Political ads brought Roanoke region's TV stations $27 million

The unprecedented deluge of campaign commercials on local television left a massive cash windfall in its wake. Political groups spent more than $27 million this year in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market, more than five times the amount spent in the region four years ago.

Virginia's swing-state status in the presidential election and the Supreme Court's 2010 decision to allow corporations and unions to spend freely on political ads resulted in massive amounts of political spending, according to the public files at the region's top four television stations. Roanoke-Lynchburg, the 66th-largest TV market in the country, was ranked among the top 10 political advertising markets during most of the summer and fall, when the presidential campaigns, political action committees and other groups ratcheted up their spending.