(White Plains, NY) January 30, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Austin, TX is the 36th largest radio market with a population of 1,487,800. Austin was 39th two years ago.

• Austin is the capital of Texas and the county seat of Travis County. The area was settled in the 1830s on the banks of the Colorado River by pioneers who named the village Waterloo. In 1839, Waterloo was chosen to become the capital of the newly independent Republic of Texas. The city was renamed after Stephen F. Austin, who is known as the father of Texas.

• Austin is home to The University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest and most prestigious universities in the country and the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. Other institutions of higher learning include Austin Community College, Concordia University, Huston-Tillotson University and St. Edward's University.

• Austin's music revolves around the many nightclubs on 6th Street and an annual film/music/interactive festival known as South by Southwest (SXSW). The longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits, is a project of the University of Texas at Austin campus.

• Although Austin has many minor league teams, it is the largest city in the United States without a major professional sports league franchise, therefore, the passion for “burnt orange” and the University of Texas Longhorns. The University of Texas football and baseball teams each won their respective national championships during the 2005–2006 seasons, thus the fervor.

• Some famous faces from Austin include, Ciara – singer, Sarah Hagan – actress, Benjamin McKenzie – actor, Bob Schieffer – News anchor, Thomas Ford – Fashion designer, Stone Cold Steve Austin – wrestler, Ethan Hawke – actor and Ricardo Antonio Chavira – actor.

AUSTIN SPOT TEN

In the Texas state capital last week the #1 radio advertiser was GEICO with 685 spots. Coming in #2 was THUNDERCLOUD SUBS airing 575 ads, while RANDALLS landed in #3 with 543 commercials. H&R BLOCK zoomed from #25 to #4 with 392 spots and BRAKE SPECIALISTS PLUS locked into #5 with 387 spots. ACE CASH EXPRESS was #6 running 374 ads, while AUTOZONE jumped from #12 to #7 with 372 spots. GATTI’S PIZZA was #8 with 346 spots and BMW OF AUSTIN was solid at #9 airing 337 announcements. In at #10, SPEC’S cleared 335 spots.

ACCOUNTING & TAX PREPARATION SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

The #1 leader in this category is H&R BLOCK that just launched a new webcam app for tax returns. They ran 45,288 spots nationwide last week. #2 was JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE with 3,343 ads, while US TAX SHIELD was #3 with 1,973 commercials. LIBERTY TAX SERVICE took #4 with 1,826 spots and INSTANT TAX SERVICE was at #5 with 1,362 spots. GREATLAND was solid at #6 airing 762 announcements, while ELECTRONIC TAX CENTER was #7 with 632 spots. TAX RESOLUTION SERVICES CO. was #8 running 594 spots and TAX DEFENSE NETWORK landed in #9 with 489 spots. Coming in #10 was TAXACT with 403 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO remains in the #1 slot with 52,711 spots last week. H&R BLOCK was steady at #2 airing 45,288 announcements, while SAM’S CLUB explodes into #3 with 27,802 spots. MCDONALD’S was #4 with 25,623 ads and TURBO TAX took #5 with 24,117 spots.

Posted: January 30, 2012