Local advertisers long to reclaim airwaves

Swing state voters can proudly cast their ballots knowing that their votes may actually count in the presidential election. But the price of that privilege is an onslaught of political campaign ads, sometimes so heavy that political ads fill every slot of a commercial break, particularly on local television news broadcasts. These ads have crowded out staple local advertisers, like car dealerships and furniture stores. And the high demand has sent prices soaring, meaning local businesses must pay huge premiums to advertise during peak campaign season.

Many have sat it out, both because of the high cost of ad time and out of a desire not to be mixed in with political ads that may anger viewers. Come Nov 7, those political ads evaporate, but that doesn’t mean thing are back to normal in broadcast advertising. “Still the rates are gonna be a little higher than normal,” says Karen Ashworth, a media buyer at Virginia ad firm Barber Martin. “I don’t think that they’re gonna go down until January.” Part of this is because of the holiday season, when ad rates typically rise. But mainly, there’s pent-up demand from advertisers who didn’t get on air during the race.