KBOI is a commercial AM radio station in the westernUnited States, located in Boise, Idaho, broadcasting on 670 kHz under ownership of Cumulus Media. KBOI airs news/talk programming. Studios are located on Bannock Street in downtown Boise, while it transmits from a six-tower facility southeast of Nampa. KBOI is Idaho's most powerful AM station, broadcasting with 50,000 watts around the clock. During the day, a single tower beams the station's full power to southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon by day. At night, power is fed to all six towers in a directional pattern to avoid interfering with WSCR in Chicago, the Clear-channel station on 670 kHz. Even though it must direct its signal north-south as a result, KBOI can still be heard across most of western North America at night. Because of this, KBOI is Idaho's designated primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System. KBOI is licensed by the FCC to broadcast in the HD format, although it currently does not have HD turned on as of 7 March 2018.
Programming
The KBOI morning show, "Idaho's First Morning News/Idaho Talks Live" was anchored by Paul J. Schneider and Chris Walton until December, 2018, when Schneider retired from full-time broadcasting after 51 years with KBOI-TV and KBOI-AM. Schneider, an Illinois native who moved to Idaho as a teen with his parents and brother, was a KBOI-AM morning host from 1976 to 2018. Walton, a native of Twin Falls, joined the program in 2001, moving from the morning drive show at Citadel-owned classic rock station KKGL-FM. Idaho native Mike Kasper, the former morning drive co-host of Boise station KCIX-FM, was hired by KBOI following Schneider's retirement, and since January, 2019, the 5am-10am KBOI-AM program has been known as "Kasper and Chris". The KBOI morning newscaster is station news director Rick Worthington. The radio program was simulcast on then-local Fox television station KTRV-TV from 8am to 10am Monday through Friday from 2003 through 2010. KTRV dropped the program after Boise CBS affiliate television station KBCI-TV changed its call letters back to KBOI-TV in 2010 to reflect a renewed partnership with KBOI radio. KBOI's 3pm-6pm afternoon drive slot is held by Boise talk show host Nate Shelman, who also serves as the station's program director. The station also features syndicated weekday shows including Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, John Batchelor and Red Eye Radio. Except for Limbaugh, all the national shows heard on KBOI come fromWestwood One, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media; Limbaugh is syndicated by Premiere Networks. Weekends on KBOI include shows on money, real estate, home improvement, and gardening, as well as religious and Brokered programming. Sunday night syndicated shows include Beyond the Beltway and Bill Cunningham. The station broadcasts NFLfootball as an affiliate of the Seattle Seahawks'
History
KBOI first signed on in 1947. Founded by Boise Valley Broadcasters, it was originally on 950 kHz and moved to 670 kHz in 1968. KBOI was a CBS Radio affiliate until 2005 when Citadel, its owner at the time, switched its affiliation to ABC, leading to Citadel's 2007 acquisition of ABC Radio. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011. At the beginning of 2015, Cumulus switched KBOI and most of its other news/talk stations from ABC News to Westwood One News. KBOI was the contracted radio station for Boise State University football and basketball from 1973 through early 2008, with Schneider as play-by-play announcer. The Broncos returned to KBOI during the 2010 season with Bob Behler serving as the Voice of the Broncos.
