District Administration - August 2007 - (Page 35)

Ads in Classrooms THE ISSUE OF SCHOOL ADVERTISING doesn’t just focus on buses. Channel One, recently acquired by Alloy Media + Marketing, provides 12 minutes of news programming daily—two minutes of which are ads—to over 4,000 school districts across the nation. Since 1990, Channel One has provided free TV and VCR equipment to schools in exchange for districts’ agreeing to show the programming on 90 percent of school days. Channel One, which only recently has experienced some ﬁnancial hardship, touts the quality of its youthoriented news programming, and has twice been recognized with a George Foster Peabody Award. Gregg Greene, a teacher at New Palestine High School near Indianapolis, says Channel One is a valuable tool for keeping students informed and contributing to class discussions. “We use it as a starter for that day’s lesson, and in a lot of cases we can tie it into whatever the unit is,” says Greene, who teaches history, government, economics and current events at the school. But Channel One has also attracted criticism from groups like Commercial Alert because they say it unfairly takes advantage of a captive audience. Robert Weissman, managing director of Commercial Alert, says that unlike bus ads, Channel One’s ads cut into instructional time. Greene says that kids are increasingly sophisticated media consumers who are already exposed to many ads outside the classroom. “This is two minutes of commercial time,” he says. “And that’s just a low, low percentage of what they are probably exposed to on any given day.” Greene says he has not seen any advertisements that he considers inappropriate or bad for children. Other ads on school buses tout community or health services, which could be beneﬁcial to students. site, or announcements at stadiums. The district oﬀers four “partnerships levels,” ranging from $1,500 to $12,000, oﬀering sets of advertising and promotion opportunities. The partnerships provide the district about $180,000 a year, which goes toward musical instruments, ﬁeld trips, art equipment and other items, says Naleski, who manages the partnership program at the district. Although the district does not accept alcohol or tobacco ads, it has partnered with Domino’s Pizza, whose logo can be seen on the district’s Web site. Getting a logo on the site is for companies in the $12,000 partnership level. The district, which has a wellness policy, accepted such partnerships because the ad revenue pays for items it could not otherwise have, Naleski says. “I think it would be great if school districts didn’t have to do this and we had all the money we needed,” she admits. “But, unfortunately, school districts don’t have the money to do all those [things].” The advertisers work with the school district because they want to be viewed as supporters of schools. “They like saying that they are a community partner with the school district,” Naleski says. Bus Radio (Audio Options) The trend of advertising on buses extends not only to what students can see but also to what they hear. This fall, students in the Cobb County School District near Atlanta will hear something diﬀerent on the bus—music programming, with ads, speciﬁcally tailored to students riding the bus. www.DistrictAdministration.com Massachusetts-based Bus Radio provides the DJ and music programming, which is interspersed with advertising and contests, to about 1,000 buses in 11 states. The company shares 5 percent of gross ad revenue with districts. It touts its ability to provide age-appropriate content that is a cleaner alternative to the ordinary broadcast stations that some bus drivers tune in to. Popular FM stations broadcast music with inappropriate lyrics and age-unsuitable ads, says Bus Radio president Steven Shulman. “The whole idea of Bus Radio is to have a safe, enjoyable ride that students can be engaged in, so the students and parents don’t have to worry about songs that are promiscuous [and] talking about carrying AK-47s or rolling with my gangsters,” Shulman says. Although it’s called Bus Radio, the service doesn’t involve radio transmissions. Instead, the company installs a galvanized steel computer on buses—resembling a normal AM/FM deck—that can receive digital music ﬁles via a mix of Wi-Fi, cellular and satellite transmissions. Every day, the computer on each bus downloads ﬁles of DJ banter, songs and ads. The company oﬀers separate programming to elementary, middle and high school students, catering to the musical tastes of each group. For a one-hour show, 44 minutes are for music and news, eight minutes are devoted to ads, six minutes to public service announcements and safety messages such as anti-bullying messages, and two minutes to contests featuring prizes like iTunes gift cards and video game consoles. Shulman says the ads are from “so- August 2007 35 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - August 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Research Corner
Computer Literature
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Bus Money
DIBELS Draws Doers & Doubters
Report from EduComm 2007
Ins and Outs of Outsourcing
Curriculum Clearance
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - August 2007