Thanks to a guy stuck in traffic, a business was born. Now Metro Networks is in tune with drivers' innermost need.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published May 28, 2004
It's quite likely that you've never heard of Metro Networks. But chances are the company has helped you get to work on time, or pick up your kids from day care before the late fees kick in.
Those rush hour traffic reports that you listen to on your favorite radio station usually don't come from the station itself. In a lot of cases, they come from Metro Networks, a national company with local offices in the Tampa Airport Marriott hotel. Even that helicopter you rely on for traffic photos on TV might belong to Metro.
If you don't realize that Metro Networks exists, that's fine with company officials. Unlike most other companies, which spend huge amounts of money to make sure you know they're out there, Metro prefers to be invisible - to be heard but not seen.
"Our mission is to provide radio stations informational elements that they couldn't afford to produce themselves," said Karl Moore, the local director of operations. "But we don't care if they call it Joe's Traffic."
Metro Networks provides traffic reports for 19 radio stations and five TV stations in the Tampa area. A lot of people are surprised that Metro is so ubiquitous locally, Moore said, but its reach extends way beyond Tampa traffic.
In fact, he said, Metro was a national pioneer in traffic reporting for radio.
The company traces its history to a single phone call in the mid 1970s. A Baltimore area used-car dealer named David Sapperstein was stuck in traffic. He was listening to the radio, but he didn't hear anything about the traffic jam.
Sapperstein was one of the few people back then with a car phone, so he called the radio station and offered to provide information about the situation. The on-air guy put Sapperstein directly on the air.
"He struck up a relationship with the station," Moore said. "He was an entrepreneurial kind of guy, so he got the idea to offer traffic reports for the station if he could stick in a spot for his car dealership."
The company, Metro Traffic Control, expanded over the years to the point where it was the dominant provider for multiple stations in all the decent-sized radio markets.
So the company changed its name to Metro Networks and added short news, sports and weather updates, usually under a minute long, to its programming. (Metro Networks is now part of the broadcasting giant Westwood One.)
Metro usually provides the short-format programming free of charge to stations. Metro makes its money from selling short ads within the segments.
It's a proven money maker for the stations. People tend to do a lot of station surfing in their cars, avoiding commercials and looking for their favorite music or news programming. Traffic reports keep listeners tuned in to a station.
"The way it seems to work," Moore said, "is that listeners will stay tuned to a station if they know a traffic report is coming. That leaves the onus on the station to air reports at predictable times and promote the fact that they do.
"The station that claims the identity of having the most traffic reports is usually a ratings winner. People will even leave their favorite music format for traffic reports."
The Metro Networks office in Tampa is home to several small TV studios, a few radio studios and three production stations. Metro's traffic helicopter is based in St. Petersburg.
Metro staffers gather traffic information from the chopper, law enforcement agencies, the Department of Transportation's Road Ranger program that patrols the interstate system, and the Bill Currie Ford Courtesy Van.
Metro also has five fixed-position cameras mounted at strategic spots around the Tampa Bay area. One's usually aimed at the downtown interchange, another looks over State Road 60 in Brandon, a third is at the airport and two are in Pinellas. With the turn of a small joystick, any of the cameras can look around 360 degrees or zoom in or out.
The cameras can provide closeup shots of traffic situations, as well as what the industry calls "beauty shots," those scenes of things like sunsets behind the University of Tampa minarets that often adorn TV weather forecasts.
For traffic and other short reports, most stations prefer to use Metro Networks' own on-air talent, including its reporters in its chopper. The Metro people usually customize their reports for whatever station they're on at the moment, signing off with the station's name or call letters.
Sometimes Metro staffers even use pseudonyms tailored to the station. When Moore does traffic reports for a local religious station, he goes by the name Solomon Speed.
It's not unusual, Moore said, for Metro's people to be popular with listeners, who have no idea their favorite radio personalities don't even work for their favorite radio stations.
For Moore, who has a background as a rock radio programmer, working at Metro Networks gives him an opportunity to work in the industry he loves without the annoyances of working for radio station - and without having to play Stairway to Heaven for the millionth time.
"Radio is a very volatile industry," he said. "This is like being in radio without being in radio. Formats change, morning shows change, but the traffic reports are still there."
