Weekly Spots

POSTED: September 12, 2011

(White Plains, NY) September 12, 2011 – According to Arbitron, New York, NY is the largest radio market in the United States with a population of 15,730,000.

• The City of New York, commonly called New York City, or NYC, has been the most populous city in the United States since 1790.

• Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States. Along with the reading of names at the 911 Ground Zero site by family members of those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the ceremonies. Most of the memorial has been completed, however the 9/11 museum is due to open in September 2012.

• The city is made up of five boroughs: The Bronx, which is located in Bronx County; Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County; Queens is Queens County and the borough of Staten Island is Richmond County.

• A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment. As the host of United Nations headquarters, New York is also an important center for international affairs. Two times a year, the New York fashion community holds what is called Fashion Week. This year it’s from September 8 to 15th.

• New York is one of only five metro areas to have two teams in every major sport. The city's two current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, who compete against each other six times a year. The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Jets and New York Giants. The New York Rangers are in the National Hockey League with the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders playing nearby, making the New York area the richest hockey market in the world. The city's NBA team is the New York Knicks and the city's Women's National Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty.

• Universities include: City University of New York, the nation's third-largest public university system, the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the State University of New York and famous private universities: Barnard College, Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University, The New School, and Yeshiva University. The city has dozens of other smaller private colleges and universities, including St. John's University, The Juilliard School and The School of Visual Arts.

• Just a few of the many famous faces of New York: Aaliyah - R&B singer, dancer, fashion model and actress; Christina Aguilera – singer; Lauren Bacall – actress; Pat Benatar – singer, Matthew Broderick – actor, Anderson Cooper - CNN anchorman, P. Diddy - rap artist and fashion mogul; Lou Gehrig - baseball player; Rudolph Giuliani – former mayor of New York; Whoopi Goldberg - comedian and actress; Washington Irving – author; Billy Joel – singer; Jay-Z - rap artist; Alicia Keys - R&B singer; Calvin Klein - fashion designer; Ralph Lauren - fashion designer; Colin Powell – retired US Army General and Secretary of State; filmmaker Martin Scorsese; actor Billy Crystal and from Brooklyn, Woody Allen.

NEW YORK SPOT TEN

New York radio is jam-packed with national advertisers. The #1 advertiser in the Big Apple was LOWE’S last week with 1,182 spots. The HOME DEPOT was #2 running 1,182 ads, while GEICO landed in #3 with 1,069 commercials. MCDONALD’S was #4 with 747 announcements and WAL-MART leaped from #32 to #5 airing 699 spots. MACY’S was #6 with 582 spots, while METROPCS controlled #7 with 545 ads. STATE FARM cleared 541 spots making them #8 and SEARS was #9 with 502 spots. WHITE CASTLE made the top 10, sliding into #10 from #82, and running 497 spots.

APPAREL RETAILERS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

The #1 Retailer in Apparel is OLD NAVY with 810 spots. Coming in #2 was CATHERINES with 377 spots, while MEN’S CLUB was #3 with 104 spots. PURPLE EAST was #4 airing 79 announcements, while SUITS ON SITE landed in #5 with 79 spots. JEAN MACHINE took #6 with 65 spots, while TRENDYXCHANGE was #7 with 65 spots and ARISTOLE’S ATTIC was #8 running 60 spots nationally. NEW YORKER KID was #9 with 58 spots and coming in #10 was CLUBMAN with 58 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Staying in #1 was THE HOME DEPOT with 40,580 spots. GEICO keeps #2 with their 35,740 commercials, while LOWE’S moves from #9 to #3 with 31,866 spots. MCDONALD’S was #4 airing 27,973 spots and STATE FARM jumped from #10 to #5 last week running 25,561 spots.

Posted: September 12, 2011

H & R Block was founded in Kansas City, Missouri by Henry and Richard Bloch. The two brothers had followed slightly different paths: Henry Bloch had received his degree in math at the University of Michigan and served as a bomber crewman during World War II, whereas Richard studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance.

In 1946, while still in their early 20s, Henry and Richard teamed up and formed a business services company called United Business. They offered bookkeeping, collections, advertising, and other forms of assistance to local businesses. Tax preparation was one of those services, but the Bloch brothers considered it so marginal that they offered it free of charge to their customers. Within eight years, they were running the largest bookkeeping firm in Kansas City. They also made a sideline out of preparing individual tax returns for people who worked in the building in which they were headquartered.

Preparing individual returns might have remained a mere sideline if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had not stopped offering such assistance to the public in 1955.

One of their individual clients, an advertising salesman for the Kansas City Star named John White, persuaded them to give tax preparation a greater focus and talked them into two advertisements in his newspaper. On the first day that the ads ran, the Blochs found their office flooded with customers.

The Bloch brothers then divested their accounting business by selling it to their employees. They reincorporated in 1955, setting up shop under the H & R Block name, and focused on preparing tax returns for the "little guy" full-time. The Bloch brothers also chose to deliberately misspell their last name in christening their new venture.

In 1957 H & R Block opened offices in Topeka and in Columbia, Missouri. The next year, it added offices in Des Moines, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock to the roster. From there, the company grew at a dazzling rate.

In September 1995 Richard H. Brown, former vice-chairman of telecommunications company Ameritech, was named president and CEO of H & R Block to succeed Thomas M. Bloch. He became the first nonfamily member to head the firm.

H&R Block delivered $3.77 billion in revenues with a net income of $406.11 million. They have 7,900 employees.

On Cable, H&R Block ran 145,655 spots in the last 12 months. As you know, they are in a business that is quite seasonal. They ran very hot last January where 49% of all their Cable spots ran totaling 72,378 units.

In Radio, they ran 51.3% of all media ads, which totaled 269,851 spots. Again, January was their big push when 112,021 spots ran there.

And on TV, H&R Block ran 110,136 spots in the last 12 months with January again being the hottest month with 63,040 spots.

POSTED: September 12, 2011

Kaplan University was started by Stanley Kaplan in 1937 when it was known as the American Institute of Commerce. You can earn an associate’s, bachelors, or master’s degree in any of their 200 programs. The main campus is located in Davenport, Iowa and their headquarters is in Chicago.

Kaplan University has eleven campuses in Maryland, Nebraska, Iowa, and Maine. There are also Kaplan University Learning Centers in Missouri, Maryland, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Florida. Kaplan has 4,500 faculty members and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

In 1984, Stanley Kaplan sold his company to The Washington Post Company for $45 million. The acquisition enabled the Washington Post Company, whose operations had previously focused on newspapers, to become a larger media and education entity.

In 2009, the Kaplan Co. brought in two-thirds of its annual revenue from other educational services besides SAT prep, such as pre-kindergarten and even accredited law programs.

Stanley Kaplan died of a heart ailment on August 23, 2009, at his home in New York City at the age of 90.

This year, after a decline of 15% in revenues, The Washington Post decided to sell the Kaplan education division to a subsidiary of Vertafore Inc., a privately-held provider of software and information to the insurance industry.

According to the Post’s annual report for 2010, Kaplan accounted for about 62% of the parent company’s total revenue which was $4.72 billion with net income of $546.8 million. Worldwide, Kaplan employs approximately 14,000 persons on a full-time basis.

DeVry University recently celebrated their 80th birthday. The school began back in 1931 when Dr. Herman DeVry started the DeForest Training School in Chicago. It was designed to train students in technical work in the fields of motion pictures, television, electronics, and radio. During the years of World War II, the United States chose the institution to teach Army Air Corps. instructors on electronic machinery.

In 1953, the school’s name was changed to DeVry Technical Institute. Bell and Howell Education Group obtained DeVry in 1966 and two years later changed their name to DeVry Institute of Technology.

In 1987 the DeVry Institutes and the Keller Graduate School of Management merged and resulted in the company DeVry Inc. 1991 was the year that DeVry went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange and four years later, they moved to the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1998, they were approved to offer online degrees.

In 2002, the DeVry Institute of Technology became DeVry University. Throughout the years, DeVry has also acquired Deaconess College of Nursing, Ross University, Apollo College, and Western Career College.

DeVry has over 90 college campuses located across the nation and one can earn an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree in any of their five colleges. The five colleges include: Health Sciences, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Business & Management, Engineering and Information Sciences, and Media Arts & Technology.

DeVry reported revenues of $1.92 billion with a net income of $279.91 million and showed sales growth in 2011 of 31%. They employ 10,009 people.

On Cable, Kaplan aired 43.9% as many spots as DeVry. DeVry ran 183,640 spots in the last 12 months against Kaplan’s 80,693 ads. January was the biggest month for DeVry with 41,016 while Kaplan ran hottest in September 2010 with 8,198 spots.

On Radio, DeVry was solidly in radio’s corner with 208,426 spots while Kaplan ran 46,291 spots in the last 12 months.

On the TV Kaplan is the king of the hill with 316,700 spots, while DeVry only ran 1,701 spots in the last 12 months.

Posted: September 12, 2011

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