As Iowa caucuses near, TV stations see ad buys boom after long lull

For all the hand-wringing about money in politics, a few Iowans spent the year hand-wringing about how little of it they were seeing. Station managers and sales teams at Iowa television stations had expected major profits but saw very little until the past few weeks, when PACs and candidate campaigns poured into their empty coffers pennies from heaven.

In interviews at the top affiliates in Des Moines, the state’s largest market, sales managers said they saw the same pattern: a complete dearth of ad buys until the August straw poll in Ames, then silence on the airwaves until late November, then a complete return to fortune in the last two weeks of 2011. State officials, waiting to see how rival states might usurp Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status, did not lock in the caucus date until late in the year. Subsequently, candidates waited before purchasing airtime to sway voters. Then, after the Jan. 3 date was resolved, debates drew record audiences and candidates exploited a cost-free stage to get out their message. And after the final pre-caucus debate, in mid-December, the deluge. The last quarter brought in a combined tally of nearly $3.5 million for the state’s two top stations, WHO and KCCI, who are viewed in the industry as the major players. Campaigns focused also on three other significant markets — Cedar Rapids, Sioux City and Mason City — where airtime is less costly. (Dec 31)