Clear Channel takes down billboards in path of Sandy
Drivers along I-95 in Philadelphia can see something they don’t usually see: A billboard sign with no billboard.
“It’s like people tying up their boats in the harbors and people taping up their windows,” says Clear Channel’s Bryan Parker. According to Parker, when a hurricane hits, removing the sign is the best way to minimize damage: “When you remove the copy and the panel sections out of that frame — sort of like taking a picture out of a frame — the wind will blow through it and there won’t be wind resistance to damage the sign structure.”
Parker says new sign structures can run anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000. With that financial incentive and an interest in making sure no billboard falls on somebody’s house — Clear Channel crews have scrambled to take down more than 150 signs across the East Coast.
Parker says it’s a pretty quick process, “We simply roll that up, or fold it up into a nice square and then we lash that onto the catwalks.”
A quick look at images online shows that Sandy’s chewed up a few billboards: A crunched, crumpled sign in Boston and another one shredded in Atlantic City.
Billboards — of course — exist to get as many eyeballs as possible. Parker says damaged signs are bad for business.
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