Television: Windbreak

From bitter experience, all broadcasters know that a routine political speech by a routine politician has a low-low rating in listenership. What is worse, the wind from a campaigning politico is often strong enough to blow his audience right over to a more entertaining station for the rest of the evening. Since political time is bought on a local, one-time basis, the stations get top dollar for each broadcast, but are still increasingly reluctant to sell time to such gnashing bores.

Gloomily surveying a horde of swarming hopefuls entered in Tennessee's impending primary elections, Nashville's WSM-TV and WLAC-TV have imposed strict limits...

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