Google’s secret weapon, its raison d’etre in the business world, is its ability to see where you surf, figure out what you like, and deliver targeted ads to you. Why then are they moving into radio advertising?

Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said this week that the company will begin a public test of Google Audio Ads by the end of the year. Advertisers will be able to go online and sign up for targeted radio ads using the same AdWords system they use to buy Web search ads.

Targeted towards you, the individual, the same way that steam is targeted towards you at a sauna.

Interestingly, it is said that evil rapacious monster Clear Channel is thinking of selling a portion of its enormous bulk to a company like Google. Or, perhaps Google. Clear Channel currently controls an estimated 20% of local radio industry revenues, which is why radio sucks as much as it does.

In any event something is going on because Google is beefing up the Google Audio division. Why? Reuters may know.

In a recent research report, RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank said he was perplexed by Google’s hirings, since they are being made before it has significant radio advertising inventory to sell.

“While there are other possibilities, we believe there’s a reasonable chance Google Audio is establishing critical mass in anticipation of a major acquisition of prime inventory. Our sense from recent discussions with industry players has been most radio operators are reluctant to offer prime inventory to Google Audio,” he said.

Keep an ear out… something is going to sound a little different pretty soon. Probably it will still suck.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 8:16 am and is filed under General, Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.