Weekly Spots

POSTED: September 10, 2012

(White Plains, NY) September 10, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Toledo, Ohio is the 96th largest radio market with a population of 513,200. They were 89th a few years ago.

• Toledo was founded in 1833 on the west bank of the Maumee River, originally incorporated as part of Monroe County, Michigan Territory, then re-founded in 1837, after the conclusion of the Toledo War, when it was incorporated in Ohio.

• The city is known as “the glass capital of the world” because of its long standing history in the glass industry as well as “frog town” because of its location along the river in the area that was once known as the Great Black Swamp.

• Some of the main points of interest in Toledo are The Toledo Zoo featuring the famous “hippoquarium,” and the Toledo Metroparks which consist of 12 parks and feature the Toledo Botanical Gardens, The Toledo Museum of Art, the Valentine Theater, The Imagination Station hands-on science museum, as well as Tony Packo’s Café featuring hundreds of celebrity-signed hotdog buns. As you may remember, Jamie Farr’s character in M*A*S*H, Max Klinger always longed for Tony Packo’s chili, which as this writer can attest, is rather “amazing.”

• Golf is one of the more prominent pastimes in Toledo and the city is home to the Inverness Club which has hosted six major USGA events, including the 2003 U.S. Senior Open.,

• In pro sports, the Toledo Mud Hens are one of minor league baseball's oldest teams, having first played in 1896. They currently play at Fifth Third Field which was completed in 2002. The Toledo Walleye is their ECHL hockey team that is a farm team for the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Rockford Icehogs of the AHL, and the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL.

• The major universities located in the city metro area are The University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University. Other smaller colleges include Davis College, Stautzenberger College, and Toledo Academy of Beauty.

• Notable people from Toledo include: actress, Katie Holmes; actress, Marlo Thomas; actor, Jamie Farr; journalist and political activist, Gloria Steinem; jazz pianist, Art Tatum; musician, Tom Scholz, member of the 1970s rock group Boston; collegiate football coach, Urban Meyer and head coach of the NFL Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh.

TOLEDO SPOT TEN

In the Glass City last week the #1 radio advertiser was TAYLOR KIA with 677 spots. Coming in #2 was SAFELITE AUTOGLASS with 533 ads, while NATIONWIDE AUTO FINANCE was #3 with 415 spots. KROGER moved from #19 to #4 with 371 spots and MIDAS lands in #5 with 330 commercials. SAM’S CLUB captures #6 with 303 spots, while GEICO commands #7 running 277 spots. CONSUMER TAX HOTLINE takes #8 with 266 spots, while ARMY NATIONAL GUARD marches from #35 to #9 with 246 spots. Moving from #26 to #10 was BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT with 242 spots.

FAST FOOD SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Now referred to as “Quick Service Restaurants”, this is how FAST FOOD marketed last week in America. #1 was MCDONALD’S with 28,145 spots. SUBWAY was #2 with 13,470 spots, while TACO BELL rang in at #3 with 10,932 ads. DOMINO’s PIZZA moved from #18 to #4 with 7,636 commercials. WENDY’S was #5 with 6,532 spots and WHITE CASTLE slid into #6 with 6,210 ads. BURGER KING was solid at #7 airing 6,098 spots, while SONIC took #8 with 4,907 spots. JIMMY JOHN’S was #9 with 3,651 spots and coming in #10 was LITTLE CAESARS with 3,382 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

We have a surprising new #1. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS took top honors running 40,896 spots. GEICO stayed at #2 with 39,427 spots, while MCDONALD’S moved from #4 to #3 airing 28,143 commercials. SAM’S CLUB vaulted from #14 to #4 with 22,789 spots and WELLS FARGO leaps from #15 to #5 with 20,029 spots. OF NOTE: THE HOME DEPOT was #6 with 19,176 spots, followed by their competitor LOWE’S at #7 running 18,639 spots.

Posted: September 10, 2012

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.

According to their latest annual report, H&R Block delivered $2.89 billion in revenues with a net income of $345.51 million. They have 93,000 employees, although a certain number of those employees are seasonal.

On Local Cable, H&R Block ran 148,615 spots in the last 12 months. The greatest concentration is from January to April with their biggest month being January 2012 when they ran 75,585 ads.

On the Radio, H&R Block cleared 261,486 spots in the last 12 months, with January being the big push with 145,769 spots. In fact, 45.93% of all their spots ran on Radio.

On Broadcast TV, H&R Block ran 159,233 spots in the last 12 months with January 2012 getting the most at 93,265 ads.

POSTED: September 10, 2012

Kaplan University was started by Stanley Kaplan in 1937 when it was known as the American Institute of Commerce. You can earn an associate, 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, 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.

In August 2011, the Washington Post sold the Kaplan education division to a subsidiary of Vertafore Inc., a privately-held provider of software and information to the insurance industry.

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 & Information Sciences, and Media Arts & Technology.

According to their latest annual report, DeVry had revenues of $2.09 billion with a net income of $141.57 million. They have 12,350 employees, up from 10,009 a year ago.

On Local Cable, Kaplan ran 61,694 spots in the last 12 months compared to DeVry that ran 139,734 ads. The biggest month for Kaplan was September 2011 with 6,949 spots, while DeVry ran the most in May 2012 at 20,943 spots.

On Radio, DeVry more than doubled the number of spots that Kaplan ran in the last 12 months. Kaplan ran 23,485 spots, while DeVry ran 67,231 ads. The biggest month for DeVry was October 2011 with 19,291 spots and Kaplan’s biggest month was September 2011 with 4,893 spots.

On Broadcast TV, Kaplan is way out in front with 310,382 spots in the last 12 months compared to DeVry’s 5,118 spots. Kaplan’s biggest month was April 2011 with 27,705, but every month of the last year they ran more than 24,000 in each one. DeVry’s biggest month was only 1,936 back in January 2012.

Posted: September 10, 2012

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