According to Midwest Communications, Pat Snyder left the air, with 8/30 being his final broadcast day. Snyder has been replaced on air for the duration of the election. Mandy Wright requested equal time for a week’s worth of airtime, could not accept an offer to be a replacement host for a week, and accepted the spot deal detailed below. The spot deal concludes 10/3.
Here is a description of the deal offered by Midwest:
The story below is as pubished, an observation has been deleted.
Pat Snyder is the Republican candidate for the District 85 Assembly seat in Wisconsin. He is also a morning talker on WSAU-AM Wausau WI. Instead of giving up his mic until the election, Snyder will continue, and his opponent will be compensated with free air time.
According to the Wausau Daily Herald, Democratic candidate Mandy Wright applied for equal time at the end of August.
But rather than just shut down the host for the duration, the Midwest Communications News-Talker opened up negotiations with Wright for free air time.
The station’s first offer was a stint as guest host for a week – which was completely acceptable to Wright except for one insurmountable hurdle – she’s a teacher and was not available to take to the mic herself.
So instead, she accepted a raft of free 60-second ads – 18 on weekdays and 12 on weekends – through Election Day. They will between the hours of 5AM and 12M, with the provision that they will not be heard during sporting events, which were already sold out. She could wind up with a total of about five hours worth of airtime.
Wright said she was very pleased with how the station handled the situation, and welcomed the opportunity to get her message out to voters via the station.
The story isn’t quite over, though. A candidate from the Libertarian Party is now seeking equal time.
You know what would have been really interesting? Have Wright co-host with Snyder for a week.
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