• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 14, 2007

It didn't take much. All I saw was one brief line from MediaPost columnist Jack Myers' site that said: "Every Radio Station Can Become a TV Station, Says CBS' Dan Mason."

I didn't need to read on. I just imagined every radio station, with a powerful brand name behind it, that could open up a vibrant Web site, and yes, run video and host of other stuff.

I'm late to the party on this one -- but I immediately see the value.

Put your money on WAAA.com and upyourhockeypuck.com, and you have a smart marketing and advertising arrangement.

Radio stations won't add to clutter. Rather, they'll give marketers something sorely needed on the Internet for now -- a place to go instead of the obvious minefields of user-generated video and social networking sites.

Of course the same is true with marginal TV -- with better than average brand awareness. There's a gold mine in those digital hills. But the lode is still deep from the digging.

And then I read on. "We will see webcasts and webisodes," said Mason, president/CEO of CBS Radio. "There's no reason we can't have our own webcast shows with talent [in the same way Imus was simulcast on MSNBC]. Radios will soon be developed with TV screens. The terrestrial radio medium will evolve and occupy more share of the digital space."

Well, Imus wasn't exactly the most gripping of TV coming from radio - and, of course, there were other well-noted problems.

I also get the drift that radio would take advantage of those demos that the Internet, to date, isn't exactly known for, since radio has long been an older-skewing medium. That goes double for anything related to CBS.

As a throwback to what radio stations -- and perhaps TV stations -- did years ago, CBS has smartly started up an in-house advertising agency for local radio sponsors who can't afford it otherwise -- TargetSpot, in top ten markets, with more to come.

What then will become of traditional radio? That strong localized connection with radio will continue, said Mason.

 Along with CBS' plans, and with Google selling all that remnant radio advertising time, we now have multiple ways of supporting the hearing -- and seeing -- of foul- and clean-mouthed radio personalities for a long time to come.