Television stations invest heavily in reporting the weather for good reason: It's the No. 1 reason people watch local news. And when people in northeastern Arkansas turn to KAIT-TV to get the latest forecast, they often see something else as well: The Barton's/KAIT Weather Deck. KAIT approached Barton's parent, Jonesboro, Ark.-based E.C. Barton & Co., in 2005 with the proposal that Barton's build a deck for its weather forecasters and make an "annual commitment" to KAIT. In exchange, Barton's got naming rights, guaranteed references by on-air personnel to "Barton's/KAIT Weather Deck" on at least five local newscasts per week, 25 promotional announcements per month, and prominent displays on KAIT's website. The relationship has proven so successful that Barton's has since created a mobile version of the weather deck that KAIT hauls to remote events. KAIT also gives away high-quality, dual-logoed Barton's/KAIT umbrellas over the air five times a week, and Barton's locations hold in-store weekly drawings for the red-and-white umbrellas. KAIT weather forecasters appear at Barton's stores for programming events in which the station and the lumberyard promote weather-band radios. As a result, Barton's says, it has sold thousands of those radios over the past several years.
