The HAWK flies away; The GOAT hits the eastern Idaho airwaves

IDAHO FALLS – Listeners who tuned in to 105.5 FM on Thursday morning noticed something was different.

The longtime country music station is now The GOAT 105, a sports talk station. Kevin O’Rorke, the general manager for Riverbend Communications — the company that owns the station — tells EastIdahoNews.com it switched formats on Thursday at midnight.

It’s now the home of The Drake Toll Show, Nick Kostos, Bleck and Abdalla, Jim Rome and other syndicated programs. The station will also provide live coverage of Utah Jazz and Denver Broncos games, as well as the Utah Mammoths, a National Hockey League team.

The station will also carry the Super Bowl, March Madness and local high school sports.

“We’ll be covering high school match-ups and scores, player of the week, using our creative content partner, East Idaho Sports,” O’Rorke tells EastIdahoNews.com.

The goal, he says, is to eventually provide play-by-play coverage and cover local games live.

Noting the station’s name and mascot, O’Rorke says The GOAT is already a well-known acronym (it stands for “The greatest of all time”) and reflects the on-air tone he’s shooting for.

“It will be a fun station with a lot of attitude,” he says. “The GOAT is coming on the scene proclaiming himself as the best sports talk station around … but also laughing at himself in a self-deprecating way. He’ll be out in the community at games and sporting events, giving stuff away. It’s designed to take the levity of sports and bring it to life on radio.”

O’Rorke says the change in format is due to an oversaturated market with “too many country stations for our population.”

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Before the change, 105.5 The HAWK was one of two country stations owned by Riverbend. Farm Country 1260 AM went on the air last year. Riverbend also owns two country stations on digital streaming apps — 105 Legends and 105 Outlaw.

“We just felt it was a better opportunity from a listening and advertising standpoint to be the big dog in a less crowded space,” says O’Rorke. “There’s only one other sports station in the market, and it has a very small signal. Our ability to competitively be the dominant player right away is why we’re doing it.”

O’Rorke has big plans for The GOAT in 2027. Meanwhile, it’s now on the air, and O’Rorke invites the community to tune in on the radio or online.