Gov. Mark Sanford could have an on-camera role in a new advertising campaign designed to lure crews into the state to film movies, TV shows and commercials.

The Columbia advertising firm C.C. Riggs is developing the print and film ads that probably will be launched later this year, said Clare Morris, spokeswoman for the S.C. Commerce Department.

The department canned its film advertising a few years ago, so the new ads will be a premiere for the Sanford administration. Don’t expect special effects: The department’s entire marketing budget this year is $300,000, hardly enough to pay the caterer on a big feature film.

Films with scenes shot in South Carolina include “Cold Mountain,” “The Patriot” and “Radio.”

• A new look coming for popular corner?

The corner of Huger and Gervais streets — the ancestral home of Kline Iron and Steel Co. — should be cleared by the end of the year.

But Jerry Kline, who owns the corner that is a gateway to downtown, doesn’t have any plans for the property yet.

“There has been a lot of interest and a lot of people calling,” Kline said.

Demolition crews have been clearing the property for the past few weeks. Kline expects the remaining steel fabrication facilities to be down by the end of the month. The old headquarters should be down by year’s end.

“I don’t see it as an end, but a new era of the property,” Kline said.

Kline Iron and Steel was acquired by American Tower Corp. in 2000. That company ceased all steel fabrication by Kline more than a year ago and sold the remaining division, Kline Towers, to SPX Corp. earlier this year.

The Kline family opened its steel business at Huger and Gervais streets in 1923.

• Kline to begin 5th Houston-market tower

Kline Towers of Columbia has sold another giant broadcast tower in the Houston, Texas, market.

Jay Kline, business development manager for Kline Towers, said the company sold a 2,000-foot tower to Cumulus Broadcasting.

It is the fifth tower that Kline has built in the Houston market, he said. Construction on the new tower should begin later this year, Kline said.

Kline Towers is owned by SPX Corp. of Houston.

• Heathwood chooses black-owned PR firm

Heathwood Hall Episcopal School has chosen Sunset Enterprises, a black-owned Columbia public relations firm, to help with the school’s diversity outreach campaign.

The independent school’s officials want Sunrise to help in raising awareness among ethnic minorities of the school’s academic, athletic and cultural programs.

Heathwood Hall has more than 760 students at the school established in 1951.

From Staff Reports