Local Thunder Helps University of Alabama's TV Station Fund Transition to Digital with Online Shopping Site

Business Wire, Feb 29, 2008

--WVUA seeks new revenue stream with local online shopping environment powered by Local Thunder--

PORTLAND, Maine -- As commercial TV stations nationwide struggle to fund the FCC-mandated transition to digital broadcasting, the University of Alabama's TV station WVUA-TV (an affiliate of the America One and ShopNBC networks) has developed an innovative plan to generate a significant new revenue stream to help fund its own transition to digital. At the heart of the plan, is the creation of a new online shopping environment powered by Local Thunder, an innovative creator of next generation online advertising platforms for local media outlets.

With the help of Local Thunder, WVUA-TV is developing a local shopping website featuring rich-content display ads, ecommerce capabilities and opt-in email campaigns for local consumers. The new site will go live in April and is projected to increase the station's current commercial and production sales revenue by over 20 percent by the end of 2008.

Dan Bradley, a forty-year broadcasting industry veteran and WVUA-TV's new sales manager explains:

"Even though the University of Alabama is a non-profit institution, the University's TV station is not. We produce our own content, manage our own programming, support a staff of 30 professionals and 30 student interns, and we pay all our own bills. Our conversion to digital broadcasting will cost our station a very significant amount of money and we need to complete the transition by February 2009. For us, this was a big problem, as we are not a huge operation with massive revenues. This is why one of my mandates when I joined WVUA-TV was to develop a new initiative to help us generate significant new revenue streams."

Bradley looked at many other solutions before deciding to work with Local Thunder:

"We looked at other companies and solutions ranging from traditional marketing promotional activities to expanding our own website internally, to banner ads. What really sold us on the concept and on Local Thunder was the glowing feedback we got from the management team at WTVY in Dothan AL. They reported that their Local Thunder site had started generating a significant new revenue stream within a matter of months."

As one of the only State supported universities in the country with a commercial frequency, WVUA-TV operates within the University's College of Communication and Information Sciences. Undergraduate and graduate students are actively involved in the everyday running of station's operations, thereby giving them a real life experience of the world of media and broadcasting.

"Our new online shopping environment will give our students a first-hand understanding of the competitive issues that face our industry and gives them the unique opportunity to be directly involved with the development of the concept, the programming and the selling of promotional campaigns to the local business community," says Bradley.

"One of the reasons I am confident our shopping site will be successful," says Bradley, "is because it will create a partnerships that truly benefits everyone: our students, our station, our advertisers, and the local community."

About Local Thunder

Local Thunder offers innovative products and solutions that help local TV, radio stations and media groups leverage their strong offline brands in the online space. Local media in all size markets across North America have chosen Local Thunder as the foundation for their local online revenue strategy and the company's fast growing customer list includes, KWCH in Wichita KS, ABC affiliate KERO 23 in Bakersfield, CA and NBC affiliate WAGT-TV in Augusta GA, to name a few. The Local Thunder organization is a team of experienced broadcast, technology and marketing professionals dedicated to keeping clients on the forefront of Internet localization.

(c)2008 Local Thunder Inc. All rights reserved. Local Thunder is a registered trademark of Local Thunder Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.