June 6th, 2006
A Different Spin for Ads on the Bus
By Robert Tomsho
Wall Street Journal
Massachusetts Firm Offers Commercial-Radio Service
Reviving the debate over advertising in public education, a Massachusetts start-up is seeking agreements with school districts to broadcast commercial radio programs, complete with ads, on school buses.
BusRadio, of Needham, Mass., said it aims to begin broadcasting to more than 100,000 Massachusetts students in September and to expand nationwide in 2007. The closely held company, which offers school districts a percentage of ad revenue, has signed contracts with districts in Massachusetts, California and Illinois, said Michael Yanoff, chief executive officer. Several districts said they will receive 5% of the revenue generated by the free broadcast service.
“Our goal is to be able to give enough money back to the school systems so that they can enhance their transportation systems,” Mr. Yanoff said.
He said his company’s custom-designed radio programs, which will be broadcast through bus speakers, are designed to tamp down misbehavior and reduce student exposure to inappropriate on-air programs. Advertising will account for about eight minutes of every hour of BusRadio broadcasting, he added. BusRadio will have different programs tailored for different age groups, with material varying from school-safety announcements to disc jockeys telling jokes and playing hits by the likes of pop singer Avril Lavigne.
BusRadio’s plans were reported in Sunday’s Washington Post.
School-bus radio is the latest chapter in the long-running battle over advertising aimed at public-school students. The issue first gained prominence in 1990 with the launch of Channel One, which offered schools free televisions and cable access if they would broadcast its programs and advertising. With many school districts strapped for cash, commercializing of schools has expanded to include textbook advertising and naming rights to school buildings and stadiums.
Commercial Alert, a consumer-advocacy group in Portland, Ore., opposed to such advertising, yesterday called upon Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to bar BusRadio from the state’s school buses. Howard Schaffer, a spokesman for the Public Education Network, a Berkeley, Calif., association of foundations that raise money for public schools, said the budget troubles of many school districts are “making it easier for corporate people to go into schools and offer them things that would have previously been verboten or cast aside.”
A spokesman for the Boston Public Schools said the district isn’t interested in BusRadio’s proposal after a long debate a few years ago about advertising on the outside of buses.
Officials at an array of other Massachusetts school districts, large and small, say they are weighing proposals. Sandy Gifford, transportation director for the Barnstable Public Schools in Barnstable, Mass., said the district completed a two-week trial of BusRadio and hopes to have it in all of its buses by fall. “The feedback I got from our drivers was that they loved it,” she said.
Comments
- Posted by jacob on June 8th, 2006
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Posted by Ben Bayol on June 8th, 2006
At least Channel One provided a very carefully produced news cast with editorial integrity. This content sounds like aural wallpaper - though there’s always the chance to slip in a few moralistic guidlines between the songs, jokes, and ads…
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Posted by jason on June 8th, 2006
Yeah, I was surprised when they started selling stadium names. Then shocked when nobody thought there something inherently wrong with it.
Mussolini’s definition of fascism and all…
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Posted by Ken M. McNatt on June 14th, 2006
Seeing that Channel One is failing, advertisers and arguably greedy people “need” another way to advertise to children to make money, so they will now use the school bus. If they can’t use the school bus, they will find another way. It’s unfortunate that people cannot just leave schools and related entities alone when it comes to advertising. Howeverm there are people out there who care more about schools and students than the dollar, and it will be these people who will defeat BusRadio and other forms of advertising in the schools...keep up the good fight Gary and the other good folks at Commercial Alert!
Is anything not for sale in America? It is sad to hear that 8 years olds have no save haven for I dont know, education and interaction with children their age. When will it stop? Advertising on mailboxes, houses, cars, clothes, fingernails, churches, school buses painted like cola cans. Do you really want to live in a country where the only time your child is free of sugar temptation is when they are sleeping? How about Congress just pass a bill to literally put a price tag on EVERYTHING in america?