REICH COMMUNICATIONS

What We Do: ABC 7 tie-in with Drive Safe Chicago Contest

 

Client the National Road Safety Foundation has been doing a contest we developed for them ten years ago to get teens engaged in driver safety messaging.  The Drive Safe Chicago PSA Contest invites teens in the midwest to submit ideas for a TV public service announcement.  We pick three finalists, work with them to have their ideas professionally produced and then the public votes for their favorite on the Chicago Auto Show's Facebook page. The winner is announced at the Auto Show and their PSA gets played on video screens throughout the Auto Show.  It also airs nationally on the syndicated show Teen Kids News.

This year we got WLS-TV ABC 7 to partner, and here's a live promo (scroll down to bottom, under Passenger Empowerment PSA Contest) they did Friday to encourage young people to enter.   And... more to come on Channel 7.

 

 

 

 

A Long Life

 

Longtime New Yorkers will remember Dr. Frank Field, weather/health/science reporter at WNBC-TV, and then at WCBS-TV and WWOR-TV.  

 

I met Frank in the late 1980s, when I was running PR for McDonalds, and I interested him in doing a series on home fire safety. The series won Frank an Emmy and for me, a friend.

 

When he was at WCBS, we did a week-long series on driving safety, which brought me to the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which retained me to do their regional PR for 18 years.

 

Frank and I stayed in touch till he moved to Florida.

 

He was a nice man who cared about journalism. He also cared about his Jewish heritage.

 

Frank died the other day, at age 100. I'm glad I got to know him.

 

Click here for a nice tribute to Frank Field from WNBC-TV.

What We Do: Kidneys for Communities

We're working with Kidneys for Communities, a non-profit that connects people with End-Stage Renal Disease with living kidney donors.

The group recently launched a program to help first responders and one of their first successful transplants is NYPD Officer Melissa Quinones.  She underwent a transplant -- a kidney that had been donated specifically to go to a first responder -- last fall.  She recently returned to her job.

We arranged to have her tell her story on WCBS-TV in New York, along with Atul Agnihotri, CEO of Kidneys for Communities.  

We also met with the leaders of the NYC PBA (Patrolmen's Benevolent Association), who've agreed to work with Kidneys for Communities to help other NYPD cops and their families.

Here's the story, as it appeared on Channel 2 News Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$7 Million...Gone in a Blink

FOX announced it has sold out all its ad inventory in this weekend's Super Bowl. 

Thirty-second ads have gone for between $6 and $7 million, with a couple of ads in prime spots going for a bit more.

There's always a lot of talk about the ads in Super Bowl and some get extra air time in other programming and on social media.  But still... commercial breaks, even during Super Bowl, are when many viewers go to the bathroom or the kitchen.

Seven million, gone in a flush.

Bob

Bob McGrath visited us in our homes daily through at least two generations over more than 40 years as the longest-running human character on Sesame Street.

I was an early watcher of Sesame Street, when it first came on the air in the fall of 1969.  I was finishing my Master's thesis and I had papers spread out across my parents' living room floor.  At 4 o'clock one day I decided to take a break.  I put the TV on. It was tuned to Channel 13 PBS, which my parents had been watching the night before.  Before I could tune away to another station, I got caught up watching this new fast-paced children's show with puppets and a few humans including Bob.

Sesame Street became a daily habit for me for the rest of that year.  And I became a regular watcher again years later as my own kids were young.

I was lucky enough to meet Bob a few times when Sesame Street won Christopher Awards over the years and I was handling PR for the events.  But the best was the first time I met him, unexpectedly.

It was around 1988 and I was attending a luncheon at Chanel 13, representing my client McDonald's, which was an underwriter of the show.  My cab got hung up in traffic so I arrived after everyone was already seated.  Someone from Channel 13 brought me to table that had an empty seat.

I apologized, introduced myself and then all the others went round the table to introduce themselves.  Finally, the man immediately to my right turned to me and said "Hi, I'm Bob McGrath."  I couldn't catch myself as I went into fan mode. 

"Bob!" I shrieked.  He smiled as my face turned beet-red.  When I regained my composure I told him how I had found Sesame Street while working on my Master's thesis.  He thought that was a hoot.

Through lunch we had a nice chat about children's TV and how much he loved working on Sesame Street.

I'm fortunate to have that memory.

Bob will be missed by millions of kids of all ages.

...

Bob was a lot more than a Sesame Street cast member.  His bio, here in The Hollywood Reporter, is interesting.

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What We Do: On Tour for Teen Driver Safety

Just finished the last of two weeks of interviews to promote Teen Driver Safety Week for the National Road Safety Foundation.

I did the last spot just now, live on Boston's WCVB-TV 5.  I also did several taped and live spots via zoom around the country over the past several days, and my NRSF associate Michelle Anderson did a few, along with teens from student advocacy groups SADD and FCCLA.

We also did a spot on WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York that aired several times over the past few days, with my friend and morning anchor Paul Murnane.

Thanks go to Bob Thomas for helping get these interviews set.  We did nearly two dozen interviews, from Portland OR to Atlanta, with stops in between, with tips on how parents can keep their teen drivers safe behind the wheel.

 

 

What We Do: Virtual Media Tour

For the National Road Safety Foundation, we're doing a virtual media tour, hitting TV stations around the country with messages for National Teen Driver Safety Week.

Click here to see how a station in Mississippi used our interview and coupled it with comments from a local teen driver, her dad and a local driver ed teacher.

 

 

We have interviews with about 20 stations in markets including New Orleans, Toledo, New York, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Richmond, Portland OR and more.

 

 

 

What We Do: Teen Driver Safety Week

Sunday marks the start of National Teen Driver Safety Week, when we put the focus on teen drivers and what parents can do to keep them safe behind the wheel.

We're doing a virtual media tour for the National Road Safety Foundation, with zoom interviews with TV stations in about 20 markets.    It kicks in next week, but we've already done a few in advance in Roanoke, Toledo, Texas, Nebraska.. with more to come including some major markets like Atlanta, New Orleans and Portland OR.

Perfect Ending

A perfect end to a great story.  "Better Call Saul."

What We Do: Safest Summer Ever

Every summer, teen car crashes and deaths spike.  An average of 9 teens die on the roads every day during the summer months. 

The National Road Safety Foundation, along with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), is making a push to put safe driving on the minds of teens this summer, to help make this the safest summer ever.

In addition to a massive social media campaign involving tens of thousands of SADD students nationwide, we're doing a virtual media tour.  Along with my associate Michelle Anderson at The National Road Safety Foundation, we're doing remote interviews with TV stations nationwide.

Click here to see one Michelle did with a station in Lansing yesterday.  I did some in Hartford and Providence Tuesday, and I'm about to go on with the NBC station in San Antonio in a few minutes. 

We have more lined up with stations in Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo and more as we're trying to get teens -- and all drivers -- to slow down, pay attention and always buckle up.