
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994                   TAG: 9411040105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

`VOTE FOR ME' HOGGING TV TIME, MUCH TO AD EXECUTIVES' SORROW

Virginia's ferocious Senate race has prompted unusually heavy spending on political commercials, leading Washington, D.C.-area ad executives to complain that regular advertisers are being pushed off the air.

Ad executives say the deluge of political advertisements in the Senate race and local campaigns has upset the usual cycle of selling for advertisers like car dealers to department stores.

``It's the worst I've ever seen the Washington market,'' said David Robinson of W.B. Doner & Co. in Baltimore, an ad agency that serves Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

Virginia's Senate candidates, particularly Republican Oliver North, have a lot of money to spend on campaign ads.

North has raised more than $17.6 million, while the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Charles Robb, has raised more than $4 million. Independent candidate Marshall Coleman has raised $434,000.

Under federal regulations, stations are required to sell available time to all qualified federal candidates and provide them with their lowest rates.

Although stations have struggled to move their usual ads into different time periods, many conventional advertisers are having trouble buying time at all.

``All the moving around can make you a little testy,'' said Debbie Stein, regional broadcast director for Earle Palmer Brown of Bethesda, Md., the region's biggest ad agency.

In Maryland, smaller but significant local media campaigns are coming from gubernatorial candidates Republican Ellen Sauerbrey and Democrat Parris Glendening; and senatorial candidates incumbent Sen. Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat, and William Brock, a Republican.

Stein said some clients - such as retailers promoting a big sale or movie studios with new releases - can't wait until after the election to air their ads.

Even if they can get air time, nonpolitical advertisers often have to pay a premium, often as much as 30 percent over the usual rate, said an ad agency executive who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

Washington-area TV and radio stations said the political season is a mixed blessing.

Political advertising can help fill up air time that otherwise would go unsold, said Dick Williams, general manager of WDCA-TV, Channel 20, a Washington-area independent station.

``It's nice to have them,'' Williams said. ``This election has played a vital role in making this fourth quarter better than last year's.''

But other stations, particularly popular network affiliates, said they have had to turn away high-paying advertisers for lack of air time.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB