Weekly Spots

POSTED: March 12, 2012

(White Plains, NY) March 12, 2012 – According to Arbitron, the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point market is the 46th largest radio market with a population of 1,219,700.

• In 1808, Greensborough (as was the spelling prior to 1895) was planned around a central courthouse square to succeed the nearby town of Guilford Court House as the county seat.

• Greensboro evolved from a small center of government to an early 1900s textile and transportation hub, and today is emerging as one of the South's up-and-coming centers for relocating businesses.

• On February 1, 1960, four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College sat down at an all-white Woolworth's lunch counter, and refused to leave after they were denied service. Hundreds of others soon joined in this sit-in, which lasted several months. The lunch counter is part of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

• Greensboro is home to Vicks Chemical Co. (famous for over-the counter cold remedies such as VapoRub and NyQuil), Carolina Steel Corporation, and Pomona Terra Cotta Works.

• Colleges in Greensboro include; the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Guilford College and Bennett College for Women.

• Famous people from Greensboro: comedian Ken Jeong; singer Chris Daughtry; hip hoppers Urban Sophisticates; NFL quarterback Vince Evans and basketball star Bob McAdoo; and R&B singers Inez and Charlie Foxx who recorded the classic 1963 hit "Mockingbird".

GREENSBORO SPOT TEN

Last week in Greensboro the #1 radio advertiser was GEICO with 598 spots. SUBWAY was #2 running 403 commercials, while CENTURYLINK BUNDLE connected at #3 airing 332 announcements. O’REILLY-CSK-MURRAY’S managed at #4 with 307 spots and FATZ (Café) was #5 serving up 303 ads. MCDONALD’S hit #6 with 297 spots, while TIME WARNER BUNDLE bounced from #20 to #7 with 271 spots. BOJANGLES’ moved from #16 to #8 with 241 spots and GRAINGER was a solid #9 with their 240 commercials. NORTH CAROLINA EDUCATION LOTTERY was #10 with 239 spots.

RESTAURANT & NIGHT CLUB SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In the Restaurant & Night Club category, the #1 leader is BUFFALO WILD WINGS BAR & GRILL with 8,286 spots nationwide. Coming in #2 is BONEFISH GRILL with 4,055 spots, while APPLEBEE’S lands in #3 airing 1,630 announcements. FAMOUS DAVE’S stays at #4 with 1,354 commercials and FATZ is fine at #5 with 909 ads. HOOTERS slips into #6 running 830 spots, while NINETY NINE RESTAURANTS was #7 with 569 spots. ESCAPADE NIGHT CLUBS claimed #8 with 546 spots and the HARD ROCK CAFÉ moved from #14 to #9 with 495 spots. ROMANO’S MACARONI GRILL was #10 with 479 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO continues its streak at #1 with 44,069 spots last week. MCDONALD’S showing some power moves from #3 to #2 with 27,076 spots. STATE FARM climbs from #7 to #3 with 19,473 spots, while THE HOME DEPOT starts back up from #8 to #4 with 18,406 commercials. Coming in #5 O’REILLY-CSK-MURRAY’S with 18,381 spots. Of note: new to the top ten this week, WELLS FARGO with 18,273 spots at #6.

Posted: March 5, 2012

The Fox Entertainment Group is a mega-entertainment force which owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties.

Fox Entertainment Group is owned and controlled by the Australian/American media conglomerate News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch.

It is named after William Fox who created the original Fox Film Corporation in 1914. Fox Films merged with the 20th Century studio in 1935. They operated as an independent studio until 1985, when the News Corporation bought a large share of the studio.

The Fox network began with News Corporation's $250-million purchase of 50 percent of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. In May 1985, News Corporation agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from John Kluge's company, Metromedia. This gave the News Corporation a major-market network base to form the Fox television network, which launched in October 1986.

They continued their quest by buying up several smaller market TV groups, which helped them grow their network affiliate list faster. But they have grown faster than the big three networks could have ever expected.

In the early 90s, they had some really significant hit TV shows that not only got good ratings, but launched the careers of scores of actors: The X-Files, In Living Color, Ally McBeal, That 70s Show and Married with Children. They also made TV history by launching a whole night of animated TV shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy.

They lured the NFL away from CBS, and developed a strong group of regional sports channels on cable. FOX Sports produces some 20,000 plus sporting events per year. Their other cable TV offering, Fox News, legendary for their political slant uses the slogan “Fair and Balanced” although most objective observers would sense a strong agenda in their programming.

They continue to air big hit TV shows; like American Idol, The OT and House, a show which NBCUniversal created and then FOX snatched when NBC passed.

There are 27 stations owned by Fox TV, consisting of 17 Fox stations and 10 MyNetworkTV (a positioning slogan) stations. There are more than 200 My(channel number)TV affiliates nationwide, many used to be part of the UPN network. And there are more than 200 stations affiliated with Fox. Fox TV only provides two hours each night of programming, with all their stations running news or syndicated programming at 10PM local time.

The parent company, News Corporation, according to public records shows revenues of $33.41 billion with net income of $2.99 billion, which produced 1.9% growth in 2011 sales. They have 51,000 employees.

On Cable, Fox Broadcasting Company ran 619,106 spots in the last 12 months. The most spots in a month were run in January to start the year with 54,586 ads.

On Radio, Fox Entertainment ran 370,759 spots in the last 12 months with big months being May (59,975), September (46,696) and November being the biggest with 63,395 spots.

On TV, Fox ran 473,288 spots in the last 12 months with the high point coming in January with 49,381 spots.

POSTED: March 12, 2012

Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios), is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal (a Comcast company) and one of the six major movie studios based in America. Its production studios are located in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are based in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second longest-lived Hollywood studio.

By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was in trouble. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its studio lot to MCA in 1958, for $11 million, renamed Revue Studios. Although MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, it was increasingly influential on Universal's product.

In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with Paramount Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal worldwide. It was replaced by United International Pictures in 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer joined the fold. UIP began distributing films by start-up studio DreamWorks in 1997, and MGM subsequently dropped out of the venture in 2001, letting 20th Century Fox internationally distribute its films. In 1990, MCA created MCA/Universal Home Video Inc. to enter the lucrative videotape and later DVD sales Industry.

According to the 2011 Annual Report, the parent company of NBCUniversal, Comcast Corporation made revenues of $55.84 billion with a net income of $4.16 billion. They have 126,000 employees.

Columbia Pictures was founded in 1920 as the CBC Sales Film Corporation by Harry Cohn, Joe Brandt and Jack Cohn. Despite the obvious connection to the founders' surnames, some film industry insiders joked the initials CBC stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage" because of the fact that Columbia started out as one of the so-called "Poverty Row" studios of Hollywood's Gower Street.

The studio was known for making low-budget westerns, B-movies and serials. Gradually, however, Columbia built up its reputation with a number of high-profile films. In 1924 in an effort to strengthen its brand, the studio renamed itself Columbia Pictures, which was considered to be a more upscale brand.

One of the film directors who played a huge part in Columbia's early history was Frank Capra, who made a majority of his films at the studio.

The Three Stooges also made Columbia their home in a series of 180 short subjects made during a period from the 1930s through the 1950s.

In 1934, the Screen Gems division was initiated for a series of moderately successful cartoons to rival perennial favorites Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

Harry Cohn ran the studio until his death in 1957; his tough personality made him difficult to work with, but few could argue that he was not successful at his profession.

In the 1970s, the studio was brought up from near financial ruin by a number of hit films and TV shows but was still marred by the David Begelman check-forging scandal.

In fact, it was Steven Spielberg's 1977 Close Encounters Of The Third Kind that saved Columbia from bankruptcy.

Columbia Pictures was bought by Coca-Cola in 1982. Columbia's fortunes were mixed in the 1980s, as hits like Tootsie, The Karate Kid, and Ghostbusters were balanced by costly flops like Ishtar and Leonard Part 6.

In television, Columbia acquired some components of Norman Lear's Embassy Pictures, thereby gaining the rights to the company's backlog of highly successful TV programs (such as The Jeffersons, All In The Family, and Sanford and Son; the company later produced Married With Children).

Also of note, Columbia Pictures made a deal with Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting to distribute films from his Castle Rock Entertainment (producers of the NBC hit, Seinfeld, which Columbia-TriStar Television and its successor, Sony Pictures Television, still hold the syndication rights to).

When Time Warner and Turner Brodcasting merged in 1995, Warner Bros. took over distribution of Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema, although Columbia still owns certain television distribution rights

Five years later, under pressure from shareholders to focus on its core product, Coca-Cola abandoned the volatility of the film business and sold its entertainment holdings to Sony in 1989. As of 2004, the Columbia Pictures brand is part of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The original Columbia Pictures logo was of the female personification of the USA, Columbia holding a torch. This logo was replaced with a modernization of the Torch Lady in 1981.

According to the latest public records, Columbia Pictures parent company SONY produced revenues of $86.64 billion, while losses in net of $-2.69 billion. They have 168,200 employees at SONY.

On Local Cable, Universal ran 912,844 spots in the last 12 months, while Columbia Pictures ran 301,547 ads. Universal’s biggest month was last March 2011 when they ran 119,922 ads and Columbia’s biggest month was last October with 53,503 spots.

On Radio, Universal ran 58,341 spots in the last 12 months, while Columbia Pictures only ran 10,065 spots in the same period. Universal’s biggest month was November 2011 with 12,105 ads, while Columbia ran hottest in August with 6,587 spots.

On TV, Universal cleared 192,972 ads in the last 12 months, while Columbia delivered 93,440 spots. Columbia ran the most last December with 16,102 ads against Universal’s biggest month being last March 2011 when they ran 28,797 ads.

Posted: March 12, 2012

For The Current Spots: