Election years are good for broadcasters, as a rule. Spring primaries followed by a November general election assure advertising inventories are sold faster than off-election years.

A hotly-contested presidential race mixed with tense ballot measure fights have gilded 2004, producing a steady revenue stream for Medford’s four commercial television stations as well as its three commercial radio groups.

"There’s a lot more money being spent on political ads this year," says KDRV general manager Renard Maiuri. "In past political years you would see a burst of political spending around March and then it would go away and come back in June. The difference this year is that it didn’t stop; it just kept coming.

"A big part of that was the soft money. Organizations like MoveOn.org were created out of changes in political campaign laws, and that was a large contributing factor."

Political advertising, however, is a double-edged sword for small-market broadcasters.

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Election law requires stations to carry advertising spots for federal candidates at the lowest available rates, but they are not bound to carry state and local political ads, so they come with no pricing restrictions. Two of the four local television operations decline to carry advertising spots for state and local elections, saying it would harm their regular customers’ ability to get commercials aired.

"I would love to carry local and state political ads," says Patsy Smullin, president of California Oregon Broadcasting Inc., which operates KOBI-TV. "If we weren’t compelled by law to carry federal campaign advertising, local and state races would be our priority. But the No. 1 priority for us is our existing day-in and day-out client."

Nationally, sales managers at local broadcast stations say political spending is double to four times higher than it was four years ago. The Wall Street Journal reported both presidential candidates are unfettered by spending regulations because neither signed up for federal matching funds. And soft money has eaten up ad inventory at a billion-dollar pace.

Oregon is getting its fair share of the spoils.

"With Oregon being seen as swing state, we’re obviously seeing a lot of activity," says Kingsley Kelley, KTVL vice president and general manager.

Every request for a political advertising spot is kept in a public file, generally perused by candidates or campaign representatives.

"If you know exactly what your competitors are doing, it determines what you’re doing," Kelley says. "How much did candidate X spend last week in advertising his message? Then you think ‘I better go out and match that.’ "

Federal law requires broadcast outlets to keep detailed files on every request for political advertising, the amount paid, when it’s aired and who is paying for the time. The files are open for public inspection. Set aside a day or so to peruse them, if you’re interested — KTVL’s 2004 election folder, for example, is more than 2 feet thick.

While KDRV and KOBI limit political advertising to federal and statewide ballot measures, local Fox affiliate KMVU carries state and local candidate spots as well.

"It’s a shot in the arm, because we do not do news, so we get a lot less advertising than the other three stations in those time slots," general manager Cary Jones says. "But from a management standpoint, it’s extremely time-consuming because of the record-keeping and providing the lowest unit rates to federal candidates."

When the station is not compelled to run a spot, it doesn’t allow one side of a race or issue to shut out competitors by buying too much time.

"We try to make it fair to both sides," Jones says. "If someone wants three spots during a baseball or football game, the other side is going to want the same high-profile spots as well. If the one side buys just one, then we’ll take two out from the other side. "

Despite the influx of campaign dollars, broadcasters don’t view election cycles as cash cows.

"It may seem like a lot, but when you match the two or three weeks against all 52 weeks, it’s not a huge amount in terms of total dollars," says Radio Medford vice president and general manager Ron Hren, who oversees a cluster of six stations.

He notes there were no ballot measures during the spring primary.

"That’s pretty significant," Hren says, referring to potential revenue stemming from controversial measures.

Political ads not only create competition for available time on broadcast outlets, they also keep the legal community busy cranking out letters.

"Whenever you run a new spot, you get a letter from the other side a couple of days afterwards pointing out inconsistencies and inaccuracies," Kelley says. "Federal spots are covered under free-speech clauses, but ballot measures are different. If we have been notified that something is not accurate, slanderous or not clear, we have a responsibility to fix it, get it fixed or not to air it."

Typically, a station’s due diligence includes a phone call to J. Dominic Monahan of Eugene, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters’ legal counsel for the past 11 years.

He says Measure 38 backers, seeking to abolish the SAIF Corp. began their campaign tagging ads with Oregonians for Accountability. But the campaign was financed by Liberty Northwest and its parent company, Liberty Mutual of Boston.

"Now it reflects who purchased the time by saying Oregonians for Accountability and Liberty Northwest," Monahan says.

He says he hinged his decision to append Liberty Northwest to the ads based on a similar instance involving the Tobacco Institute a few years ago.

"The ads were run by Oregonians for Fairness," Monahan says, "The proponents went to the secretary of state’s office to find the PAC and found the money was coming from the Tobacco Institute."

The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that if a single source provided major funding for an advertisement, that entity has to be identified.

Monahan says he’s never point-blank told an OAB member station to pull an advertisement.

"I’ve told them that if a committee, candidate or whoever is buying an ad refuses to modify it and comply with FCC rules that they would have to pull it," he says. "But I’ve never had anyone that has not modified the ad."

While the presidential campaigns have bombarded televisions with ads, radio has seen somewhat less national activity. The exception, Hren says, is the Bush campaign’s focus on talk-radio formats.

Opus Broadcasting President Dean Flock says both the Bush and Kerry campaigns have recently placed orders for ads on Opus’ Spanish station, KRTA-AM.

One advantage the multi-station radio clusters have over their TV counterparts is a larger inventory of available time. Still, there is competition for key slots.

"It’s certainly a challenge to get every one on that wants on and accommodate the political side as well as our regular clients," says Bill Nielsen, who runs Clear Channel Communication’s five-station Medford cluster. "In our case, the political campaigns have a pretty healthy impact from a financial standpoint. We don’t limit what we accept and we have enough inventory to allow it."

Federal candidates get lower rate

Oregon is considered a swing state in the presidential race this year and has attracted a great deal of television advertising from both candidates. That’s not the case everywhere.

Local television general managers who have California contacts say few presidential campaign ads appear on local broadcasts there.

"I was just talking to a friend in California," says KMVU General Manager Cary Jones. "You wouldn’t even know there is a presidential race going on, because they’re not running commercials there. They’re focusing elsewhere."

Rates can and do change from week to week for given time slots. Here are examples of the lowest rates for 30-second spots at local television stations during specific "prime-time" programs: