Super Bowl means super ad rates for WAFB

WAFB-TV executives aren’t saying how much they’re raking in from Super Bowl Sunday ad sales. But it’s a safe bet that, like its counterparts around the country, the local CBS affiliate is going to do quite well. A 30-second spot on the station is selling for around $15,000, according to station management. As a point of comparison, commercial airtime on local TV stations for regular season NFL games went for around $1,700, while a typical 30-second spot on WAFB’s top-rated 6 p.m. newscast sells for about $900. WAFB would not say how many spots it has to run during the game, but affiliate stations generally receive about a dozen local spots to run before, during and after the Super Bowl. While $15,000 may sound pricey in a mid-size TV market like Baton Rouge, consider that in top-20 markets—Boston, for instance—a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl costs $200,000; what’s more, the asking price for a national ad on CBS during the big game is $2.7 million. Those ads, 62 in all, sold out earlier this week. —Stephanie Riegel

LSU-produced commercial to air during Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year, and two LSU marketing students have gotten in on the action. A Gulf Coast Bank & Trust commercial made by Tracy Gagliardi and Sarah Balcerowicz will air in Baton Rouge and New Orleans during the first quarter of Sunday's game. Gagliardi and Balcerowicz created the spot for a course project in which students designed and executed a communications strategy for the bank. The ad focuses on the importance of taking time to save, and its images highlight milestones such as graduations and weddings. Gulf Coast Bank customers and employees selected the spot as their favorite among several alternatives, a vote which led to its scheduling on TV Sunday. To see the commercial, click here.

Most picking Colts to win Super Bowl

Sportswriters and famous football fans are generally picking the Indianapolis Colts to win Sunday's Super Bowl over the New Orleans Saints. Peter King, the lead NFL writer for Sports Illustrated, predicts a 33-26 Colts victory. "The Saints might stop Peyton Manning for two series. Maybe even four. But they won't stop him for 11," says King, who picks Manning as Super Bowl MVP. Don Banks, another NFL writer for Sports Illustrated, says the Saints will win 34-31. Banks predicts Drew Brees will have a big game but Saints kicker Garrett Hartley will make the clutch game-winning field goal, just as he did in the NFC Championship Game. ESPN's John Clayton likes the Colts to win a close one, 27-24, because of Manning's big-game experience. Bill Simmons, ESPN.com's "Sports Guy," says the Colts will win 31-23. "I can't pick against Manning in a big game," says Simmons. ESPN also asked celebrities from Maya Angelou to Hulk Hogan to pick the game: The Colts were favored by 62, the Saints by 41. Most of the people picking the Saints have ties to New Orleans or Louisiana: Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Paul and Sen. Mary Landrieu. One person with New Orleans ties who isn't picking the Saints to win is ex-FEMA head Michael Brown, now a talk radio host in Denver. Brown told the online magazine Politico that he follows the Colts. "I've just never been a real Saints fan," he says. "It's nothing more than that."

Lake Charles aircraft firm plans expansion

Aeroframe Services says it plans to more than double its workforce at Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, hiring 300 workers this year. The company, which maintains, repairs and overhauls commercial planes, says the new jobs will have an average salary of $55,000 plus benefits. The expansion will boost Aeroframe's Lake Charles workforce to 550 employees and its annual payroll to more than $30 million. Louisiana Economic Development says the expansion will create more than 360 indirect jobs. Aeroframe says its expansion is a result of a surge in aircraft maintenance work from existing and new customers. Gov. Bobby Jindal, who made the announcement today, says the expansion is another sign of how the state has made business retention an economic development priority.

B.R. ranks seventh for metro employment gain

Baton Rouge ranked seventh in a report that analyzed employment gains in U.S. metro areas over the past five years. The Capital Region saw employment go up 7.4% from 2004 to 2009, or 25,500 jobs, according to a report from Buffalo Business First. The local job gains happened largely during a period when New Orleans area businesses set up shop in Baton Rouge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The number of Capital Region jobs peaked in 2007, when there were 382,300 people working locally; employment dropped by more than 10,400 during 2009. Austin saw the biggest job gains over the period, adding 99,200 jobs and seeing its employment increase by 14.5%; San Antonio and Raleigh, N.C., were the only other cities to report double-digit growth. Detroit, which has been ground zero for the recession, saw its number of jobs drop by 343,700 or 16.5%; and New Orleans, still recovering from Katrina, was down 91,800 or 14.9%. See the full list here.

Initial La. jobless claims stable

First-time jobless claims were stable last week in Louisiana—but well below the comparable week in 2009. The Louisiana Workforce Commission says that for the week ending Saturday, there were 3,818 initial claims for jobless benefits from the newly unemployed. That's two more than the previous week's total, but nearly 17% below the 4,591 filed in the week ending Jan. 30, 2009. There was a slight decrease in the number of people continuing to receive benefits, a sign of those still looking for work. The state paid out benefits to 64,224 people during the week ending Saturday, compared to 65,504 the previous week.

La. college commission completes report

The final list of recommendations from a higher education restructuring panel would shift the way dollars are divvied up among Louisiana's public college campuses and reshuffle governance of the schools. The Postsecondary Education Review Commission completed its work today. Now the focus shifts to college leaders, who have given mixed reviews of the recommendations, and to lawmakers, who would have to buy into the ideas for many of them to be enacted.

Among the proposals, the panel suggests shrinking the number of higher education governing boards from five to two. The commission also suggests that freshmen and sophomore courses be funded at the same rate across campuses, that the funding formula for schools be revamped and tied more strongly to performance, and that the Legislature relinquish its authority over tuition increases. John Lombardi, LSU System president, says the university and other college systems plan to review the final report over the next few weeks and offer specific recommendations of their own. "We will seek input from our campuses and institutions and attempt to place the admirable aspirations of the PERC into a context that offers the realistic possibility of achieving progress in improving higher education in Louisiana," Lombardi says.

Pennington study shows who benefits most from exercise

Dr. Claude Bouchard, outgoing head of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, led an international team of researchers who determined what people will benefit the most from regular exercise. Bouchard's research, which appeared online in the Journal of Applied Physiology, identified the genes that show how fast people can raise the maximum volume of oxygen they use during exercise. The higher the maximum volume is, the more easily people can ward off ailments. By identifying the pace at which a person can raise that maximum oxygen volume, doctors can personalize exercise programs or alternative therapies to prevent heart disease or diabetes. Pennington is one of 14 institutions worldwide that participated in the study.

House shows put musicians, listeners into ‘homey’ proximity

Cars line one side of the darkened street leading to a packed parking lot, where drivers troll for the rare open space. Live music spills out of a dimly lit doorway and into the dark Friday night every time a new couple enters or someone steps out for a phone call or a smoke. It is opening night at Baton Rouge’s newest club, and as far as anyone can guess, the joint is open for one night only. There are no marquees, neon signs or bouncers in sight. Alcohol is BYOB, and the ticket price is a suggested donation to tuck into a shoebox. That club was Leigh Potts’ townhouse off Brightside Lane. On the bill were a group of friends and musicians who typically play venues like Chelsea’s Café and North Gate Tavern but, like other artists in the city, are gravitating with more regularity toward house shows. “People came and went as they pleased, and you could tell they were really enjoying themselves," Potts says. "There were a lot of jokes throughout the night between the performing artists and those in attendance. It had a good homey feel.” Read the whole story about the homegrown concert boom in 225 magazine by clicking here.