• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 14, 2008

The barrage of online radio deals continued Tuesday with Radio One's announcement that it has signed a multi-year contract with AllHipHop.com, an urban interest Web site, to create a sizable online ad network targeting African-Americans.

According to Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins, the partnership with AllHipHop.com, spearheaded by the broadcaster's Interactive One division, "is another example of our ability to enable blue-chip advertisers to reach African-Americans online, whether it is across social networks, online news outlets, or digital content providers."

Interactive One will handle all ad sales for the network. The deal comes not long after Radio One bought Community Connect, a company that built online social networks targeting various ethnic groups, including African-Americans and Latinos. The acquisition gives Radio One advertisers access to the Web sites, which offer display advertising, as well as sponsorship opportunities. It will also allow Radio One to offer more integrated cross-media campaigns.

Radio One's announcement followed the introduction of new digital initiatives by CBS Radio, Clear Channel, and Emmis, among others.

Just over a month ago, CBS Radio announced content and ad-sharing partnerships with AOL and Last.fm, the online radio portal it acquired in May 2007. In addition to giving the users of the two Internet platforms access to audio content from CBS Radio station Web sites, the deals made CBS Radio the exclusive ad sales agent for both platforms.

CBS also introduced Play.It, a new feature that allows users to create their own customized online radio station, choosing music and sharing their personal "broadcast" with friends.

Over the last several weeks, Clear Channel Radio has rolled out a number of new digital offerings, beginning with Erockster, a new socially mediated online radio network dedicated to electronic music that tweaks content according to listener ratings. On Monday, Clear Channel announced a partnership with Gracenote to make song lyrics readily accessible to visitors to its station Web sites, as well as a deal with Clearspring for widget syndication, which will allow users to link their Web pages to audio and video content on Clear Channel station Web sites.

Clear Channel also quietly launched a new national Web site, www.Iheartmusic.com, which includes an interactive directory of over 750 of the group's station Web sites. It's developing a feature that allows Web listeners to create their own customized online radio tuner, somewhat like CBS Radio's Play.It. The custom tuner feature is tentatively scheduled to launch in June.

On the ad sales side, the nation's largest radio group is also announcing a partnership with StudioNow, an online network of video advertising freelancers, to help local advertisers produce professional-grade video and display ads for Clear Channel station sites. Clear Channel will also launch a new business-to-business site, Totalradius.com, that will tout all the new possibilities of radio for advertisers, including new online offerings.

Emmis Communications' online division, Emmis Interactive, has signed a licensing agreement with iTunes to market the Emmis-iTunes "Storefront" to other online radio broadcasters. Storefront is a customized interface created by Emmis to integrate iTunes sales into a broadcast Web site. Emmis Interactive's first job will be to create an online presence for Renda Broadcasting, a Pennsylvania-based broadcaster that owns several dozen radio stations around the country.

Early in the year, TargetSpot--an online radio ad service developed by CBS Radio and venture capitalists--signed up six new partners, including inTune.fm, a popular audio application on Facebook. In mid-March, Cox Radio said that it will provide information from all its U.S. stations to RadioTime, which allows Internet users to browse, search and listen to online radio from terrestrial stations with its RadioGuide interface. In mid-April, Ronning Lipset Radio, an ad sales rep firm for online radio, bulked up its executive team with new hires from XM Satellite Radio and Yahoo Music.

In March, Katz Advantage announced a major reorganization of its marketing operations to better communicate radio's qualities and new capabilities to advertisers, including a major focus on burgeoning Internet offerings.

Finally, the Radio Advertising Bureau announced a reorganization to increase radio's share of ad dollars by putting the spotlight on its new capabilities, including online radio. The RAB also named John Potter as vice president of interactive revenue development.

Last week, Westwood One named Richard Kosinski, formerly a vice president of political advertising for Yahoo, its new senior vice president and chief digital officer, succeeding Gary Krantz, who left in March.