CBS Outdoor's Predecessors [[including Viacom Outdoor) and Detroit

[mtburb]

I do know that this topic has never been discussed before, so let's roll with it. A decade ago, if you traveled around the tri-county area, you may have passed dozens of billboards with a small white oval containing Viacom's pre-split 1990 logo.

If you did the same thing today, those same ovals instead contain the famous CBS eye, which, sadly, was painted over the Viacom wording back in 2006. Nowadays, you have to watch the closings of programs like Diagnosis Murder and Matlock to see that same Viacom logo again.

But, before 1999 [[when those Viacom ovals started appearing), the same physical company was under a host of different names, originally starting as 3M National. Does anyone remember when 3M National first entered the Detroit market and how their logos appeared on those billboards?

Plus, I vaguely remember seeing Turner logos at the bottoms of several billboards in the region as well a decade or more ago. Was it true that Mr. Ted also included an outdoor advertising company in his empire?

In case you have bad memory, here's a photo to refresh it [[displaying an actual advertisement), courtesy of the folks over at DetroitFunk:



And here's a drawing I did of one of these [[but with fictional advertisements on both sides), including an option to spin it around to see either side: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...43a47695139d26