Month: June 2010

PetSafe Downtown Dog Park opens to the public

Posted by Sarah Pope – June 15, 2010

Photo Courtesy of Jennie Huettel

Knoxville, Tenn. – The wait is over. The PetSafe Downtown Dog Park officially opened today to Knoxville dogs and their owners!

Today, during a ceremony at the PetSafe Downtown Dog Park, City of Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Randy Boyd, President & CEO of Radio Systems Corporation and other distinguished guests announced the official opening of the park.

The PetSafe Downtown Dog Park is located at the intersection of Summit Hill Drive and Central Avenue in downtown Knoxville.

The park contains the following amenities for dogs and their owners to enjoy:

  • Separate small and large dog areas
  • Concrete plaza with benches
  • Plush landscaping
  • Crushed-stone trail

The addition of the PetSafe Downtown Dog Park is the fourth dog park in Knoxville. Other dog parks in Knoxville include Tommy Schumpert Park, the Victor Ashe Park and PetSafe Village.

“We’re very grateful to Randy Boyd and PetSafe for the generous gift that helped make this dog park possible,” Haslam said. “There were several other organizations involved in this project and it’s a great example of what can be accomplished when groups work together to make something good happen for our community.”

Photo Courtesy of Jennie Huettel

“This is a very exciting day for Knoxville. The number of downtown esidents is continually increasing, and it’s important that they have a place to bring their dogs to run, play and socialize,” said Randy Boyd, founder and CEO of Radio Systems Corporation, makers of PetSafe brands. “This park really increases the quality of life for the downtown residents who have dogs.”

The opening of the PetSafe Downtown Dog Park fits into the effort to make Knoxville and Knox County the Most Pet Friendly Community in America.  The effort consists of focusing on major expansion of pet activities and events, pet-focused tourism and more pet-friendly park acres and businesses and more. Numerous community leaders from City of Knoxville, Knox County, Young Williams Animal Center, the University of Tennessee, PetSafe, the Knoxville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation have been involved from the start of the movement, which kicked off in July 2009.

Photo Courtesy of City of Knoxville

For more information on the PetSafe Downtown Dog Park, visit http://www.cityofknoxville.org/recreation/dogparks.asp. For more information on the Most Pet Friendly Community initiative in Knoxville and Knox County, visit www.PetFriendliestCommunity.com.

About PetSafe®
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, PetSafe® is the industry leader in the management of pet behavior, offering pet training, containment, safety and lifestyle product solutions. PetSafe® introduced the first do-it-yourself electronic fence to the pet market in 1991 and the first wireless fence in 1998. PetSafe’s product line up includes: kennels and electronic underground fences; bark control systems; a selection of remote training products; pet doors; pet identification collars; heated wellness products; pet feeders and a growing line of lifestyle products. For more information about PetSafe®, visit: www.petsafe.net.

For more information:
Mike Cohen, Ackermann PR
865-584-0550
MCohen@AckermannPR.com

Belcher Receives Award Named After Legendary Clayton Homes Founder

Posted by Ryan Willis – June 14, 2010

Knoxville, Tenn. – Clayton Homes, the nation’s largest home builder, announced that Joe Belcher has been named the inaugural winner of the James L. Clayton Award. Belcher, who has been with the company for 25 years, is currently serving as a Zone Sales Manager. 

The James L. Clayton Award represents the absolute pinnacle of personal recognition for career contributions to the well being of Clayton Homes.  The award bears the treasured name of Clayton Homes founder, James L. Clayton, whose entrepreneurial drive and insatiable demand for excellence have become legendary. 

“Joe plays a critical role for us at Clayton Homes. This honor recognizes his dedication, knowledge of the housing industry, and his high moral character,” says David Booth, President of Clayton Homes.  Belcher joined the company in 1985 and has served in numerous roles such as Zone Vice President and Regional Manager. He also serves as a member of the Board for the North Carolina Manufactured Housing Institute. 

“I am humbled because of the respect I have for the leadership in this company. It is a great accomplishment to be chosen from among thousands of hard working and dedicated team members in such a fine organization. To receive any award is special but to receive the inaugural award in honor of James L. Clayton is meaningful because of the high regard I have for our great founder,” Belcher said of his achievement. 

Clayton Homes was founded on cornerstone principles combining creativity, entrepreneurship, moral and ethical behavior and an inexhaustible customer focus to drive increasingly higher values to every stakeholder. The recipient of this distinguished award is a steward of these principles and mentors others with energy and enthusiasm toward a common goal. Through their efforts, the philosophy of delivering an improved lifestyle to customers and team members vibrantly continues. 

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About Clayton Homes:  A Berkshire-Hathaway Company, Clayton Homes is a national, vertically integrated housing company. Through its family of brands, Clayton Homes builds, sells, finances, leases, and insures a full spectrum of affordable housing and is the nation’s number one retailer of modular and manufactured homes.

Media Contact
Mike Cohen
(865) 584-0550
mcohen@ackermannpr.com

PetSafe Downtown Dog Park Grand Opening is Tuesday, June 15

Posted by Sarah Pope – June 14, 2010

It’s official! The grand opening of the PetSafe Downtown Knoxville Dog Park is tomorrow, Tuesday, June 15 at 10 a.m.!

City of Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Radio Systems Corporation Randy Boyd and other distinguished guests will be on hand to dedicate the park.

The park is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Summit Hill Drive and Central Avenue in downtown Knoxville.

The one-acre park contains large and small dog areas, a concrete plaza with benches, plush landscaping, and a crushed-stone trail. This is the fourth dog park in Knoxville, following Tommy Schumpert Park, Victor Ashe Park and PetSafe Village.

The event is free and open to the public!

Media Contact:
Sarah Malak
Ackermann PR
(865) 584-0550
SMalak@AckermannPR.com

Cellular Sales opens new locations in Nashville, Tennessee and Versailles, Kentucky

Posted by Sarah Pope – June 9, 2010

Knoxville, Tenn. – Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless, has opened two new locations in Nashville, Tenn. and Versailles, Ky.

The new Versailles, Ky. Cellular Sales store opened at 479 Lexington Road last week.

The Nashville store is located at 15567 Old Hickory Boulevard. Cellular Sales brought a mobile showroom to the Old Hickory Boulevard location to meet the immediate needs of the Nashville community during the flood. Meanwhile, the permanent Cellular Sales store was in construction, but the store officially opened to the public last week.

Cellular Sales is a 17-year old privately held company headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn.  The company currently operates throughout the United States.  By year end, Cellular Sales – which attributes its rapid growth to unparalleled customer service – will operate more than 350 locations throughout the country.  For the past two years, Inc. Magazine has named Cellular Sales one of the nation’s fastest growing privately held companies. This year, the company was in the Top 100 for retailers.

For more information about the new Cellular Sales Verizon Wireless store, visit the company’s web site at www.cellularsales.com.

Well over 135,000 “passengers” have boarded the new Titanic Museum Attraction in just seven weeks

Posted by Rick Laney – June 9, 2010

Knoxville, Tenn. – The new Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. has been open for just two months and already more than 135,000 “passengers” have toured the painstakingly authentic recreation of the world’s most famous ship.

Titanic Museum Attraction in Tennessee

The world’s largest Titanic Museum Attraction, which is also the newest major attraction in the popular resort area surrounding the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is exceeding its business projections in all areas and sells completely out of tickets on most days. Because of the overwhelming response to the new museum, visitors are being urged to purchase tickets in advance or to make reservations by phone.

“I came down from Ohio specifically for the Titanic Museum Attraction,” said Amy Polczynski.  “I fully expected it to be amazing – but it far exceeded all of my expectations.  From the costumed crew members who meet you outside to the exact recreations of the grand staircase and first class suite, everything is so authentic.  It literally makes you feel as though you are standing on board the Titanic.

“In addition to the interior and exterior of the museum, the hundreds of actual Titanic artifacts that are on display are simply breathtaking.  To stand there and look at the actual master key that opened all of the first class suites, and the handwritten letters from those on board the ship, it just transports you back to 1912 – you feel like you are literally there.”

The Titanic Museum Attraction opened in April with a star-studded weekend-long Grand Opening hosted by Regis Philbin.  The event also featured numerous descendants and family members of those on board the Titanic and included a christening of the ship by Captain Edward J. Smith.

Titanic Museum Attraction is a half-scale, permanent, three-deck recreation of the Titanic.  The museum houses 20 galleries to display nearly 400 authentic, priceless Titanic artifacts that were either carried from the ship and into lifeboats by passengers and crew, or were found afloat soon after the sinking and quickly salvaged by rescue boats.

The Isidor and Ida Straus Suite at Titanic Museum Attraction

Inside the Titanic Museum Attraction, visitors find full-size recreations (built to actual Titanic blueprints) of Third-Class quarters, a First-Class suite, dining rooms and – the museum’s centerpiece – a $1 million exact reproduction of the Titanic’s Grand Staircase.  The First-Class suite in the Titanic Museum Attraction, which is dedicated to Isidor and Ida Straus who co-owned Macy’s Department Stores, was also the cabin used in James Cameron’s blockbuster movie Titanic as Rose’s suite.

“What we have created is special in so many ways,” said John Joslyn, co-owner of the Titanic Museum Attraction.  “It is truly a museum – with hundreds of priceless artifacts from the Titanic, but it is also an overall experience for our guests.  They get to talk to crew members and maids who know the detailed story of the ship and her passengers.  Visitors are able to touch an iceberg and feel the 28-degree water exactly as it was on that fateful night.

“While you’re visiting the Titanic Museum Attraction, you truly become a passenger on board the Titanic.  It’s a complete experience that honors and respects the ship and its passengers by keeping their stories alive.  It’s a one-of-a-kind place that you have to experience to fully understand.”

In addition to being a world class museum in the truest sense of the word, Titanic Museum Attraction is also highly interactive and offers a hands-on experience for children, teenagers and adults.  The ship is anchored in water to create the illusion of Titanic at sea, and a two-hour self-guided tour gives guests the sensation of sailing on the original ship’s 1912 maiden voyage. Upon entry, each guest receives a boarding pass bearing the name of an actual Titanic passenger or crew member whose fate is revealed on the Memorial Wall at tour end. Along the way, powerful emotions surface as guests:

  • Walk Titanic’s Grand Staircase
  • Touch the frozen surface of an “iceberg”
  • Feel the chill of that fateful “Starry Night”
  • Study some of the largest, most detailed Titanic models ever built
  • Grip the ship’s wheel and follow the Captain’s commands
  • Tour world-class galleries and the rare historical artifacts they hold
  • Sit in a Titanic lifeboat and listen to actual survivors tell their stories
  • Send an SOS from the Marconi Wireless Room
  • Test their balance while standing on mini-decks built to show the ever-steeper slope of Titanic as she sank
  • Watch children eight years and younger explore the special interactive Tot-Titanic Play-and-Learn Room
  • Dive to Titanic’s wreck site via spectacular underwater camera footage

The Titanic Museum Attraction – which is conveniently located to all areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville – is now open every day from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. ET.  Tickets are available online at www.TitanicPigeonForge.com and visitors are strongly urged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations by calling 1-800-381-7670.

Cedar Bay Entertainment, which owns and operates Titanic Museum Attraction, is a privately owned entertainment and development company headquartered in Branson, Missouri, the site of Cedar Bay’s first Titanic Museum Attraction. Since its April 2006 grand opening, it has welcomed more than 2,200,000 guests.

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Media Contact
Rick Laney
(865) 584-0550
rlaney@ackermannpr.com

Radio Systems acquires Veterinary Ventures Inc.

Posted by Sarah Pope – June 7, 2010

Knoxville, Tenn. – Every pet needs clean, fresh and healthy water. But sometimes, pets can be particular about the way they hydrate.

Drinkwell 360 Fountain

Pet industry leader Radio Systems Corporation has acquired Veterinary Ventures Inc. to make sure all those different requests can be met.

In 1994, veterinarian Dr. Mary Burns experienced frustration with the behavior of one of her cats named “Buckwheat.” “Buckwheat” would only drink water from a dripping faucet and would lie around on the kitchen counter all day waiting for her human to turn the faucet on.

So Dr. Burns invented The Drinkwell® Pet Fountain in 1994 to address this issue. “Buckwheat” could then drink fresh, healthy water from her own fountain. Eventually the company became Veterinary Ventures Inc.

“We have tremendous respect for the products that Vet Ventures Inc. has introduced to the market over the past several years, and the Drinkwell® Pet Fountain brings another category leadership to Radio Systems,” said Randy Boyd, founder and CEO of Radio Systems Corporation. “Our mission is to be the most trusted brand in the pet ownership experience, and to continually offer our consumers a broader offering with more product choices.”

“I see this as a great acquisition for Radio Systems and our customers. We recently introduced a collection of Healthy Pet Station feeders and water systems, so this is a great complement to that line. The Drinkwell® Pet Fountain is already a great product, and I’m confident that we can take it to a new level to provide pet owners with even more choice in water systems for their beloved pets,” said Tom Feiten, director of sales at Radio Systems. “Drinkwell® products are well-known, so we’re excited to be associated with the brand.”

“We at Veterinary Ventures are very excited to be a part of the Radio Systems family. Their experience and resources will mean significant new innovations in the Drinkwell® Pet Fountain line of products,” said Sean Rowe, president of Veterinary Ventures.

Radio Systems Corporation will keep the Drinkwell® product name due to its strong market recognition, but in the next few months, the brand name the fountains are sold under will transition to the PetSafe® brand.

For more information on the companies, visit www.petfountain.com or  www.PetSafe.net.

About Radio Systems
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Radio Systems Corporation (RSC) is the maker of the PetSafe®, Invisible Fence®, Innotek®, SportDOG®, Staywell®, and most recently the Premier® and Unleashed Technology® brands. The brand portfolio makes RSC an industry leader in the management of pet behavior, pet training solutions, containment systems, safety and lifestyle product solutions.

About Vet Ventures Inc.
The Drinkwell® Pet Fountain was invented in 1994 by veterinarian Dr. Mary Burns after experiencing frustration with the behavior of one of her cats named “Buckwheat.” “Buckwheat” would only drink water from a dripping faucet and would lie around on the kitchen counter all day waiting for her human to turn the faucet on. Veterinary Ventures Inc. was later founded in early 1996. The business was sold to Northstar Investors in 2002. Vet Ventures Inc.’s top customers in 2009 were PetSmart, PETCO, Amazon.com and Drs. Foster & Smith. The company is located in Reno, Nev.

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For more information:
Sarah Malak, Ackermann PR
865-584-0550
SMalak@ackermannpr.com