Company: Choice Media
Markets: Texas
Headquarters: 11805 I-27, Amarillo, TX 79119
Phone: 806-352-6585
Choice media operates a billboard plant in Texas. Brad and Kristie Tooley formed the company in 1992 by buying a half dozen empty billboard faces with proceeds from the sale of a rental house.Tooley was blessed to quickly lease those faces, and soon began building a handful of “woodies”, industry term for billboards constructed out of telephone poles and wood.
Doug Cowan, head football coach for Canyon High School, joined Tooley in the billboard business in 1996. He was later named General Manager and has helped build the business to its current viability. Today Choice Media is one of the largest independent, family operated billboard companies in Texas. Choice operates more than 700 billboard faces in a region that runs from Amarillo to Wichita Falls, to Abilene and San Angelo, west to Midland-Odessa and Clovis, N.M. A growing sector of the Choice business is in digital (electronic) billboard advertising in Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Abilene, Wichita Falls and Waco.
The Choice billboard network extends to Waco, where sister company Swift Outdoor operates under the leadership of Kris Tooley. Swift has three digital billboards in Waco and operates a network of large and junior billboards in Central Texas, in partnership with Glenn Brower who joined Swift in 2006. Shanna Tooley Jones joined Choice Media as a sales executive in 2011. Shanna now operates the Choice Media Lubbock office that was opened in 2014. It is located on the ground floor of the Tuscan Towers, 4630 50th St. Chris Reed manages the Choice Media Abilene market.
Brad, tell us about your plant.
Our combined companies (Choice Media and Swift Outdoor) have around 800 billboard faces in mostly the Panhandle (top) of Texas, West Texas and Central Texas. Also Eastern New Mexico.
We are in a strong acquisition mode for inventory that fits our footprint in Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
Have your markets been impacted by oil price volatility?
No doubt. In Midland-Odessa Texas we had a waiting list for our billboards during the boom and we now have some slack during the lower oil prices. But it’s still a good market and we’ve built a good basis there.
Whose digital signs do you use and what have you learned about digital?
We built one of the first digital billboards in Texas (maybe the first) in our Waco market. We use Watchfire primarily but are also purchasing some Formetco. These are both great companies.
Selling digital is more like selling radio and tv. The buys are shorter and we can give our customer “same day” service. Digital is not for every customer, but it’s a dynamic for customers that understand it and want to display a number of different messages.
Talk about Texas Outdoor Advertising regulations.
Texas is strongly regulated by the Highway Beautification Act and a number of cities have shut down billboard opportunities. It’s probably not that different from most states. Insider notes that Texas also requires a billboard operator to get a surety bond. If an outdoor company fails to comply with applicable laws regarding the construction, placement and removal of advertising signs, the bond can be used to pay for the costs associates with the removal of any unlawfully erected or maintained sign.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you entered the outdoor business in 1992?
I grew up in the newspaper business and I wouldn’t take for it. It taught me the disciplines of deadlines, accuracy, community responsibility and customer service.
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