he was so low-key about it that in a crowd you hardly knew he was there. He was the opposite of the obnoxious-reporter stereotype, and news sources respected him for it. In his quiet, dignified way, he got the stories the pushy, pretty boys didn’t.

One week, he failed to show up for the mayor’s weekly news conference. It was surprising, because he never missed. Later, we learned that he’d been in a motorcycle accident. That was even more surprising because none of us could imagine gentle Vern as a biker. That accident rearranged his whole face. He’d ridden all-out around a corner on a normally deserted mountain road and collided with a truck.

Maybe that shouldn’t have surprised us. You don’t survive two wars and a journalism career by being a shrinking violet.

He was buried with military honors in Coeur d’Alene, where he’d lived for a decade. He was 95, so many of those who knew him are gone. But there was a time when he was a household name. If you remember him, you already know that. If not, I thought you should.

Tim Woodward is a longtime reporter and columnist for the Idaho Statesman in Boise; he can be reached at 377-6409.

Betsy Russell is a Boise-based reporter for The Spokesman-Review, and is the president of the Idaho Press Club.

Note: Dan Morris was a longtime Idaho Press Club board member, and is the only person ever named a life member of the Idaho Press Club for his contributions to the organization. He died on March 20 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer; this article first appeared in the Idaho Statesman.

Boise State University officials said Dan Morris was surrounded by his family when he died Sunday, at the age of 59.

Morris retired from BSU last April after 23 years as a faculty member in the department of communication.

Morris taught classes in journalism and mass media and served as adviser to the Arbiter, the student newspaper.

“He was that voice that really believed in journalism, what it was at its core foundation,” said Brad Arendt, director of student media, who had worked with Morris since 1998. “For him, the biggest thing was being able to pass that on to students and to teach them what journalism really meant and what it really was.”

Recently, members of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network sought homes for Morris’ two cats, Toby and Jonah, who were like children to him. Permanent homes for those pets haven’t yet been found.

Morris had been absent from his post at BSU for about three years, Arendt said, while under treatment.

Arendt said Morris was a “good foil,” who often challenged him. The two worked side-by-side as a sort of “odd couple.”

“He did have kind of a different take on things,” Arendt said.

Arendt said he is grateful to have been able to tell Morris about his huge impact at the university, with students, and as adviser to the paper.

“He was a good friend and an incredible colleague. I miss him,” he said.

Morris graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia.

He had a wide variety of interests, including barbershop quartet. He influenced scores of journalism students at BSU.

James Patrick Kelly, who now advises the Arbiter, was also once the student paper’s editor.

“He left a definite imprint on many students over the years, whether they knew it or not. He was a quirky, lovable man who enjoyed good food and traveling the world,” Kelly said. “I’ll never forget our trip to New Orleans. Dr. Dan was so excited about going to the Acme Oyster House. Even though he was a big guy, we all had a hard time keeping up with him en route to the restaurant. He couldn’t wait to put on that bib and attack a tray of crayfish.”

As my college newspaper adviser in the early 1990s, Dan Morris was one of my earliest mentors in journalism. He taught me to think in critical terms and to question everything. He was a kind and thoughtful man.

One of my fondest memories include trying to teach Dan to do the “running man” dance in the Arbiter’s offices to one of the day’s pop anthems. Dan refused to take off his Birkenstock sandals.

At some point, in a fit of moral outrage, I dug up and took his reserved parking sign from outside the Arbiter — one of two he had on campus. The sign ended up in someone’s garage. I’m sure Dan knew I took the sign, but he never said a word.

I remember making salsa with Dan and college paper chums during a New Year’s Eve party at his house. Dan would often feed starving college students by buying in bulk at the local canned food outlet.

Dan was what many of us called a floor-sitter. He would hold court, cross-legged, and try to convince college kids that the hammer dulcimer was “cool.”

Dan also was one of the first people I ever saw tote a laptop computer. He used it, prolifically, in the days long before the devices were common.

Kathleen Kreller is a reporter for the Idaho Statesman; this article first appeared there on March 22, 2011.

Note: This column was first published in the Idaho Statesman on March 22, 2011; it is reprinted here by permission. Lt. Gov. Brad Little addressed a full house at a Press Club Headliner event on March 23.

Idaho’s governors have met with the Idaho Press Club during the annual legislative session since the tradition began with Cecil Andrus in the early 1970s.

They did it because they honored the media’s duty to inform.

But this year, Gov. Butch Otter begged off. On Feb. 25, spokesman Jon Hanian told a club organizer Otter would end the streak “due to scheduling constraints.”

On Monday, Hanian dispensed with the niceties. “The governor said, ‘Look, I’m not going to do it this year.’”

Lt. Gov. Brad Little has agreed to fill in Wednesday.

Otter declined my requests for comment. Otter’s clamming up seems more common now that he faces lame-duckhood.

Otter had a brief period of openness in early January, appearing at an Associated Press legislative preview and a joint press conference with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna to pitch their “Students Come First” K-12 reform plan.

Since then, he’s held two bill signing ceremonies and kept up his ceremonial schedule of basketball games and fifth-grade classrooms. This week Otter has no public events. Hanian said Otter was at home Monday, and expected back in the office Tuesday.

Otter kept the Press Club tradition for four years, through a horse wreck and a hip replacement. Safely re-elected, he likely will leave office after 28 years in 2015. He’ll be 72.

Ducking questions sometimes is warranted, as when Otter declined to opine on a proposal to use federal stimulus funds to cut income taxes. Hare-brained ideas are best left to fizzle on their own.

With Otter, however, there’s a correlation between the gravity of an issue and zipped lips. A few examples:

* When Sen. Larry Craig reversed his “intention to resign” pledge.

* When Micron wouldn’t disclose the size of layoffs.

* When Health & Welfare workers didn’t enforce a court order on living arrangements for 8-year-old Robert Manwill and failed to examine the boy for abuse. Robert, you remember, was killed in 2009.

* When lawmakers accused Otter buddy and Department of Administration Director Mike Gwartney of strong-arming Idaho companies and lawmakers.

* When Tax Commission Chairman Royce Chigbrow was accused of using his post to help his son’s clients.

* When I asked about his role in crafting the Luna-Otter education reforms.

House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, who appeared at the Press Club this session with Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, doesn’t fault Otter.

“Smart man!” said Moyle.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney agreed: “He’s tired of getting beat up.”

“Sometimes the decisions you make here are not easy or comfortable,” Moyle added, “and that gives credence to not being in the limelight all the time. Do the right thing and move on.”

Last year’s event may offer a clue to Otter’s absence. He spoke of how hard it was to cut schools, services for the blind and disabled, state parks and public TV.

One line drew jabs from editorialists: “I’d just like — I would like to see some compassion, maybe that’s the word I’m looking for, some compassion. This is a tough, tough position to be in. And it’s not fun.”

Denney thinks Otter’s drawn the curtain because times are harder still.

That Otter quietly signed the first two education reform bills last week without a ceremony is not a measure of a lack of pride in his work, Denney said. Rather, Otter didn’t want to say anything to jeopardize the third bill.

Davis said Otter is doing his job, even if he’s shy with reporters. “When I show up, this man is fully engaged. He knows numbers, he knows details.”

Perhaps Otter’s silence is a grand strategy. Maybe he learned from the 2008 and 2009 transportation tax debacle, when he used the press to jawbone recalcitrant lawmakers and lost.

I’m told Otter was his charming self last week at a reception hosted by his lobbyist friends, Pat Sullivan, Phil Reberger and Roy Eiguren. A photo of Otter appears on the Sullivan Reberger Eiguren homepage. Seated at the governor’s desk, apparently ready to sign a document, Otter is flanked by the power trio.

At least he’s on the job for somebody.

Dan Popkey is a columnist for the Idaho Statesman in Boise, and is a former board member of the Idaho Press Club.

IDAHO FALLS/POCATELLO 

KIFI-TV

New staffers are Jessica Crandall, arriving from BYU, to be a new weekend anchor/reporter; new reporter Troy Campbell from Cal State Northridge; new reporter Marissa Bodnar, from New England Cable News; new reporter Britney Borghi; and new sports director Jeff Flanders.

Leaving KIFI are reporter Aman Chabra, who headed to KJCT as Sports Director; reporter Hailey Higgins, reporter, who left for a station in Sioux Falls; weekend anchor Emma Jade went to a station in Phoenix; reporter Genieve Judge headed for WINK in Florida; sports director Scott Bemis left to be weekend sports anchor at KLAS in Las Vegas; and weekend sports anchor Alyssa Chin left the business.

KIDK-TV

Michelle Ludtka was promoted to sports anchor. Departures include morning anchor/reporter Tommy Noel, who left to go to KDAS in Dallas; reporter Dania Lawrence, who headed to a station in  Tulsa; reporter Steven Pope, who took a job in Madison, Wisc.; reporter Ian Park, who went to a station in Oklahoma City; sports director Ted Dawson, who departed for a station in Bozeman, Mont; anchor Chris Houston went to KTAL in Louisiana; and reporter Anthony Corgi headed for a station in Buffalo, N.Y.

KPVI-TV

Todd Blackingon was promoted to News Director. Former news director Brenda Baumgardner took a position with Portneuf Medical Center. Reporters Johnny Archer and Matt Horn departed, Archer to a station in Louisville, Kent., and Horn to a station in Kansas; and producer Kristi Henderson left to go work at KUTV in Salt Lake City.

Aaron Kunz, anchor/reporter, left to go work at Idaho Public Television. Reporter Lauren Johnson left the business.

TWIN FALLS

KMVT-TV

New co-anchor Diane Dean joins the station, arriving from the Fox station in Beaumont, Texas.

LEWISTON

KLEW-TV

New anchor/multimedia reporter Meg McNamara joins the staff from KIRO-TV. Ron Marasco is a new reporter/anchor. He came from KITV in Honolulu.

BOISE

KIVI-TV

Jon Bobango has rejoined the station as a producer. Eric Fink is a new photojournalist, who comes to KIVI from Texas and Virginia.

Idaho Public Television

Thanh Tan, Producer/Reporter/Host, left to become a multi-media reporter with the Texas Tribune in Austin, Texas. Aaron Kunz joined the staff as as an environmental producer/reporter for a new CPB consortium with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Idaho Public Television and Boise State Public Radio.

KTVB-TV

New staffers are Natalie Podgorski as morning reporter; Erica Rush and Kelly Fisk as morning producers; and Scott Graham as morning photographer/editor. Leaving KTVB are Mike Kehoe and Trevor Louckes; also, Ranae Bangerter left for a position with the to Vernal (Utah) Express.

KTRV-Fox 12

New reporter Matt Standal arrives from Duluth, MN.

PRINT

Idaho State Journal

Idaho State Journal reporter Sean Ellis, the Journal’s Statehouse reporter, has accepted a position as a Boise-based reporter for the Capitol Press, a regional agriculture weekly newspaper; he’ll start in April. Ellis has been with the Journal on and off for 12 years.