FRAMINGHAM, MA – Urban blight. Billboards.  Downtown Framingham has billboards and most in town would like to see them gone.  The majority of the billboards are owned and maintained by Clear Channel Communications, (www.clearchannel.com).

The problem for the Town is that the billboards are “grandfathered“, meaning they were erected when no sign bylaws prohibited them, so the Town can’t just order them removed.

Clear Channel has offered to remove the Downtown Framingham signs, in exchange for being permitted to erect illuminated digital billboards along the I-90, (MassPike), corridor through Framingham.

The signs are really high tech, pulling freshly updated content directly from an advertiser’s website.

One program we looked at instructs  advertisers to create a 1400 pixel wide by 400 pixel high  .JPG image and load it onto their website.

Any time that image is updated on their website, their advertising message on Clear Channel’s Digital Outdoor Network will be updated too. This permits announcements for scheduled events to be updated, (e.g. “Game Postponed Due to Rain”, or “Game at 7:00 – Tickets Still Available”, etc).

A restaurant could post daily specials.  A car dealer could show a vehicle that is on his lot until it’s sold.  Breaking news, weather and special announcements could be pushed into the system seamlessly.

“These large, computerized displays marry the choice location of traditional roadside billboards with the opportunity for customization and frequent updating that is the hallmark of web advertising.”

Inc. Magazine, March 2008

The company has a few of the signs in place in Massachusetts including a back-to-back pair located approximately 500 feet north off the west side of I-495 at Exit 45, (the Merrimack St. exit), in Lawrence, MA. Each side is visible from one side of the highway, (and opposite side may appear in rear-view mirrors after drivers pass the signs).

The messages on the new digital billboards would change of often as once every (8) seconds.

Some are worried about the distraction to drivers on the Pike, and others are concerned that the giant digital-tv-like signs will disturb those who live near them especially at night.

Clear Channel’s Outdoor Advertising program description for the LED based digital boards says the [currently installed boards]are “…running 10 second advertising spots in a 24-hour rotation“, and goes on to say, “Your ad will be seen on one board every 70 seconds continuously throughout the day. That’s over 1,000 daily messages per day, generating a guaranteed 7,000 advertising spots over a 1-week period…”

Where traditional billboards can only deliver one message at a time, and that due to the cost of printing the advertisers message and having workers manually paste the billboard content into place, these new style electronic billboards can rotate multiple advertiser’s messages, allowing Clear Channel to maximize ad revenue per location.

Tonight, (May 10, 2010), the Framingham Planning Board held public hearings to consider amendments to the Town’s zoning by‐ law and the official zoning map in anticipation of a special town meeting to decide if Framingham should add an “outdoor advertising district” to regulate billboard signs.

A similar approach has been used with other “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard”) issues — so the Town can’t be accused of discriminating against a particular activity, (e.g. cell towers, adult entertainment, alcohol serving establishments, methadone clinics, etc), the Town attempts to designate a zone for that particular use and limit permits to that zone.

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