"NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Radio companies took a giant step forward in 2008 by embracing online and mobile applications like never before....

Doug Perlson, CEO of the advertising company TargetSpot, says that the iPhone will help radio. The company works with advertisers to target pure-play sites like Yahoo Music or terrestrial radio streams like those of CBS Radio and Entercom."

The advertising market is gloomy, and radio is in a particular funk. But Doug Perlson still feels pretty good.

Perlson heads TargetSpot Inc., which acquired a rival in October to create the largest seller of Internet radio ads. New York-based TargetSpot will handle online ads for more than 1,000 stations, including those owned by terrestrial broadcasters such as CBS Radio, which is an investor in TargetSpot, and Internet-only radio sites such as those on AOL and Live 365.

Internet radio advertising network TargetSpot announced that they have added independant Internet radio brand Slacker to their network, making the largest Internet radio network even bigger. In October, TargetSpot announced the purchase of RL Radio, an Internet radio advertising network that represented CBS/AOL and Yahoo Launchcasthoo’s Launchcast. CBS RADIO has some undefined investor role in TargetSpot as well.

Radio has the potential to be anything it wants online. Doug Perlson and his team at TargetSpot are showing everyone this road. Through its affiliation with the knowledgeable Eric Ronning and Andy Lipset, Targetspot is building a world network with reach into local markets for advertisers.

"...For LAUNCHcast, the agreement with CBS also addresses the problem faced by pure play Internet radio services whose business models have been hard hit by steep, new music royalty fees. By partnering with CBS Radio, LAUNCHcast will also be able to maximize ad sales both through CBS' sales resources and via TargetSpot, which offers both an online geo-targeting system and through its recent acquisition of Ronning Lipset Radio, the largest online audio ad network."

The costs and difficulties involved in local advertising have always been a challenge for small businesses and entrepreneurs. But the internet, in enabling small businesses to reach a uniquely targeted audience of their most likely purchasers, has changed that. Small businesses have been given the technology that allows even the most computer-challenged owner the talent to cheaply and easily create a professional ad. As numerous business stories have shown, advertising is now a real weapon in the arsenal of any business looking to grow or just to maintain their market share.

Tom Taylor, of Taylor on Radio, covers the IRTS breakfast, which included TargetSpot's Eric Ronning. Says Taylor, "The thrust of the panel is that several years into radio’s digital experience, it needs tools and standards and an attitude of “keeping it easy” for radio, clients and agencies."
 

When MediaWeek selected Natalie Swed Stone, OMD's Director of National Radio, among it's 2008 Media All Stars, TargetSpot's Andy Lipset was happy to weigh in:

 Andy Lipset, co-president of sales for TargetSpot, the largest online audio advertising network, calls Swed Stone “way ahead of the curve in recognizing that listeners’ habits were going to shift over time, and that vehicles like online radio were important to invest in. She has an open mind to new concepts, but at the same time takes a very disciplined approach to fully vetting anything prior to using her client’s advertising dollars in it.  OMD clients, and the radio industry at large, are incredibly fortunate to have her on their side.”

Two companies that sell advertising for online radio are joining forces, highlighting a bright spot in an otherwise dismal advertising climate.

TargetSpot, which sells targeted local advertising for online-radio stations, has acquired BasilBiscuit's Ronning Lipset Radio, which sells national advertising for big companies such as Procter & Gamble and Orbitz Worldwide. The online-ad companies, both based in New York, didn't disclose terms of their deal.

U.S. advertising revenue in general will probably shrink 0.8% this year, says Wachovia analyst John Janedis. The radio industry seems on track for an even worse performance. Local spot radio advertising revenue, the medium's bread-and-butter, has declined every month this year compared with a year earlier, with August's decline reaching 11%, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Last week, CBS Corp., one of the nation's largest radio-station owners, revised its full-year business outlook because of declining advertising.

But online radio advertising -- much of it the audio ads listeners hear when they tune into a station on the Internet -- is rising at a double-digit pace. Last year, radio sold $21.3 billion in advertising, including about $1.7 billion in the "off air" category that is chiefly online advertising.

"We're always looking for new ways to connect with consumers," a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman said about the company's online-radio advertising.

Marketers like online radio because it reaches targeted groups and online ads are easy to track. If listeners hear an ad online, their computers take note. Then if the listeners visit the advertiser's Web site, the computer alerts the company that the listener just heard its message. Regular radio can't compete with that type of detail and speed, despite the rollout of new electronic technology to measure some radio audiences.

TargetSpot offers the ability to target advertising by ZIP Code, says Chief Executive Doug Perlson, making it attractive to businesses like restaurants that want to advertise on radio, but don't want the "geographic waste" of reaching consumers miles from their locations. The company's major backers include CBS, Union Square Ventures, Oddcast and Milestone Venture Partners.

Many radio companies are boosting their online presences. CBS Radio streams 150 of its stations online through a partnership with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. CBS is also making Last.fm, an online radio service it bought last year, available on some of its CBS station sites, and adding some CBS stations onto Last.fm. Clear Channel Communications Inc. is streaming almost 800 stations and has an online radio ad-sales network through its Katz unit.

Clear Channel's eclectic eRockster and CBS's Philadelphia-oriented hearPhilly, are among those stations that listeners can catch only on the Internet or HD Radio, a technology that requires the purchase of a special radio to hear them.

Indianapolis-based broadcaster Emmis Communications Corp. recently spun off a unit, Emmis Interactive, to help broadcasters boost their Web offerings, including advertising.

For rights reasons, ads playing on a station's online stream generally aren't the same as those a listener is hearing on an over-the-airwaves broadcast by the same station.

By Claire Cain Miller
 
TargetSpot, an Internet radio advertising network, announced Wednesday that it has acquired Ronning Lipset Radio, an advertising representation firm, to create the largest online radio advertising network.
 
“There are really only two businesses out there offering this type of service, and now we’ve come together and established ourselves as the leader in the space, unquestionably,” said Doug Perlson, chief executive of TargetSpot. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

TargetSpot enables advertisers to log on to its Web site to buy audio and visual ad space on the 600 online radio sites in its network. It offers them granular ad targeting. Many of its advertisers have been small, local companies. Ronning Lipset has a large ad sales force and relationships with big brands. It has been selling ads for Internet radio companies like Yahoo, Live365, AOL and CBS.

Internet radio advertising is a young industry. The first Internet radio stations started in the late 1990s, but few computers could stream music. It has grown increasingly popular, with 54 million listeners a day, according to Bridge Ratings, a radio research firm.

Doug Perlson, TargetSpot CEO, explores the possibility of an innovative and acceptable new form of "payola" for online radio.

CBS Radio joined the comScore Arbitron Webcast Ratings when it partnered with AOL Radio, and it came up as the top single provider in August, with AQH persons of 225,000 in an average week in August, and an average weekly cume for the month of 2.4 million.

The streams that make up the RL Radio Network brought in a combined weekly AQH persons of 450,800 and cume persons of 5.1 million during an average August week, while TargetSpot's network attracted AQH persons of 285,400 and cume of 3.5 million.

Clear Channel's streams saw AQH persons of 95,900 and cume of 1.3 million, LaunchCast radio had an average weekly AQH persons of 134,400 and cume of 1.2 million, and pure-play webcaster Live365 saw AQH persons of 36,500 and cume of 439,600.

On Thursday, October 2, the vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin took place at Washington University in St. Louis.  The 2008 election is shaping up to be one of the most closely followed and anticipated elections in history, and CBS Radio stations across the nation took this opportunity to feature the debates online....

As radio moves forward, the industry is forced to figure out new ways to grow revenue. While broadcasters are still figuring out the best ways to handle the website-component of the equation, streaming—because it’s audio—is almost a no-brainer. Yet it is still a different product from selling your on air broadcast. There may be different demos, reach, areas, etc., to consider. In steps a new and innovative service, TargetSpot, to help radio provide to all its advertisers, as well as potential new advertisers, a way to reach all those consumers. Radio-Info.com spoke with the TargetSpot founding CEO Doug Perlson to find out more.

Inside Radio selected Doug Perlson as a top innovator in radio, in their peice "Seven Changing Radio Now."

...There is a simple yet counterintuitive method that could benefit the music industry, artists, the online radio networks, and listeners. The only problem is that it has long, unpleasant history behind it. We are talking about paid song inclusion, sometimes known as Payola.

Despite the anguish Internet radio broadcasters are experiencing over what they view as unaffordable royalty fees, there may be bright days ahead for the nascent industry. Mobile applications that allow users to tune in on their iPhones and other handheld devices may provide an important revenue opportunity.

"Internet stations are only beginning to explore what likely will be a deep pool of revenue streams," Doug Perlson, CEO of TargetSpot.

Web 2.0 NY speaks to Doug Perlson, TargetSpot CEO, about internet radio advertising.

Doug Perlson, musician and CEO of TargetSpot talks to Sonicbids’ Jenny Langer about the evolution of internet radio over the last decade, effective marketing strategies for bands, the online radio ad boom and how it affects the music industry and what you can do with just $50.

TargetSpot, the ad sales network serving online radio, gained nine more radio groups recently, bringing its portfolio of station partners to over 600.