Political advertising on the radio surged from both sides of the aisle this summer compared with the spring.
For the months of June and July 31, the top 50 political advertisers aired a total of 49,614 spots compared with just 3,625 during April and May, according to rankings released Thursday, Aug. 13 by Media Monitors.
“Just as we’ve been expecting, there’s a clear uptick in political advertising over the last two months,” Philippe Generali, president and chief executive officer of Media Monitors, said in a written statement. “In the first wave of election season spots, we can see that all types — Presidential campaigns, Congressional candidates and advocacy and political action groups — are gearing up, beginning with radio. This will be a high-attention campaign season, and we expect political advertising to continue to grow to be a large share of the late summer and fall advertising inventory.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden’s campaign aired 7,599 radio spots during June and July, significantly more than anyone else. The Biden campaign aired only nine spots in April and May.
By contrast, President Trump’s re-election campaign aired just nine spots during June and July.
The American Postal Workers Union ranked second, airing 3,893 radio spots. Its campaign, Save the Post Office, is urging the public to reach out to their representatives and ask them to support more financing for U.S. Postal Service operations.
The president says he opposes the USPS funding because he doesn’t want to see it used for mail-in voting in November. In the ongoing stimulus negotiations, Democrats included an additional $25 billion for USPS funding.
Meanwhile, the conservative political action committee One Nation aired a total of 3,867 spots across four campaigns, enough to rank each individual campaign among the top 50. In June, the organization launched a $27.3 million multi-state summer advocacy blitz across television and radio in six swing states:
Arizona: $3.3 million on television and radio beginning Aug. 5.
Colorado: $2.6 million on television and radio beginning July 8.
Iowa: $5.3 million on television and radio beginning June 23.
Maine: $1.9 million on television and radio beginning July 17.
Montana: $3.9 million on television and radio beginning June 23.
North Carolina: $10.2 million on television and radio beginning June 23.
Republican Joe E. Collins III, who is running to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters in California’s 43rd Congressional District, aired 2,747 spots, making his campaign the No. 3 radio political advertiser.
