Setareh is accused of three misdemeanor city code violations in relation to the hanging of the supergraphic on the building. The ad was for the new movie “How to Train Your Dragon”. Setareh was a part owner of the building in question.

“The days of lax and inconsistent enforcement of billboard and outdoor advertising laws in this city are over” said Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

Setareh has been warned by letter and email not to post the supergraphic, according to city records.

Trutanich is also going after World Wide Rush LLC for posting 12 supergraphics around Los Angeles, and is seeking $10 million in fines.

Its fourth quarter loss increased to $19.7 million from $8.6 million for the same period last year. Revenue declined 6% to $262.3 million.

“It looks like 2010 is a recovery year” said Chief Operating Officer Sean Reilly. “What we are seeing in the book is good momentum, and every month is getting better”.

Your teacher is Frank Rolfe, who built from scratch the largest privately-owned billboard company in Dallas/Ft. Worth. He will show all the insider secrets, tricks and shortcuts that you need to compete and win.

There are only two tickets left to this event. If you are interested, call (800) 950-1364 or go to www.outdoorbillboard.com.

City Councilman  Bill de Blasio said the billboard industry is “synonymous with New York City. However, there are very obvious signs that the city is starting a crackdown on long-running illegal signs.

However, a number of groups fought the concept. “This bill is a job killer” said Ted Hustead of Wall Drug. “This bill will cause negative growth”.  Kirkeby had hoped that his bill would bring in around $500,000 in taxes, to help offset shortages. But State Rep. Bernie Hunhoff said “for this year we just need to do no harm to the small business community”.

The Bill will allow outdoor companies to hire an arborist and design a plan to improve visibility. They can then file for a permit, at a cost of $200, to enact the plan.

There are up to 600 billboards in Kentucky that have serious vegetation blockage issues.

Despite complaints from groups such as Scenic Kentucky, the outdoor industry successfully argued that billboards are an important part of the tourism industry in Kentucky, and often represent the only method that businesses can use to garner traffic.

The privately owned land that the sign sits in is in jeopardy of becoming a luxury home development – unless the Trust for Public Land can raise the money to buy the property and make it part of Griffith Park. They need to raise an additional $12.5 million by April 14th.

The HOLLYWOOD sign was originally HOLLYWOODLAND, and was used to promote the home development of publisher Harry Chandler. And, starting immediately, it will be covered in another sign to help promote the fundraiser – SAVE THE PEAK.

The sign has had no modifications since 1992, when producers paid $54,000 to have a 75 ft. tall picture of actress Kim Basinger put on top of the letter “D”.

Norton’s executive vice president, Mike Norton, selected Watchfire after considering the other qualified manufacturers in the business. “We’ve always been drawn to the image quality and durability of Watchfire’s boards. With the latest release of Watchfire’s Ignite™ Online software, we’re convinced that Watchfire offers outstanding displays, as well as outstanding software, which allows our customers to use this media platform correctly.”

Watchfire operates like a trusted partner and consultant, even working with Norton as a sounding board during the development of Ignite™ Online.

“We first experienced their partnership approach when we were invited to provide input into their software offering. They were able to incorporate everything that we asked for,” explained Norton. “They continued to impress us during this recent installation when they volunteered to help us with brightness tests and other key analyses that were critical to the zoning process. Working with Watchfire has been a great experience and we certainly look forward to working with them again in the future.”

With its True-16mm, True-19mm and new E-16mm, Watchfire has an entire line of digital billboard products to suit most any need. All Watchfire Digital Outdoor billboards produce 281 trillion colors and utilize state-of-the-art whole sign color calibration. Watchfire is the only manufacturer that fully encapsulates its LED module in a thick bed of silicone gel, enabling the modules to operate reliably even in the harshest conditions. Durability is further enhanced by Watchfire’s streamlined engineering, which focuses on driving down parts counts and connections, improving projected reliability. All Watchfire boards feature lightweight extruded aluminum cabinetry that complies with IBC 2006 standards and allows for low cost, fast installation and streamlined maintenance. Watchfire’s warranty, lead-times, customer support, and software are considered to be the best in the industry.

For a free video that shows how Watchfire Digital Outdoor manufactures the best-looking, most durable digital billboards in the industry, go to http://www.watchfiredigitaloutdoor.com/norton.

About Watchfire Digital Outdoor

Watchfire Digital Outdoor engineers and manufactures the best looking and most durable digital billboards available anywhere. The company is the digital billboard division of Watchfire by Time-O-Matic, which has been manufacturing outdoor electric signs for more than 75 years, has been manufacturing LED signs for 12 years, and has more than 30,000 outdoor LED signs in daily operation throughout North America. Watchfire Digital Outdoor is located in Danville, Ill. with marketing and sales operations in Indianapolis, Ind. For more information, go to http://www.watchfiredigitaloutdoor.com.

What is bigger than a bread box, made out of wood, and creates cash flow? The answer is a wooden outdoor billboard sign. No other pile of wood can create up to a 100% return on investment annually.

So how does it work? Here’s the basic steps to building a wooden billboard.

Find a legal billboard location

What makes one location legal and another illegal to build a billboard? The answer is the Highway Beautification Act, originating from Ladybird Johnson in the 1970s. Prior to the establishment of this act, you could put a billboard anywhere you want in the U.S. without any permits.

The Beautification Act regulates the spacing between signs, as well as the maximum height, size and other features. It also requires signs to be in certain zonings. And on top of that, most cities have their own ordinances on signs that give it even more specification. The first job is to learn all these rules and how to work around them.

Sign a ground lease with the landowner

Once you have found a legal location, it’s time to contact the person that owns the land and see if you can enter into a lease to build the billboard and pay them rent. Typically, the amount you pay is around 20% of the gross revenue of the sign.

You’ll need a standard billboard ground lease document, and be able to identify where to put the sign and how you’ll access it through the property.

Get the permit

When you have the fully executed ground lease in hand, you’ll need to get the construction permits. In some areas you have to get both a state and city permit, and in some areas just a state or city permit. It’s the scarcity of the permits that creates the value.

Build the sign

A 10′ x 24′ wooden billboard costs about $4,000 to $6,000 to build, depending on who does the work. These signs are traditionally non-lighted, so there really is no cost except the sign itself.

Rent the advertising space

The final step is to rent the advertising space. Wooden signs such as these normally rent for about $2,000 per year per side. Advertisers are normally local in nature, and would include restaurants, gas stations, stores, tourist attractions, lawyers, doctors and car dealers.

How the numbers work

The numbers on a wooden billboard are pretty easy to calculate. In most markets, these type of signs rent for $2,000 per year per advertising face. The expenses are very slight. There is the ground rent to the land owner – the biggest of the line items – at 25% of the revenue – although this is normally in the form of a fixed annual amount of, say, $500 per year. There are no lights so there is no electricity charge. Repairs are slight or non-existent. You have to install the vinyl copy on the sign at a cost of around $200.

So here’s how it looks in most markets. The revenue is $4,000 per year ($2,000 per side with two sides) and the expenses are $1,000 – so the net income is $3,000. If you built the sign for $4,000, then your return on investment is 75% per year. Rent it for a little more, or build it for a little less, and your return is 100% per year.

The key is volume

So if that is how wooden billboards work, then let’s say you build more than one. Then what? Well, if you built ten billboards, you would have invested $40,000 and earn $30,000 per year on your investment. If you invested in CDs at 2%, that same $40,000 would earn you $800 per year.

And the upside unlimited

There are individuals in the U.S. that own hundreds of these units. I know one individual in Illinois that has 100 of them. That’s a $300,000 per year income. Sure, it took him years to build it up, but it takes decades to build up your IRA or savings, and they don’t provide even 1/10^th of that amount.

Conclusion

There’s lot of use for lumber. You can build a tree house. You can build a doghouse. But nothing you can do with that lumber is more profitable than building a billboard. Shouldn’t you investigate that as an alternative investment?

Outdoorbillboard.com, the nation’s largest website for the billboard industry, has announced its next Billboard Boot Camp, set for April 9^th to 11^th in St. Louis, Missouri.

This is the event in which individuals learn how to find, negotiate, build, rent and manage billboard signs over a two day immersion weekend.

“The course is a combination of class work and time in the field, learning the theories first-hand in a real-life setting” said Frank Rolfe, who teaches the course. “We want you to be able, when you get home, to be able to jump right into the business with all the correct skill sets and knowledge to do well”.

Rolfe built from scratch the largest privately-owned billboard company in Dallas/Ft. Worth, which was sold to Universal Outdoor, a public company, in 1996. He now teaches his insider secrets, tricks and shortcuts twice a year during the Billboard Boot Camp events.

For more information call (800) 950-1364 or go to www.outdoorbillboard.com. ]]> http://www.billboardweekly.com/outdoorbillboard-com-announces-billboard-boot-camp-for-individuals-wanting-to-get-into-the-billboard-business/feed/ 0