Weekly Spots

POSTED: August 13, 2012

(White Plains, NY) August 13, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Orlando, Florida is the 34th largest radio market with a population of 1,596,200.

• At the height of the Seminole Wars in the 1830’s, the U.S. Army established Fort Gatlin to protect settlers from Native American attacks. The town of Orlando was incorporated in 1875 and was named after Orlando Reeves, a guard at the first fort.

• The city of Orlando is a major industrial and hi-tech center. The metro area has a $13.4 billion technology industry employing 53,000 people and is a nationally recognized cluster of innovation in digital media, agricultural technology, aviation, aerospace, and software design.

• More than 150 international companies, representing approximately 20 countries, have facilities in Metro Orlando including Lockheed- Martin, General Dynamics, Siemens, as well as the United States Government.

• Orlando is best known as a tourism hot-spot with the Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, and Sea World Orlando. Universal Orlando is comprised of Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. According to Crain’s Business, Orlando attracted a record 51.4 million visitors last year, becoming the first U.S. city to top 50 million tourists, putting them ahead of New York City.

• In professional sports: the Orlando Magic is their NBA team; the Orlando Predators is their Arena Football League team; and the Orlando City is their USL Pro soccer team.

• Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, the second-largest university campus by student enrollment in the United States. Other notable colleges include Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A & M University College of Law, and the Florida Institute of Technology.

• Famous Faces from Orlando include: actor/comedian, Wayne Brady; stand-up comedian Daniel Tosh; American author, poet, and painter, Jack Kerouac; professional baseball players, Johnny Damon and Zach Greinke; and American astronaut John Watts Young.

ORLANDO SPOT TEN

In Orlando last week the #1 radio advertiser was ORLANDO KIA with 1,241 ads. WAL-MART was #2 with 1,026 spots, while GEICO ran 570 commercials to put them in #3. MCDONALD’S was #4 airing 561 announcements and BURGER KING moved from #10 up to #5 with 554 spots. 1-800-411-PAIN was #6 with 531 spots, while FIFTH THIRD BANK cashed in at #7 with 522 ads. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS broke into the Spot Ten at #8 with 497 spots and ALAN GRAYSON FOR U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES jumped for #68 to #9 with 469 spots. Coming in #10 was T-MOBILE with 459 spots.

CASINO SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this unique category the #1 Casino on the radio was HOLLYWOOD CASINO with 1,597 spots. Coming in #2 was HORSESHOE (Caesar’s) with 900 spots, while MORONGO CASINO & SPA landed at #3 with 767 spots. SEMINOLE HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO rolled into #4 airing 642 commercials and AMERISTAR CASINO was #5 with 598 spots. POTAWATOMI BINGO CASINO was #6 with 570 spots and landing on luck #7 was HARRAH’S RINCON CASINO & RESORT (Caesar’s) with 559 ads. SANDIA RESORT & CASINO was #8 with 551 spots, while EMPIRE CITY CASINO YONKERS RACEWAY was #9 with 487 spots. CASINO DEL SOL was #10 with 446 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

We have a new leader in the nation: GEICO takes over #1 with 43,136 spots. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS appears at #2 with 42,381 ads, while WAL-MART lands at #3 with 36,085 spots. THE HOME DEPOT, our leader for 18 weeks in a row, is now at #4 with 26,738 spots. MCDONALD’S was #5 clearing 26,154 spots.

Posted: August 13, 2012

Merck’s history can be traced back to Darmstadt, Germany, in 1668 when an apothecary named Friedrich Jacob Merck acquired Angel Pharmacy. Friedrich then passed the torch to Johann Heinrich Merck, who was followed by Heinrich Emanuel Merck, who was succeeded by George Merck who joined the company in 1915. The last Merck to run the company was George W. Merck, who died in 1957.

In 1891, George Merck created Merck & Co in New York. But during the First World War in 1917, the U.S. government confiscated the firm and established it as an independent American company.

Part of this company’s rich history includes Dr. Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering, who created Schering AG in Berlin, Germany in 1851 which became a worldwide company. Following the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered Schering AG's U.S. assets seized and it was in a run by the government until 1952.

Between the two wars (WWI and WWII), George W. Merck, who was schooled at Harvard, ran Merck. He was instrumental in developing synthetic vitamins, sulfa drugs, antibiotics and hormones. During World War II, he led the War Research Service, which was connected to the U.S. biological weapons program.

In 1953 Merck & Co. merged with Sharpe and Dohme, a Philadelphia based pharmaceutical company. By 1963 Merck had developed the first measles vaccine and in 1967 it introduced the first mumps vaccine.

In 2009, Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough. This made the company the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical company by market share. Schering-Plough’s New Zealand plant was, at the time, the largest producer of veterinary vaccines in the world.

For 2011, Merck & Co., Inc. reported revenues of $48.13 billion with a net income of $6.26 billion, which represented a 4.8% increase in sales. They have 86,000 employees.

58.1% of all the spots that Merck ran appeared on Cable. In the last 12 months, they ran 488,694 spots on Local Cable. The hottest month was May 2012 when they ran 89,980 ads.

On Radio, Merck ran 104,532 spots in the last 12 months with the high point taking place in August 2011 when they ran 27,819 spots.

On Broadcast TV, Merck ran 246,533 spots in the last 12 months. After a slow start, Merck had some major peaks in April (50,548) and May (50,935) of 2012.

POSTED: August 13, 2012

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 signed 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: a systems and equipment company, a 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 merged in a $16 billion deal. In 2006, AT&T bought BellSouth and consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless and YP.com. They claim more than 100 million customers.

AT&T, Inc. reported revenues of $126.72 billion with a net income of $3.94 billion, which represented a 2% increase in sales in 2011. They have 256,420 employees.

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.

In 2011, Verizon Communications reported revenues of $110.88 billion with a net income of $2.4 billion, which represented a 4% growth in sales in 2011. They have 193,900 employees.

On Local Cable, Verizon ran 587,647 spots in the last 12 months, while AT&T cleared 981,232 commercials. Verizon’s biggest month was March 2012 when they ran 73,501 spots and AT&T ran hottest in August 2011 with 119,604 ads.

On the Radio, Verizon ran 693,674 spots against AT&T’s 446,081 in the last 12 months. Verizon ran the most in December 2011 with 107,175 spots, while AT&T ran hot in December 2011 as well with 53,756 ads.

On Broadcast TV, AT&T was out in front with 751,499 spots in the last 12 months, while Verizon ran 552,283 in the same time range. Verizon ran hottest last month July 2012 with 57,952 spots and AT&T ran the most in August 2011 with 86,407 spots.

Posted: August 13, 2012

For The Current Spots: