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Are Radio Billboards Still a Thing?

chriscervantez

chriscervantez

Just curious if anyone outside of 94.9 KLTY, Way FM and KCBI are doing billboards anymore? I think those are the only radio billboards I’ve seen recently.

I remember seeing ones for Kiss FM in the past and KLUV and Alt 103.7 had ones on the digital billboard near the UA Theatre off 635 in April 2018. I think that’s about it! Oh, and I think The Freak might have had a few when they launched…

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chriscervantez said:
Just curious if anyone outside of 94.9 KLTY, Way FM and KCBI are doing billboards anymore? I think those are the only radio billboards I’ve seen recently.

I remember seeing ones for Kiss FM in the past and KLUV and Alt 103.7 had ones on the digital billboard near the UA Theatre off 635 in April 2018. I think that’s about it! Oh, and I think The Freak might have had a few when they launched…

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oh the irony of the video billboards having stations owned by Entercom/CBS/Infinity/Audacy on a billboard owned by Clear Channel Outdoors, a company that was spun off of what is now iHeartMedia, the biggest rival of that company is pretty funny.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
oh the irony of the video billboards having stations owned by Entercom/CBS/Infinity/Audacy on a billboard owned by Clear Channel Outdoors, a company that was spun off of what is now iHeartMedia, the biggest rival of that company is pretty funny.
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But it has not been part of iHeart ever. It was spun off long ago.
 
If you go back to the 90’s, almost everyone had billboards. KCDU “CD-107.5” had boards with flags on the top that also enhanced the billboards directly behind them. In one case, that other board was a KHYI “Power 95” billboard.

DFW always seemed to have a lot more billboards than most everywhere else I've lived. Radio billboards weren’t rare anywhere 30 years ago, but, even then, they were nowhere near as ubiquitous anywhere else as they were in DFW. Been a long time since I've seen a radio billboard anywhere, though. Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in a college town for 23 years now, but I have two Top-40 markets two hours or less from me. I haven’t seen a radio billboard in either of those lately either.
 
Kent said:
If you go back to the 90’s, almost everyone had billboards. KCDU “CD-107.5” had boards with flags on the top that also enhanced the billboards directly behind them. In one case, that other board was a KHYI “Power 95” billboard.

DFW always seemed to have a lot more billboards than most everywhere else I've lived. Radio billboards weren’t rare anywhere 30 years ago, but, even then, they were nowhere near as ubiquitous anywhere else as they were in DFW. Been a long time since I've seen a radio billboard anywhere, though. Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in a college town for 23 years now, but I have two Top-40 markets two hours or less from me. I haven’t seen a radio billboard in either of those lately either.
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Marketing budgets were one of the first things to get cut in consolidation. TV and outdoor campaigns therefore quickly became a rarity. KPLX and KSCS used to both spend major bucks trying to out-market each other... now that they're co-owned, it's not necessary from an ownership standpoint.
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I've seen some billboards, but a lot of the time I think they are a total waste of money. Stations need to focus on the simple things: advertise your name and/or calls, frequency, and format. Some try to be too cute about that.. and it just doesn't work.
 
Over the holidays last year, I saw Way 89.7 promote Christmas music on their station on a billboard at 635 near Preston Rd but that's what I've seen recently. And I have seen the occasional Spot/Alt/Jack billboards saying what they are playing but I haven't seen those in a while.
 
Kent said:
Been a long time since I've seen a radio billboard anywhere, though. Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in a college town for 23 years now, but I have two Top-40 markets two hours or less from me. I haven’t seen a radio billboard in either of those lately either.
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Not to steer this away from DFW, but I'll briefly say that the only radio-related billboards I ever recall seeing in your area were for "Clear 99" (KCLR), and those would have been only on Interstate 70.
 
The effectiveness in the past of billboards was always significant. With in-car now exceeding half of all listening locations, it would seem to be the best way to advertise today since it is true "point of purchase" marketing.

Old-time story: on the last weekend of 1978, I launched a new format on an FM in San Juan, PR. We bought all the last minute TV avails on the 30th and 31st, ran some newspaper ads in the "popular class" newspaper and did a huge showing of metro area outdoor.

At the time, there were no billboards. So we bought at least one side of every bus in the 1.2 million population metro, and did a lot of "total bus" buys (all four sides outside and all spaces inside).

3 weeks later there was a ratings period. Out of 30 stations in the market, we got a 22.5. We kept the bus ads, but did no more TV or print. At the 90 day mark, we had a 33.5 share.

We raised rates about 6 times in that first year and ended up billing about 7 times what the former "highest rated FM" format ever did with Beautiful Music.
 
Not dallas but same topic. Univision Radio is currently spreading their message across the Houston Metro area through a multitude of eye-catching billboards for the "BMF" show.
have yet to witness any substantial progress or notable difference in the ratings.
 
Astros2023 said:
Not dallas but same topic. Univision Radio is currently spreading their message across the Houston Metro area through a multitude of eye-catching billboards for the "BMF" show.
have yet to witness any substantial progress or notable difference in the ratings.
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I doubt you will. The show is just not competitive.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I doubt you will. The show is just not competitive.
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Seeing all this "BMF" chatter reminds me of when "BMMS" -Billy Madison Morning Show crossed the street in Tulsa. Instead of re-wrapping the vans, and going to the expense of changing all of their print, the radio station simply named their new morning show "Big Mad Moring Show" and BMMS is still around :)
 
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