Clear Channel Switching to Electronic Billboards

Clear Channel's five Westborough billboards will soon become electronic -- and generate $50,000 per year for the town.

ClearChannel also will allocate 25 hours per month -- five hours per billboard -- to public service announcements, under the deal that selectmen recently authorized Town Manager Jim Malloy to sign.

Malloy said he first brought the idea to selectmen at least a year ago.

Selectmen expressed "concern about how quickly they would be changing, and what it would look like," he said.

An independent study commissioned by the state about whether digital billboards changing causes "increases in accidents" showed that they do not, Malloy said. State officials have since set regulations, he said.

Selectmen last Tuesday night watched a brief video that Malloy and Town Counsel Gregory Franks filmed on Interstate-93 one recent morning showing an electronic billboard changing messages.

"We were stuck in the middle of a traffic jam, so we got to see it change quite a bit, as we were driving very slowly," Malloy said.

Malloy said Clear Channel had offered an annual fee of $5,000 per billboard, totalling $25,000 per year, as well as five hours of public service per billboard, totalling 25 hours per month, and use for any Amber Alert.

"There's some nice benefits to this," Malloy said.

"You can see it's not a flashing, moving, animated kind of sign. It just changes every 10 seconds."

Clear Channel representative Mike Merolla said the new offer was $10,000 per billboard, as well as the 25 hours per month of public service time.

Selectman Denny Drewry expressed concern that "we don't know who's going to advertise."

Merolla said that at Clear Channel, "we have a strict code of ethics."

Police Chief Alan Gordon said police once raised concerns about an ad involving marijuana, "and they removed it immediately."

"You can take them at their word that they will follow through on 'nothing objectionable,'" Gordon said.

Malloy said the Westborough Economic Development Committee has been trying to get a part-time position to assist it.

Part or all of the billboard revenue could go to the committee, he suggested. This move would require town meeting approval to establish a revolving fund, he said.