• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 16, 2008

The flurry of online radio deals in 2007 is continuing into 2008, with Tuesday's news that six more online radio broadcasters have inked deals with TargetSpot to sell advertising in their streaming audio content.

Among the six broadcasters is inTune.fm, a popular audio application on Facebook. This "social radio" feature allows Facebook members to discover new music by sampling their friends' lists of favorite artists and albums. Launched in October 2007, it closely resembles anywhere.fm, but is customized for Facebook.

Advertisers can use TargetSpot's technology to create, buy and place audio, display and text advertising in streaming audio content online. Ads can be targeted using demographic criteria, location (using ZIP codes), or by specific stations.

Aside from inTune.fm, the new partners are all established terrestrial broadcasters, including NextMedia, which owns 42 stations in the Midwest, North and South Carolina, Texas and California, KFMB Stations, Delmarva Broadcasting Company, South Central Radio Group and Keymarket Communications. In total, they bring about 60 new stations into the TargetSpot fold, which now numbers more than 500 stations around the country.

Partially owned by CBS Radio, Union Square Ventures and Oddcast, TargetSpot went live in September and has a number of major broadcast partners, including CBS Radio, Entercom, Beasley, WarpRadio and Haystack Media.

TargetSpot is just one of a growing field of players in online radio advertising. In November, Triton Media Group bought Excelsior Radio Networks and its two subsidiaries, Dial Global and MJI Interactive, to expand the reach of ads through Excelsior's online network. Excelsior Radio Networks' two divisions provide complementary services to radio broadcasters, including an online component.

In July, Katz Media Group acquired Net Radio Sales, renamed Katz Net Radio Sales--allowing advertisers to deliver ads across a variety of audio and Web-based platforms, including hundreds of station Web sites in its digital network. The company also provides a variety of interactive ads to station Web sites.

Also in July, Ronning Lipset Radio announced that it had partnered with Corstarr to use its Adcor technology for delivering Internet radio ads. Adcor allows broadcasters to set up multiple radio channels and deliver ads across one or all of them, targeting audiences by demographic characteristics and daypart.