If you think you are going to make money putting ads into a school room or onto a school bus, ask these men.

From Jim Metrock:

Ever since BusRadio ceased operations on September 28 they have said a press release would be soon issued.

It seems to me, the only reason they would put a release out is to say they have sold the business to another company.

Obligation continues to put emails out to school boards across the country telling them about the critical Federal Communications Commission report on BusRadio and the overwhelming public opposition to BusRadio uncovered by the FCC study. We want to salt the earth around schools to keep out current and future kiddie marketers like BusRadio.

BusRadio’s founders played on the desire of transportation directors to make their buses even safer than they are. BusRadio wrapped themselves in the "cloak of safety" so the marketing company could slip into schools. It was an obvious smokescreen, but it worked, at least in a few school districts. BusRadio has taught us marketers will stop at nothing to squeeze ad revenue out of a captive audience of schoolchildren.

BusRadio was opposed by many bus drivers and others who worked in school transportation departments. Many could not express themselves for fear of being fired by the pro-BusRadio director of transportation – the man or woman who usually recommended BusRadio in the first place.

The public knows of Danny Kenny and Les Lily in Colorado. These are two courageous school bus drivers that spoke up aout the problems with BusRadio. They stood up for the best interest of not only the bus riders on their bus and in their district, but for young bus riders all across the country. These drivers had to get facts out in Colorado to counter the misleading information being put out by the local sales rep Jay Stickney and the national sales manager Dave Briere. In the end, Kenny and Lilly won, because they made common sense and they clearly saw the exploitation of BusRadio. Bravo to them and the others who worked silently to derail these kiddie marketers.

There is another person out West that deserves a lot of thanks. She knew school buses and their riders – backwards and forwards. She had been a driver for many years and had decades of experience in school transportation administration. She hated BusRadio. She supplied Obligation with incredibly useful information on how BusRadio tries to intimidate drivers into playing their programming. The local BusRadio sales rep would send her boss each week an Excel spreadsheet that listed every bus number on a row. Rows for buses that were not playing BusRadio at all or very little were highlighted in bright red. These buses and their drivers were being branded by BusRadio as "non-compliant." These drivers had to have a talking to. This nauseated this veteran transportation employee. She, along with Kenny and Lilly and other unnamed people, helped Obligation understand what was going on behind the scenes with BusRadio. BusRadio would still be playing if it wasn’t for them.

BusRadio would have been mortified to have known what we knew about them. Emails from BusRadio employees were forwarded to us from around the country. It was shocking to read their words when they thought they were only talking to a pro-BusRadio director of transportation.

This fall Obligation had already launched several efforts to remove BusRadio. We had received positive feedback from parents and school board members in twenty two districts in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Texas. On top of that it was our belief that BusRadio was on the verge of losing their largest bus fleet which was the Cobb County school district in Georgia.

The FCC report documented the public’s disgust with BusRadio. If you are an investor and you are thinking of buying BusRadio’s smoldering marketing empire, do your self a favor and spend an hour randomly reading the posted public comments about BusRadio on the FCC web site.

It looked too good to be true.

The numbers would make any Kiddie Marketer drool.

According to School Transportation News, 26 million elementary and secondary school children ride school buses daily in the U. S., twice a day.

When extracurricular activities are added, there are annually more than 10 billion individual student rides.

BusRadio was created to get commercials on those buses.

What’s a kid suppose to do? Don’t like our commercials? Then get off the bus and walk, or get your Mommy to drive you.

It looked real simple. Making money with school bus commercials was going be as easy as taking candy from a baby.

The founders of BusRadio, Michael Yanoff and Steven Shulman, however, forgot a few things.

They forgot about the public.

They forgot about parents.

They forgot that schools and the buses that go to and fro from those schools are paid for by taxpayers for the purpose of educating the community’s children.

They forgot that education is about critical thinking and advertising is not.

Only a relatively few school boards fell for their deal. The vast majority of school districts wanted no part of this instant controversy. When parents did find out BusRadio was playing on their child’s school bus, it was usually the end for BusRadio in that district.

Now the company has ceased operations. "Ceased"? does that mean they are just looking for some more venture capital money from some obscure investor who never reads the papers? Does it mean they are trying to sell the remains of their company to another company that believes they can do better than Yanoff and Shulman?

BusRadio’s contract with schools says that if they sell the business the school is not off the hook, the contract is still valid with the new owner.

Another company may think if they pick up BusRadio for a few pennies on the dollar they can make a go of it.

Wrong.

School buses are off limits to Kiddie Marketers – now more than ever. BusRadio in a strange way has done its part to make school buses safer from commercial interests.

There is a saying that I know to be true: Some people brighten a room when they enter, some when they leave. There are some companies that enrich the world when they start business, some when they cease. So long, Messrs. Yanoff and Shulman, we hardly knew ye.

A bad idea has no other place to go.

From Jim Metrock:

BusRadio has ceased operations.

There will be no more targeted advertising of Nexon online games to first graders. No more DJs interviewing the star of a filthy sitcom so kids will tune in. No more make-believe, BusRadio-backed "stars" like Bryant James and Lauren de Miranda. No more BusRadio keeping track of how many minutes drivers play their programming and ads. No more "non-compliance" sheets intimidating drivers. No more potentially distracting bus driver contests. No more "driving" kids to the BusRadio.com site for more ads and opportunities to give up information about themselves.

Congratulations to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood headed by Dr. Susan Linn and Josh Golin. We partnered together for the last three years to make the public aware of BusRadio. The partnership worked beautifully. The country also owes a big thank you to Gary Ruskin, the former head of Commercial Alert. There are others to thank too and that will come later.

BusRadio’s capital venture backers will not benefit from BusRadio’s departure, but children sure will.

I’m a pro-business person. I owned part of a family business. I was one of the founders of Alabama’s largest business association, the Business Council of Alabama. A business failing brings me no joy. I hate to see people lose their jobs. I opposed BusRadio’s business model, but I wasn’t anti-BusRadio. I was PRO-commercial-free school buses. It was BusRadio who was ANTI-commercial-free school buses. They saw school buses and didn’t like the status quo. They saw school buses and saw riches – ad revenue that wouldn’t end. They spent millions trying to change the atmosphere on children’s school buses. BusRadio launched a full-fledged assault on school buses. They wanted the hearts and minds of millions of young people. We stood up to them. When the public learned more about them, the public stood up to them too.

People who value children for being children will always out last those who value children for the ad revenue they can generate.

The Song Is Over For BusRadio

Knock You Down by Keri Hilson is getting air time on buses equipped with BusRadio. This song is just one of the latest cleaned-up songs from an artist that has a reputation for dirty lyrics. Hilson’s Turnin’ Me On is on the same CD that Knock You Down came from – In A Perfect World. This is the CD kids will buy because BusRadio has this song in their play rotation. You can click the link and read the lyrics if you have a strong stomach.

Normally BusRadio says on their web music player (pictured above) when a song is a "BusRadio edit." They didn’t indicate that this time. That more than likely means that they played the clean version of the song without any additional edits. I downloaded the clean song and "bitch" was blanked out, but "pimp" is heard and "OMG" and "feels so damn good." Whether these words were heard or not on the bus, isn’t the point. Why is BusRadio continuing to promote songs that have any problem lyrics? Isn’t BusRadio in enough trouble?

BTW, Ne-Yo (a BusRadio favorite) and Kanye West (yet another BusRadio favorite) are featured on this song.

Knock You Down lyrics
Songwriters: Araica, Marcella; Cossom, Kevin; Hills, Floyd Nathaniel; Hilson, Keri; Smith, Shaffer; West, Kanye;

Heh, not again
Ohh, this ain’t supposed to happen to me

Keep rockin’, and keep knockin’
Whether you Louis Vuitton it up or Reebokin’
You see the hate, that they’re servin’ on a platter
So what we gon’ have, dessert or disaster?

I never thought I’d be in love like this
When I look at you my mind goes on a trip
Then you came in, and knocked me on my face
Feels like in I’m a race
But I already won first place

I never thought I’d fall for you as hard as I did
(As hard as I did, yeah)
You got me thinkin’ bout our life our house and kids, yeah
Every mornin’ I look at you and smile
‘Cause boy you came around and you knocked me down
Knocked me down

Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)
Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)

I never thought I’d, hear myself say, ooh, ya’ll gon’ head
I think I’m gonna kick it wit my girl today, kick it wit my girl today
I used to be commander and chief
Of my pimp ship flyin’ high, flyin’ high)
Til I met this pretty little missile that shot me out the sky
(Oh shot me out the sky)

Hey, now I’m crashing, don’t know how it happened
But I know it feels so damn good
Said if I could back, and make it happen faster
Don’t you know I would baby if I could
Miss Independent, ohh, to the fullest, the load never too much
She helpin’ me pull it
She shot the bullet that ended that life
I swear to you the pimp in me just died tonight
Girl sometimes love

Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)
Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)

Tell me now can you make it past your Caspers
So we can finally fly off into NASA
You was always the cheerleader of my dreams that
Seem to only date the head of football teams
And I was the class clown that, always kept you laughin’

We, were never meant to be baby we just happen
So please, don’t mess up the trick, hey young world I’m the new slick rick
They say I move too quick, but we can’t let the moment pass us
Let the hourglass pass right into ashes

Let the wind blow the ash right before my glasses
So I wrote this love letter right before my classes
How could a goddess ask, someone that’s only average
For advice, OMG, you listen to that bitch?
Whoa, it’s me, baby this is tragic
‘Cause we had it, we was magic

I was flyin’, now I’m crashin’
This is bad, real bad, Michael Jackson
Now I’m mad, real mad, Joe Jackson
You should leave your boyfriend now, I’mma ask him

Say you gotta put the good with the bad, happy and the sad
So will u bring a better future than I had in the past
Oh Cause, I don’t wanna make the same mistakes I did
I don’t wanna fall back on my face again
Whoa, whoa, I’ll admit it, I was scared to answer love’s call
Whoa, whoa, and if it hits better make it worth the fall
(When it comes around)

Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)
Sometimes love comes around
(Love comes around)
And it knocks you down
Just get back up
When it knocks you down
(Knocks you down)

Won’t see it coming when it happens, hey
But when it happens you’re gonna feel it, let me tell you now
You see when love knocks you down

Won’t see it coming when it happens
But when it happens you’re gonna feel it, let me tell you now
You see when love knocks you down
Yeah