By Nick Coston

I worked as a Regional Account Executive at the DC/ Baltimore Division for Clear Channel Outdoor, starting two weeks after 9/11 and I would leave in April of 2012. It was the most fun I ever had working for any company. Starting soon after Clear Channel Worldwide bought and took over operating what was Eller Media, they had just moved from their Cottage City, MD plant and their Remington Street, Baltimore offices, to a new building in nearby Laurel, MD, combining both markets. I had left my gig as the ad director for a DC political magazine with a prime 19^th Street location in the heart of the best restaurants and bars in our nation’s capital, to truck laden, Route 1 in Laurel.  Going from lunches at The Palm, Sam & Harry’s, I Ricchi and The Occidental to carryout subs or salad bar selections from the local Wise Supermarket, visits to Tastee Diner and Ma’s Kettle were my new life. Our office building was across the road from an automobile wholesaler with big, barking dogs on a dead-end street. No valet parking.

But it was home.

It’s where I got my start in OOH, never leaving the biz since.

When they issued business cards, I asked the office manager to leave off my title, just have my name and contact info. It was my way of keeping people guessing as to what I did at this huge media conglomerate. Summer of 2002, our branch’s co-ed softball team, “30-Sheets to the Wind”, would beat a local Baltimore agency in the Baltimore Media League Championship game held at the Bowie Baysox minor league stadium. We all played, we all contributed. Our sales manager was an outstanding, very completive coach. He also was our shortstop.

The DC/Baltimore CCO division had well over a thousand billboards, posters, and transit shelters, dotting main roads and interstates to sell. No editorial slant to worry about, OOH was pure advertising. CCO also had inventory in all the top 25 US markets, Brazil and Europe and we could park our cars right in front of the office entrance. Within three years I would be earning four times what I was making in DC. No account management software to navigate, one meeting per week, a white board for contract updates. We were given Nextel direct-connect phones, the phone number of which I still have 25 years later. At one point in 2008 nobody at CCO had more inventory up and running nationwide than me.

While at CCO I got divorced, remarried, had another child, lost a parent, bought a home in the MD countryside, developed lasting friendships attending co-workers’ weddings, went on numerous market rides to the CCO Florida divisions. Watched the first area digital bulletin go up on Interstate 95 at Caton Ave. Stood outside with colleagues on a cold December evening with our biggest client to view multiple versions of the “Cash” copy Geico ad, updating it in real time, on a 14 x 48 Russell Street digital. The best copy we picked would run on vinyl’s nationwide. That was a CCO first.

Departing April 2012, I went on to become one-half of my biggest clients OOH buying team which made me one of my former branch’s biggest clients. It was a wonderful working relationship, it felt as though I never left. It felt like I sold our home, and my cousins moved in. Seamless.

Jump to this week in 2026 and I’m reminded of the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus line, “the only constant in life is change”. My colleague and longtime ad rep, a twenty-five-year CCO veteran, multi-sales award winner, Dave Battaglia, would depart the DC/Baltimore CCO branch. Then, just this week, CCO was sold to an overseas Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Capital and one our best friends, Chris Dickson, he had two stints at our local CCO branch and one of companies best and nicest salespeople, passed away just this morning.

As Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. Glad I didn’t miss these twelve years.

My hope is that the new owners keep the Clear Channel Outdoor name, sometimes good history shouldn’t be messed with.

Insider’s Note: Nick Coston has been writing opinion pieces for the OOH industry for 10 years now. His weekly pieces also appear on Substack where you can view the last 2 years worth. Full-time, Nick is the VP, Sales and Sales Strategies for Moving Walls, the Singapore based media and ad tech giant, here in The America’s.

If you are interested, here is Nick’s Substack LINK

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