Texas Town Changes Name to DISH for Free TV
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James Joyner | Wednesday, November 16, 2005 |
Clark, Texas, population 125, has changed its name to “DISH” for ten years of free television service and fifteen minutes of publicity.
Texas town renames itself ‘Dish’ to get free TV (AP)
A Texas town has changed its name to DISH in exchange for 10 years of free satellite television service. All 125 residents of the town formerly known as Clark will get basic service and a free digital video recorder satellite TV receiver, a move that has some people joking that the Fort-Worth suburb will become a town of couch potatoes. “We joke that in ten years everyone will come out and say wow when they see the light,” said secretary Michelle Going, 32.
[...]
Despite the jokes, the switch is incredibly popular, said Mayor Bill Merritt. The city council meeting to vote on the name was packed on Tuesday night and about 12 people — 10 percent of the town’s population — stood up to support the name change, which passed unanimously. “I’m sure there are some people who are attached to the name (Clark) like the man who founded the town and named it after himself,” he told AFP Wednesday. “At the meeting last night we had no naysayers.”
The town made the change for more than just a 50 dollar monthly savings per household, Merritt said. The hope is that publicity and a budget-neutral giveaway will lure new residents. “The getting our name out there is working and the second part is really to market ourselves – come here and you get something out of it,” he said. The best part of the contract, Merritt said, is the free television will be extended to anyone who moves to Dish and any land that is later annexed by the town. The new town signs, designed and paid for by DISH Network, were a bonus.
DirecTV, Texas would have been awkward, but at least they’d have gotten the option of NFL Sunday Ticket.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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This has possibilities. Thank the gods no one approached them that owned:
say a urinal company as in, Ur-in-al, Texas - a wee bit of a town.
How about Viagra, Texas - straight talk spoken here?
Or Faucet,Texas, - everyone in town's a drip, and packing!
Or Bass Pro, Texas, - we're the reel kind of people.
Or Liberal,Texas, where people lie all day long.
You get the idea - lots of possibilities.
There was a town in Kansas called Montana. When Joe Montana came to the Chiefs, a Kansas City radio station talked them into changing the town's name to Joe Montana, Kansas. I don't think they even got any compensation besides local publicity. Suckers.
I'll beat some of the other regulars here to the punch and suggest "Halliburton, D.C."
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