Stations leave behind illegal signs
Don @ IdahoRadioNews | July 25, 2009The Treasure Valley is a beautiful place. Lush trees, a meandering river, relatively low pollution and pristine foothills.
Many local radio stations talk about the quality of life here – in promos, in job ads and in their overall imaging. But most of those same stations think it is OK to junk up the environment with their roll-a-sign banners. Here’s an example from today:
Both KSRV/96.1 Bob FM and KAWO/WOW Country 104.3 left a few segments of those cheap plastic banners hanging on some poles near Bronco Stadium. In this case, there was no active remote going on nearby… in fact — there wasn’t any activity whatsoever.
While this example uses these two stations – they are not alone — it’s something you see all the time.
While I may personally consider this to be unsightly – it’s more than that. It’s a violation of Boise City Code:
No person shall post, paint or attach in any way any sign as defined in this Code on any curbstone, telephone pole, telegraph pole, electric light or power pole, wall, hydrant, bridge or tree on a
public street, sidewalk or on a public property except as provided in Section 4-7-14.No person shall paint, paste or attach any sign whether or not defined in this Code on any building, structure, sidewalk, street or property of Boise City except as provided in Section 4-7-14.
PS: Section 4-7-14 (referred to twice above) gives “Municipal, County, State and Federal government and special nonprofit” groups some outs to that clause — but there is no special carve out for radio stations.
Not so long ago, banners were an expensive and prized material. The vinyl signs were carefully collected after each remote or event and reused time and again. The 1990s advent of the cheap plastic roll signs changed that practice – and made it easy for stations to leave behind their banners long after they have packed up the station van and headed back to the studio.
Perhaps station personnel think they’ll get some boost in the ratings numbers if they “forget” to take down their signs. Maybe. But I guess I wish they would respect the beauty of our area by collecting their visual collateral rather than leaving it behind.
UPDATE: As of 6:30pm Sunday night, the signs are gone.
Don, thank you for this post!!! I agree with you 100% This has gotten ridiculous.Our stations clean up after themselves after every event or remote. You should see Canyon County it is even worse!!! 1 station has ruined it for the others at a place that holds lots of events because they are to lazy to pick up after themselves. I am sure they will say “its all part of promotions”.Please be my guest and promote that your stations litter and break the law you make my job easier.
Don,
I think you’re wrong when you refer to “these cheap plastic roll signs”….clearly you have never had to purchase roller banner. They’re anything but cheap, and the reason they’re left up is to generate exposure (thank you). For what it’s worth, the bob signs aren’t just left hanging like or looking like trash, they’re not left behind if they don’t look up to par. If we go back by and see that someone has caused them to look as such, we’ll remove them. If you ask me, the Wendy’s or Carl’s Jr. cup laying on the ground in your picture is much more unsightly.
Friend,
The signs are illegal – whether nice and neat… Or ugly and messy. This isn’t all about Bob – all the stations do it. And cheap was meant as a relative term. Clearly the banners are cheap enough to leave hanging all over the place.
Completely agree with you, Don. I saw at least 25 station signs/banners when floating the river the other day – most of them hanging from bridges. Having your promotional plastic hanging up on private property or within a business is one thing, but placing it on public land (or in this case, what looks like the corner of the university that I put my money into attending and keeping clean) is unacceptable – and apparently illegal.
I go by these everyday on the way home from work. They’ve been there since Kenny Chesney rolled thru town…when was that? Probably been enough “exposure” time methinks!
Friend of Bob? Obviously not a great friend or you would be aware of the banner policy we have in effect and you would know the “heat” that gets applied to the promotions staff in my office on rare occasion over this issue. Please do not use the word “we” because that indicates your are on staff.
We have gone more to a reusable yard sign that gets put out and retrieved because of the cost of Rolla Banner. We have a big event we are doing today with Journey/Heart and I have made it clear when it is over it had better look like we were never there and that will include the banner in the picture. We will not clean up the other stations banner as it is policy not to touch it unless of course they ask.
I happen to agree with Don by the way about the trashy aspect and it is a real challenge to balance visbility and clean up when you have a young staff that typically get assigned to sign duty. Sometimes we just miss a few and sometimes after a long hot day they just get lazy. Rest assured it will be addressed at least from our standpoint next week. Friend of Bob, if you are an employee you may want to get aquainted with the promo depatment’s sign policy pronto, if you are not an employee you are invited to work in the sign shop so you will have a clue about what you are saying next time!
Darrell
Unsightly? Sometimes. Irritating? Especially if it is not your banner, absolutley. Look people. Has anyone noticed the banner is coming from Independant clusters? They are promoting and getting visable. How many of you wish you had a budget for banner or could feel free to use the stuff on hand? Yes it should be cleaned up when you go home but guess what? People are seeing radio! Call letters, frequencies, color… I guess what I am trying to say is, okay maybe the banner is placed illegally, but at least it is promoting our industry! Has anybody noticed that overall share for this medium is dropping? We need listeners! This has been a great six months for radio. Keke with his seven marathons in seven days and Impacts “stockdale” thing has put all of us in a better light. Maybe call Godwin or Calton and “talk” about the banner issues privately instead of airing here where ALL of our competitors including print can see our dirty laundry. I’m not taking a shot personally at you Don for posting this, I just wonder if there is a better way to address it.
Hi Don
Thanks so much for this post. The Arena will do a better job of managing out Radio remotes that we invite to campus. It is very frustrating to know that these banners have been left up since 7/14/09.
There you go! The post from Taco Bell arena is exactly what I said it is not just radio geeks here!
“I guess what I am trying to say is, okay maybe the banner is placed illegally, but at least it is promoting our industry!”
But don’t you think that the “promotion” the public perceives is “We don’t care if we trash our community”?
If you really think that this sort of thing is good for the industry, you should cover your house with station banners. I’m sure your neighbors and/or HOA will understand that it’s just promotion for a dying industry and not have a problem with it.
On your update now the signs are gone,of course they are gone now because of your post!!! And as for the GM of Impact …the heat you put on your promotions staff and they still do it?? wow what signs of leadership that they dont even listen to you. As for sometimes they miss a few signs, they must be really blind then!! Because there are more than a few that were missed and a business who complains adds even more leverage to this issue.
I saw this the other day and thought of stopping to take a picture too.
Bottom line is it’s littering. I am all for promoting and if the company whose property you’re on lets you keep it up then it’s fine, as long as you have plans to go retrieve it (meaning you have to keep track of where they all are). And of course if it rains or is windy or anything else happens where it could blow away, it should be taken down immediately. I think the yard signs are definitely much better looking anyways. And more motivation for a company to go back and get them because they are not disposable.