Electronic billboards to boost revenue

Medford’s participation in a state program to test the safety of electronic billboards is expected to generate at least $500,000 in revenue for the city during the next fiscal year.

Medford is in line to receive $100,000 from ClearChannel for allowing the outdoor advertising company to convert two of its five conventional billboards in the city to an electronic format. An additional $400,000 will be awarded a year from now, contingent on the outcome of a safety study by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Highway Division.

Medford also negotiated a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with ClearChannel that will generate $50,000 annually for the next 25 years, according to Mayor Michael McGlynn. The payment is for the use of the city property along Interstate 93 as well as the electronic billboard’s added value to the company, the mayor said.

McGlynn said he is confident the state will determine that the electronic billboards, which are already in use in 41 other states, pose no additional traffic safety hazard. Unlike the older type of electronic billboards, on which images change through a process resembling the opening of a Venetian blind, “These boards change instantly,” he said.

Each billboard message changes after about 10 seconds. As part of the agreement with Clear Channel, the city can make use of the billboard for up to 20 hours per month for purposes such as promoting its new single-stream recycling program.

Medford is among seven cities and towns to take part in the pilot program. The other six communities – Chicopee, Fall River, Foxborough, Lawrence, New Bedford and Stoneham – host one electronic billboard each, according to Ed Farley, executive director of the Highway Division’s Outdoor Advertising Board.