Since March, news junkies in Atlanta have been treated to an extra 15 hours a week of TV newscasts, according to TiVo. Local stations have added the programming to make room for the rush of political ad dollars that's turned the special election to fill Georgia's 6th Congressional District into the most expensive U.S. House race in history. The battle between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel has cost $48 million, according to the latest federal election filings. About $24 million of that has come in as ad revenue to nine Atlanta TV stations. "I've been here 25 years, and I've never seen anything like it," says John Friedmann, national sales manager for local ABC affiliate WSB-TV. Normally, political ad money is spread out over the better part of a year. "This has happened in just 107 days," says Friedmann.
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