• by Erik Sass , December 1, 2009

Internet radio advertising came back from the Thanksgiving holiday as busy as ever with the announcement of new affiliates joining the TargetSpot online ad network.

New members joining the TargetSpot ad network include Emmis Radio, Tribune Broadcasting, Inner City Broadcast Corporation's ICBC Broadcast Holdings and Lincoln Financial Media.

Their addition brings the total number of partners in TargetSpot's network to over 75 radio groups and pure-play online broadcasters, which together operate thousands of streaming music and radio channels.

Taking a diplomatic tack, TargetSpot CEO Eyal Goldwerger stated that "radio groups are facing significant challenges in their terrestrial broadcast businesses and recognize the tremendous revenue growth opportunity immediately available to them in streaming their media online."

In fact, Internet radio is one of the few areas that holds out the prospect of substantial growth for the radio business in the next few years, with eMarketer forecasting $394 million in online radio ad revenues by 2011.

Emmis Radio's online operations including streaming music channels on Web sites for radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Austin and Indianapolis.

Tribune Broadcasting's include the Web site for WGN-AM, a popular news and talk station in Chicago. ICBC Broadcast Holdings operates Web sites associated with stations in New York, San Francisco, Columbia, South Carolina, and Jackson, Mississippi.

Lincoln Financial Media operates Web sites associated with stations in Atlanta, Miami, Denver and San Diego.

In September, TargetSpot announced the launch of a new proprietary response tracking and reporting system for online radio ads, TargetSpot Analytics.

Around the same time, competitor Triton Media bought Ando Media, formerly an independent online radio measurement outfit.

Radio broadcasters' online revenues will contribute only a small part of the industry's bottom line over the next couple of years. In third-quarter figures recently released by the Radio Advertising Bureau, "digital" revenues came to $126 million, or just 3% of the 3Q total of $4.15 billion.