Is Big Brother watching?
 Q:
Atop many of the billboards around San Diego are small
horizontal whip-like "antennas" that slowly rotate constantly.
What are these things doing?
[Hicks Outdoor Advertising] Billboard at Beckley, West Virginia on
Interstates 64 and 77 at Exit 44.
A: I surfed the Internet to San Diego and found a bicycle-billboard
advertiser. "The answer is fairly simple for a local," says Dan Smith
whose bike cabs roll throughout the Gas Lamp District of San Diego.
"They're very thin scarecrows."
Then I consulted an outdoor advertiser in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
"Those little whippy things are installed to keep pigeons from roosting on top of billboards and
making a mess of the area," says Mike Mons of Bowlin Outdoor Advertising. Pigeon droppings
make the structure slippery when crew members go on them. "By the constant motions the
pigeons can't roost on top of the board."
Finally, I asked Kevin Brass, longtime journalist (The T Sector) who's been driving the San Diego
freeways for 20 years. "To keep away birds, [the] enemy of billboards..." he says.
There you have it from three experts--Big Brother isn't tuned in.
Further Surfing:
The T Sector, Everything Tech for San Diego, magazine, web, events,
The Original Bike Cab Company, San Diego
Hicks Outdoor Advertising, Vienna, West Virginia
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