Delivering the News to Kings of the Road : Satellite Channel Caters to Truckers

Clarence Varney was running a full load of granulated steel from Riverton, N.J., to Salem, Ind. His big rig was so heavy it felt like it had more mass than a collapsed star, which immediately led him to thoughts of the weather. Varney had driven out of a snowbound Midwest several days ago, and because he’d been on the road ever since, didn’t know the up-to-date forecast.

This was serious business. Varney had nearly 700 miles to drive, part of it through mountainous terrain. Jockeying a heavy rig over snow-covered or wet roads had dangerous potential. Because of this, Varney had already gotten permission from his company to drive a hundred or so miles out of his way in order to avoid some of the steeper sections along the route. Now he needed to know what weather to expect.

But Varney didn’t trust the weather information he could get from his CB--”It could be some guy in a VW, and here you are in a 53-foot trailer,” he said--and the radio stations in the East were only giving out local forecasts. So he headed for the only source of information that could tell him exactly what he needed to know.

Fifty miles south of Philadelphia, Varney pulled off I-95 into Maryland’s Liberty Bell Auto Truck Plaza, strolled into the restaurant and ordered something to eat. Then he turned around in his seat, looked up at a TV monitor placed in the wall, and checked out what was on Trucker TV, a satellite-delivered news and information service seen at truck stops across the country.

Varney watched as anchor Kate Sullivan, formerly of KCAL-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, ran through the top news stories of the day. He paid close attention to items specifically related to the trucking industry, scrutinized a feature story on a truck-driving school, and drank some coffee during a humorous bit by a reporter who reviews the food at truck stop restaurants.

Then, there it was. Traffic conditions on the nation’s interstates. And weather reports by region. The forecast called for showers throughout much of Varney’s route, with a possibility of light snow. Now, at least, he knew he was in for a tough run.

“This network is super,” he said. “I can really use the information about the weather and traffic tie-ups. And they’ll run stories about new state regulations, and it’s like, ‘Damn, I never heard of that before.’ It is so helpful for us drivers out here.”

They call it place-based media, and it wasn’t even technologically feasible until a few years ago. Stick a small satellite dish on a roof somewhere, face it toward a signal coming from a central source and, voila!-- narrowcasting in the most basic sense.

The possibilities are limitless--for education, industry, government, you name it. But the people at the American Transportation Television Network (ATTN), based in Washington, D.C., have come up with one of the more unusual uses for this space-age TV concept. They have targeted a population of 3.5 million truckers, who spend billions of dollars a year while on the road, and are broadcasting to them at the one place where they all turn up at one time or another: the nation’s 2,500 full-service truck stops.

“There’s no other source of information for these guys,” says Steve Cohen, chairman of ATTN. “They live this atomized life, they step down out of the truck, and the question is, how do they reconnect?”

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Adds Tom Hauff, a former trucker with extensive local TV news experience who is now the network’s executive producer: “These guys are on the road, and there are only a handful of radio stations catering to their needs. I see ourselves as the local TV outlet for truckers.”

If the whole concept of Trucker TV sounds a little bizarre--and leads to comic thoughts of networks for taxidermists or accountants--its conception and execution are no joke. They may actually prove to be a paradigm for future media historians studying the narrowcasting phenomenon.

ATTN, which launched last October and currently broadcasts to 50 truck stops nationwide (the network plans to be in more than 300 by the end of the summer), is the brainchild of Jim Rutledge and Steve Cohen, both veterans of Court TV with extensive TV news backgrounds. They saw a well-defined, homogenous audience that was not being reached by traditional media. An audience that was overwhelmingly male, earned between $35,000 and $50,000 per year, and was a natural for a wide range of sponsors from ice chests to tires, leisure clothing to pharmaceuticals.

Rutledge and Cohen also realized that from a news perspective, the trucking industry had tentacles that reach into myriad aspects of American life. “These guys are responsible for transporting 80% of everything we touch,” says Cohen, “so there are so many other industries affected.”

Trucker TV isn’t just a vehicle for weather and traffic updates. Besides the national and international news it culls from ABC feeds, the network currently employs four Washington-based reporters who, along with 30 stringers nationwide, cover a number of beats: regulatory agencies such as the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration; associations related to the industry, such as the American Transportation Assn.; state-based highway and trucking organizations; even the FBI, which investigates crimes committed on interstate highways.

The network also runs sports segments centered on hunting, fishing and stock car racing. Has a good ol’ boy physician, Dr. “Red” Duke, who provides health and fitness advice for a viewership that, in general, sits too much, often eats badly and may also smoke a lot. Promotes a positive spin on the industry by running “Highway Heroes,” a regular segment about truckers who save lives or perform Good Samaritan-like acts. And broadcasts recurring lifestyle features on the order of Kate Sullivan’s “Long Distance Lovin’,” which gave tips on how to maintain a good marriage when you’re on the road all the time.

“Story ideas have simply not been a problem,” says Hauff. “We could do five stories a week just on fuel scams. The challenge is not ideas, but getting things covered. We have limited resources.”

Trucker TV broadcasts out of a crowded rabbit warren of offices located just a few blocks from the Capitol. There’s a small newsroom that has the smell and feel of a small city TV operation, and a broadcast studio with a set as deliberately studied as the network’s programming.

Patterned after pop singer John Cougar Mellencamp’s real-life mountain hideaway (which Steve Cohen once saw on TV), the set features a wing-backed chair where the anchors sit, a large wooden table, and a slew of male thingamabobs: duck decoys, pool cues, trucker caps, framed pictures of big rigs, fishing reels, various state license plates and a diesel fuel pump.

“The idea behind the look,” says Hauff, “was if we turned a regular guy loose without his wife’s supervision, this is what we think he would come up with.” In keeping with this homey atmosphere, all ATTN anchors and reporters dress casually, the men often in jeans and flannel shirts, the women in pants, blouses and the occasional skirt.

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Financed by a group of American, Canadian and European venture capitalists, ATTN is still in its start-up phase. It currently broadcasts from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, but will eventually be on-air 18 hours per day, seven days a week. The network provides a free 1.8-meter dish and four TV monitors to any truck stop that signs up for the service, then charges $395 a month to receive the feed. Cohen says this fee includes any necessary repair work, and that on average, it costs ATTN $5,000 to outfit each outlet.

The network recently signed a deal with GTE SpaceNet, which will now install equipment in the 300 truck stops (including 11 in California towns like Barstow, Irvine and Ontario) that have signed up to receive the service. As part of this deal, GTE will have an uplink at each truck stop that will be able to transmit credit card approvals and other financial transactions.

Everything seems to be in place for major narrowcasting success, except for one key element: ATTN is having trouble convincing some advertisers to come on board. Ad spots are dirt cheap right now--about $50 for a 30-second ad, which will rise to $300 when ATTN hits 300 outlets--but price isn’t the problem; image, and the politics of media buying, are.

Trucker TV has had no problem attracting advertisers such as the National Rifle Assn., Igloo ice chests (which have 12-volt plugs for trucks) and Sports Illustrated magazine. It has also been successful with over-the-counter drugs like Alka Seltzer, NoDoz and Mineral Ice.

But truck-related products such as tires and oil have been surprisingly slow in signing up because, claims Cohen, “they are reticent about going from print to the electronic media.” And Trucker TV is having a hard time selling what would seem to be naturals like deodorant, motorcycles, even nonalcoholic beer (the network will not accept liquor ads).

“Advertisers have a stereotype about this audience,” says Cohen, “that they’re gruff, large and mean-spirited. But they’re basically middle-class, and we have to convince them of that. So when I go to BBD&O;, most of my pitch is who these guys are, and why they should want them.”

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It’s dinner time at the Liberty Bell Truck Plaza, and the “Truckers Only” section of the restaurant is filled with drivers chowing down on fatty, high caloric food. There’s enough fried chicken, potatoes smothered in gravy and greasy hamburgers to put a small town in the intensive care unit.

As the truckers wolf down their fuel, swap anecdotes and contemplate the next leg of their journey, Trucker TV can be heard above the conversational din. Many of these drivers are seeing the channel for the first time, and their reactions to it are as varied as their body types: some stare in fixated interest at everything the network broadcasts; others ignore it totally; but almost everyone pays attention when the traffic and weather segments are aired.

“I really appreciate the weather updates,” says Don Turcotte, a trucker from North Providence, R.I., who’s seeing the network for the first time. “I think this could also be valuable for things like updates on DOT regulations, and job opportunities. It opens up a whole Pandora’s box of possibilities.”

“The TV is definitely more accurate for weather and traffic information,” agrees Eugene Johannes of Central City, Neb., who’s seen Trucker TV before. “It also helps some with regulatory information. I don’t rely much on the CB anymore--half of the stuff you hear you don’t want to believe. There’s always someone out there wanting to pull your leg.”

Comments like these reassure Marshall Moore, general manager of the sprawling complex. He signed up with Trucker TV as soon as the service approached him, and hasn’t had any reason to regret the decision.

“I haven’t heard anything negative about it from the truckers,” he says. “It’s a good forum for them to communicate with. And it’s a definite advantage for me to have it. In the hospitality business, it’s one of those things that adds up to a positive experience.”