Weekly Spots

POSTED: August 15, 2011

(White Plains, NY) August 15, 2011 – According to Arbitron, St. Louis, MO is the 21st largest radio market with a population of 2,320,300.

• The city was named for King Louis IX of France. St Louis was acquired from France by the United States when President Thomas Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

• Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication here in 1893. And two other events, the 1904 World's Fair and 1904 Olympic Games (the first ever held in the United States) are of particular pride to St. Louisans.

• Eberhard Anheuser was only one of 50 breweries in St. Louis in 1870. Anheuser, a soap manufacturer, had taken over an insolvent brewing business in 1860 and turned it around. His son-in-law, Adolphus Busch spearheaded the company’s global expansion and become St. Louis’s merchant prince of beer, thus producing what they called “the king of beers.”

• The Ralston-Purina company (headed by the Danforth Family) is headquartered in the city. Some of their grain is used to make beer.

• Professional sports in St. Louis include: NHL St. Louis Blues, MLB St. Louis Cardinals and NFL St. Louis Rams.

• Besides the Busch family, many famous people were born and raised in St. Louis, including, President U.S. Grant, and baseball players Yogi Berra, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith and Lou Brock. From the literary world, T.S. Eliot and Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons) and Joseph Pulitzer called St. Louis home. From music, Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina Turner, Michael McDonald and Miles Davis, while sports broadcasters Harry, Skip and Chip Caray, Jack and Joe Buck all started out in St. Louis. And although from Detroit, Charles Lindbergh worked and lived in St. Louis. The famous aviator named his plane “the Spirit of St. Louis” and in it, was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop.

ST. LOUIS SPOT TEN

The #1 radio advertiser in St. Louis last week was THE HOME DEPOT with 705 spots. Coming in #2 with 626 ads was AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE, while WALGREENS leaped from #33 to #3 with 594 commercials. SUNTRUP HYUNDAI notched #4 with 579 and SUNTRUP KIA held #5 with 576 spots, while SUNTRUP NISSAN VOLKSWAGEN landed at #6 with 573 spots. WAL-MART moved from #11 to #7 with 503 ads and OFFICE DEPOT took #8 with 460 spots. SHANE COMPANY commanded #9 with 451 spots and GEICO dropped from #1 to #10 running 429 spots.

AMUSEMENT PARKS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Summer is prime time for Amusement Parks and last week, the biggest user of radio was SIX FLAGS THEME PARKS with 2,563 spots nationally. GREAT WOLF LODGE was #2 running 1,984 ads, while UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THEME PARKS was #3 with 899 spots. CEDAR POINT was #4 with 650 spots and KINGS DOMINION was #5 airing 512 advertisements. KINGS ISLAND was #6 with 502 commercials, while WET ‘N WILD EMERALD POINT landed in #7 with 472 spots. SCHLITTERBAHN WATERPARKS was #8 running 452 ads and MARINELAND was #9 with 410 spots. And coming in #10 was DISNEY PARKS & RESORTS with 388 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO maintained its grip on #1 with 35,476 spots. THE HOME DEPOT was again #2 with 30,609 spots. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS leaped to #3 with 29,088 ads, while MCDONALD’S was #4 airing 26,149 announcements. MIDAS is a new comer in the top five with 22,959 spots.

Posted: August 15, 2011

Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) is the world's largest office supply store, with over 2,000 stores worldwide in 27 countries.

The idea for Staples was created in 1985, while founder Thomas G. Stemberg was working on a proposal for a different business. He needed a ribbon for his printer, but was unable to obtain one because his local dealer was closed for the Independence Day holiday. Frustrated by the reliance on small stores for critical supplies, Stemberg came up with a concept of combining the dynamic of a grocery store with the vision for an office supply superstore.

The first store was opened in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1986. The 500th store was opened in Vero Beach, Florida, in 1996.

Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, Staples has catalog and delivery businesses and serves customers around the world with names like: Officenet Staples, Staples Office Centre), Bureau En Gros, Staples Advantage Mondoffice and Staples Office Centre.

On September 4, 1996, Staples and Office Depot announced plans to merge. The Federal Trade Commission decided that the superpower would unfairly increase office supply prices despite competition from OfficeMax. Staples argued that chains such as Wal-Mart and Circuit City represented significant competition, but this argument did not work.

Staples delivered revenues of $24.55 billion with a net income of $881.95 million, up 1.1% this year. They currently have 52,919 employees, which is down about 2,000 since 2009.

On Cable TV, Staples ran 93,723 spots in the last 12 months. The biggest month was March with 23,523 spots.

On the Radio, Staples ran 154,604 spots which were 54.6% of all media spots they ran. The biggest month was December at 35,122 ads.

On TV, Staples ran 34,643 spots in the last 12 months with last March clearing 6,813 spot and in May they ran 6,766 ads.

POSTED: August 15, 2011

VERIZON Communications Inc., based in New York City was formed on June 30, 2000, with the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. Verizon began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the VZ symbol on Monday, July 3, 2000 and was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2004.

From 2008 through 2010, Verizon invested more than $50 billion to upgrade, increase, and sustain their technological set-up.

In 2008 Verizon bought Rural Cellular Corp. allowing it to increase its wireless coverage. A year later in 2009, Verizon bought Alltel which brought in even more wireless coverage to their network. In order to obtain Alltel, Verizon divested some intersecting wireless properties in 105 markets within 24 states.

Fast-forward to December of 2010 and Verizon introduces its 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network. To begin 2011, Verizon increased their 4G LTE network by 140 markets. Verizon Wireless serves 94 million customers.

Verizon Communications reported revenues of $106.57 billion with a net income of $2.55 billion. They employ 195,900 people.

AT&T’s history began back in 1876, the same year that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Later on, AT&T took over Bell Systems becoming its parent company.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against AT&T in 1949 for anti-trust violations. And in 1956 a settlement was sign that limited the pursuits of AT&T, but they continued to grow somewhat as a controlled monopoly.

In 1974 another law suit was brought against AT&T by the U.S. Department of Justice again based on anti-trust laws. The suit ended in 1982 and in 1984 the divesture of Bell operating companies took place. The larger Bell Telephone Company totally controlled local exchange service, while AT&T controlled “long lines” then known as “long distance”. The government divided the Bell part into what would be called “Baby Bells”. Seven regional Bell operating companies were created as separate companies. AT&T held the long-lines, but had to move forward to expand their business.

AT&T restructured in 1995 into three separate companies, each publicly traded; they included: systems and equipment and company, communications service company and a computer company.

In 2000, AT&T had three growing networks known as broadband, data, and wireless. In October of that year AT&T made another major announcement to restructure. AT&T split into three separate publicly held companies: AT&T Wireless, AT&T, and AT&T Broadband. AT&T Broadband merged with Comcast on November 18, 2002 to become the Comcast Corporation.

In 2005 SBC and AT&T agreed to an acquisition in which SBC would get AT&T in a $16 billion deal.

With the acquisition of BellSouth in 2006, and the consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless and YP.com, AT&T is positioned to lead our industry in one of its most significant transformations since the invention of the telephone more than 130 years ago.

AT&T, Inc. reported revenues of $124.28 billion and a net income of $19.86 billion. They employ 260,690 people.

On Cable, AT&T is light-years ahead of Verizon. AT&T ran 1,080,834 spots against Verizon’s 657,459, slightly more that 60% of what AT&T ran. The biggest month for AT&T was May when they ran 135,114. Verizon ran hottest in August a year ago with 72,384 ads.

On Radio, Verizon slightly nosed out the win with 970,142 spots, while AT&T ran 925,843 in the last 12 months. AT&T ran hottest in December with 133,508 spots and Verizon ran the most spots last August with 128,447 spots.

On TV, AT&T took the lead with 970,268 spots, while Verizon ran 55% as many spots at 533,576 in the last 12 months. The biggest month for Verizon was last August with 57,844 spots, while AT&T ran the most spots last month (July) with 95,745 spots.

Posted: August 15, 2011

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