Nickelodeon Animation’s Growth Sparks New Hiring MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY By Slav Kandyba It’s been a good summer for Nickelodeon Animation Studios so far. The Burbank-based animation house, where artists hand-draw such children’s favorites as “Dora the Explorer” and “Fairly OddParents,” has upped hiring to accommodate the several new shows in development. Altogether, the number of employees at the studio now stands at more than 400, a 25 percent jump over the 300 employees who were there only several months ago. “This is what I expected and hoped for,” said Mark Taylor, Nickelodeon’s vice president and general manager. Taylor heads up one of the few remaining animation houses dedicated to hand-drawn animation and one that has put out hit after hit for Viacom Inc., the media conglomerate that owns Nickelodeon, as well as MTV, CBS and a host of other media properties. Burbank-based Disney Co. earlier this year shuttered its hand-drawn animation studio in Florida, effectively ending its hand-drawn animation run. Computer-generated animation has essentially replaced the hand-drawn variety, with only a handful of studios such as Nickelodeon left. But Nickelodeon Animation Studios is thriving. Most of the 110 new employees are working on Nickelodeon’s three new shows which are scheduled to debut sometime in the fall. Thirty five animators are at work on a new show called “Avatar,” which is scheduled for a November debut, Taylor said. “Avatar” will have an Asian theme, and resemble anime-style cartoons. Taylor said two other new productions, employing 20 animators each, were also in the works. He declined to describe them or give their name. Another 10 animators were hired to work on a new Nick Jr. show, Taylor said. The addition of new shows brings the total number of different productions for Nickelodeon to 11, Taylor said. The studio is not currently working on any titles for Spike TV, one of parent company Viacom’s newest cable channels, which is airing an animated show called “Striperella.” While most of the conceptual and initial design of animation is done at the Burbank location, much of the animation is done overseas, in places such as South Korea. Nickelodeon is also starting four new show pilots this month, Taylor said. Nickelodeon productions have consistently garnered top ratings in cable programming rating by Nielsen Media Research. For instance, the show “SpongeBob SquarePants” was ranked fifth in the Nielsen Media Research list of the top 10 most-watched cable television programs during the week ending July 4. The number of viewers for the show exceeded more than 4.1 million people. Helping Film Crews When Robert Wald put his helicopter up for sale, Dave Child, a tax accountant with Burbank-based Ascent Media called to inquire about it and eventually bought it. The transaction, however, wasn’t the end of the relationship between the two it was just the beginning. After some conversations, the two decided to create a business. It would involve building a Web site where production and post-production crew members could post their resumes and have them viewed by employers. Wald drew on his own experience as a crew worker and figured the Web site would take off, even though there were similar Web sites already in existence. Earlier this year, CrewMarket.com was unveiled, and it has done pretty well out of the gate. “We’ve managed to get 600 people listed on there, and our goal is to sustain as close to 10 percent of the total motion picture crew market as we can,” Wald said. According to Wald, there are more than 100,000 crew people seeking work in the U.S. The job-seekers who sign up at CrewMarket.com have a free one-year membership, and are able to post and modify their resume entries as often as they want. CrewMarket has thus far been funded by Wald and Child and a few investors. The duo is handling the Web site operations themselves after an outside firm designed the site. Wald hopes to get more help down the line. “We’re talking about hiring a couple of more people getting a sales representative and an IT person,” Wald said. Wald said CrewMarket stands apart from its competitors, such as Mandy.com and Crew411.com, because it enables job-seekers to post more detailed resumes. “We just didn’t see anybody out there focusing on that,” he said. While Wald admits CrewMarket isn’t making money yet, he said he hopes the Web site will prove itself to job-seekers and employers alike. For his part, he is marketing the site through 600 “CrewMarket.com” T-shirts, through direct mail, and trade publications Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Meanwhile, as CrewMarket.com takes shape, Wald is enjoying something else from his business partnership with Child. “Now he owns (my) helicopter, and I still get to fly it,” Wald said. Salem Buys Station Camarillo-based Salem Communications Corp. has acquired WRMR-AM, a Cleveland radio station, from Cleveland Classical Radio, LLC, for $10 million. On July 12, the leading radio broadcaster of religious and family themes programming re-launched that station in a new format, as WHK-AM NewsTalk 1420. “With this acquisition, we now will operate in Cleveland a full cluster of stations in Christian teaching and talk, Christian contemporary music, news/talk and sports,” said Edward G. Altsinger III, Salem’s president and CEO. Salem, a NASDAQ-traded company, owns and operates 98 radio stations nationwide. It also owns the Salem Radio Network, which syndicates talk, news and music programming to more than 1,600 affiliated radio stations. The company also operates an Internet site and Salem Publishing, a Christian magazine publisher. Bungalo Records Signs Label Woodland Hills-based distributor Bungalo Records has signed a record label run by hip-hop and R & B; producer Rodney “Dark Child” Jerkins, who has produced tracks for Michael Jackson’s last CD “Invincible” and worked with dozens of top artists. Jerkins’ label, Dark Child Records, will release forthcoming CDs from actor Chris Tucker and supermodel Tyra Banks, according to Bungalo’s official Web site. Bungalo distributes through Universal Music and Video Distribution. Staff Reporter Slav Kandyba can be reached at (818) 316-3126
