Andy Rebuck just retired after a 40 year career in out of home, most of it spent as General Manager of Lamar Advertising’s Harrisburg Pennsylvania market. Billboard Insider will run a series in which Andy reflects on his career.  Today he talks about starting in out of home and what it’s like to work for Lamar.

How did you get into the out of home?

It pays to be nice. It was 1984 and I was an advertising representative and I was waiting to make a sales pitch… I asked the guy alongside me in the waiting room “hey, what do you do.” We had this great conversation about his sales role with Penn Advertising selling billboards.  I made another call later on that day.  I ran into the same guy again and I said “I’m really interested in what you were telling me.”  He gave me the name and number of his boss… Penn Advertising offered me a sales job.  So I went home and I said to my wife “I’m not sure about this” so I called Whiteco advertising in Harrisburg to see if they might be hiring. They brought me on board February 18th 1985.  My career happened because I was nice and I had a conversation with a fellow in a waiting room.

 How did you make it to Lamar? 

Four years after I started, Whiteco promoted me and moved me to be a sales manager in Albany NY and I joined Tim Stauning and then 18 months later Tim moved to Harrisburg and I moved up. I was the youngest GM in the Whiteco family…18 months later they asked me if I’d move back to Harrisburg and that’s the position I’ve been in now for 33 years.  Whiteco sold in 1999 to Chancellor Media and Chancellor turned around and sold to Lamar – I think it was the first quarter of 2000.

 What makes Lamar different from other out of home advertising companies? 

Lamar was like family right out of the gate. Kevin Reilly came to our office.  It was evident to me that Lamar was going to care about people.  Kevin said to me “our mantra is leave it better than you found it.”   He said, “You are a general manager but I want you to think of yourself as a farmer.  We’re giving you this plot of land and you decide you know how many people you need and what you plant and how you sell it.”    Whiteco was very hands on with their management. Not a week would go by and somebody at that corporate office  would call me about a report or call me about a decision.  When I was promoted, my boss at Whiteco said “Andy if you’re going to spend more than $10,000 call me.”   Whiteco taught me how to run a business and Lamar let me run the business.

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