F L O R I D A
W E E K L Y
BUSINESS
A GUIDE TO BUSINESS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
WEEK OF MARCH 13-19, 2014
A41
“Everybody wants video. People don’t want to read anymore. It sucks. But that’s just the way it is.”
— Chuck Ardezzone, CEO of ITZ Studios
COURTESY PHOTO
Steve Donaldson, creative director of Harmonic Image Media Group, shoots a video for a doctor’s office.
Video rewind
Production companies returning to prominence
BY ATHENA PONUSHIS
[email protected]
TELEVISION VIEWERS MAY SEE LESS OF
those commercials that make them
cringe, those low-budget, in-house car
dealership or furniture store commercials that leave you thinking, “What
were they thinking?” The rebound in
the economy has brought a revival to
the local video production business.
More video producers are being hired
to make more TV commercials and
more Internet videos.
Nevertheless, video producers say
they may have more business, but that
does not mean they are making more
money than they once were. Technol-
ogy is better, equipment is cheaper,
which means there are more people out
there with cameras and dreams willing to work for half as much, or even
less, as established professionals. That
makes the resurgent
field of video production more competitive than ever.
“Everybody wants
video. People don’t
want to read anymore. It sucks. But
that’s just the way
it is,” says Chuck
ARDEZZONE
Ardezzone, CEO of
ITZ Studios in Naples
(ITZ Studios houses In Troublezone
Productions, the company’s reality TV,
film and scripted division, as well as
ITZ Media Group, the TV commercial,
infomercial and marketing side of the
company).
Mr. Ardezzone makes his money in
TV commercials, producing around 200
commercials a year. He signs his emails
with the quote, “Quit talking about it,
do it.”
He says many businesses are starting
to “wake up” to the value of web videos,
they are “coming around” to the idea that
not only should they produce TV commercials, they should produce video to
accompany their social presence, too.
SEE VIDEO, A44
MINDING YOUR BUSINESS
Air Trek: Providing air ambulance and charter service for 36 years
BY BOB MASSEY
Florida Weekly Correspondent
At 36 years old, Air Trek is the oldest
business at Punta Gorda Airport. But, oh,
how it has grown.
“When we started, it was just my
brother Wayne and me,” said Dana Carr,
co-owner and director of operations,
who spoke with us for this report. “We
literally had one airplane and a little
office down here. It was somewhat less
than mom and pop, to say the least.
Wayne was actually working for another
mom-and-pop company here then called
Intercoastal Airways. It was a husbandand-wife team, and Wayne was one of
their charter pilots/flight instructors.
They had a little flight school and they
did charter and an occasional air ambulance. We acquired their business and
started out on our own.”
That was only a year after Dana Carr
graduated Charlotte High School.
“Over the years, we provided all types
of services. Early on, we had a flight
school, always had an aircraft charter, did
an occasional air ambulance, did everything from sea plane charter work, a little
crop dusting — a little bit of everything
in aviation.”
After selling the flight school in the
1980s, the Carrs focused on their primary
moneymaker.
“We concentrated on expanding the
air ambulance market, which, at that
point, we were marketing in Fort Myers
and Punta Gorda,” Mr. Carr said. “We
weren’t really going too far. Then we
began to market it statewide. The charter
work came from word-of-mouth recommendations and some yellow pages ads.”
New destinations
Today, air ambulance is still 85 percent of Air Trek’s business, which flies
nationally and internationally — mostly
to the Caribbean and Central and South
America, but also to Europe and Southeast Asia.
The company now has seven aircraft,
and maintains about 20 medical staff,
SEE MINDING, A50
Dana Carr
BOB MASSEY / FLORIDA WEEKLY
A50
WEEK OF MARCH 13-19, 2014
FLORIDA WEEKLY
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Wayne and Dana Carr are co-owners of Air Trek, the multi-faceted — and oldest — business
operating from the Punta Gorda Airport.
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MINDING
From page 41
including a medical director, Dr. Paige
Kreegel, a board certified emergency
physician, who started with Air Trek
about 25 years ago as a flight physician
until moving to the director position
about 10 years ago. (Dr. Kreegel is currently running in a special election for
Florida’s 19th congressional district.)
With the economy in a lull, Air Trek’s
charter service was in a holding pattern.
“Two years ago, we talked about
expanding the charter service to add
a more luxury, higher-class level of air
charter,” Mr. Carr said. “So we started
marketing charter two winters ago, and
we had some limited success.”
“About the time we really started marketing, we started getting really busy
with the air ambulance. So this year, we
continued our efforts and we’re picking
up more and more charter clients. Now
the acquisition of the new Citation VII
jet moves us into that level of luxury
charter. That’s what we’re really going
for.”
The Citation VII is indeed a beauty.
Its style is reminiscent of the old Boeing
727. Inside, its amenities include leather
seats and a bar.
“It’s the newest, nicest, fastest jet we’ve
ever owned,” Mr. Carr said. It definitely
moves us into that ultra-luxury market.”
Air Trek is truly a family affair. Owned
by Dana and Wayne Carr, a third brother,
Lester, joined the company as director
of maintenance after retiring from the
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CHARLOTTE COUNTY FLORIDA WEEKLY
www.FloridaWeekly.com
WEEK OF MARCH 13-19, 2014
REAL ESTATE
A51
of stories like that. It’s what makes his
career at Air Trek rewarding.
“Recently we were called to fly a
patient out of Southwest Florida to Houston, and if we hadn’t done it, the patient
would have died. As a result, we got to
play a part in saving that person’s life.”
Mr. Carr enjoys the less dramatic task
of helping his charter customers get
where they want to go as well. And with
the acquisition of the Citation VII, they
can do it in style.
“I look at this new jet as going from
the post-recession recovery stage to the
growth stage,” he said. “We’re growing
the business again. We’re acquiring new
aircraft and moving forward.”
— If your business is doing something
new or newsworthy, email me at bmassey@
floridaweekly.com and tell me about it.
PRESTIGE HOME CENTERS
Air Trek hosted a Jan. 30 Wine, Jets and Chocolate event to announce its new offerings and to present a contribution to the Art by Kids with
Cancer organization.
Air Force.
“We’ve raised our kids with this business,” Mr. Carr added. “We have employees who have been with us 10, 20 years.
My son has done all the video of the
aircraft. Wayne’s son, Aaron, is our CFO,
and he’s also a pilot. Aaron’s wife is the
marketing director. It isn’t just a job for
us.”
There are other ways in which Air
Trek isn’t just a job. Mr. Carr said he’s
most excited when the service can deliver a hospice patient back home to spend
his or her last days — sometimes only
hours — with family and friends.
Encompassing mission
And there have been times when
Air Trek has saved lives — or at least
enriched them.
“The real rewarding part is when
you can take a child here in Florida
who needs a special surgery only available in Texas or Boston, and fly that
child there — and six, eight weeks later,
you’re called to go retrieve that child and
they’re a completely different child” he
said. “That’s so cool.
“We had one child out of Southwest
Florida who had a birth defect where she
was born without ribs. She was put into
what they call a titanium rib program,
and she was a frequent flyer. It was done
out in Texas, and as she grew, she had
to have the ribs stretched or replaced
because the ribs were steel and didn’t
grow with her. About two or three times
a year, we’d fly her out to Texas, wait on
her while she had the procedure done,
and then the next day we’d fly her back
to Fort Myers. It was cool to see her
grow up. We started when she was 5 or 6
years old, and we took her until she was
a teenager.
Mr. Carr said that he has 36 years
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