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Google Kills the Radio Star

posted on February 13, 2009


Well, Mr. Reed called it! Back in July of last year, he wrote a post about the future of radio not being via the airwaves, but instead the internet.

Yesterday, Google agreed–shutting down Google Audio Ads and announcing plans to sell the Google Radio Automation software behind it.

Advertisers will continue to be able to use Google Audio Ads until May 31 and broadcasters will be able to publish inventory to Google until that date as well. We will work with partners to make sure that there is as little disruption to their business as possible and will work to find a buyer for the Google Radio Automation business…we expect that up to 40 people may not be able to find other roles at Google.

As Frank predicted, the potential gold mine could be hidden among the hundreds of internet radio streams, so Google–prospecting pan in hand–is off to explore how it can "best add value for advertisers, broadcasters and listeners in this emerging advertising space."

So, Google’s failed at print and now radio. While the company says that the TV advertising business is "growing" does anyone care to bet whether this service will still be around come 2010?


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  • http://www.frankthinking.com Frank Reed

    Where did I put that silly crystal ball? I

    Frank Reed’s last blog post..Internet Marketing with the Right Perspective

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  • http://www.leadsexplorer.com Engago Team

    Maybe Google is just cueless.
    It is very difficult for any company to find a new hit.
    Only a few companies have re-invented themselves:
    Apple, IBM, HP, Samsung, GE, …
    If Google wants to be amongst the big players they need to proof their changeability.

  • http://www.soscomputer.at/ sosComputer

    I am curious to see if this means Google will close its office in Irvine, CA who’s main focus was the Audio Ads.

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  • http://www.terryhoward.net/ Terry Howard

    I don’t know, do you plan to stop watching television next year?

    At the likely risk of being called a Google Fanboi, can I point out that withdrawal from markets (Print and Radio) that are of a dying breed and are having trouble selling an ad to anyone regardless of whether it is Google brokering the deal or not, isn’t really Google botching something. They used the existing radio market as a testing ground, learned some good stuff and now can apply it and hit the ground running in the online radio market. There is really no future in selling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

    The idea of them getting into online radio advertising seems more intriguing to me right now, as last night I was checking out Boxee, and other media center platforms, all of which have built right in internet radio features. Oh, they also have YouTube, Hulu, and other web based television/video services built in as well. We’re going to be getting our entertainment from the internet in a big way by, say, 2015 and guess who is going to have about a decade of experience and partnerships in online ad deployment, targeting and performance tracking then? Their competitors are still struggling with how best to tackle search engines, contextual and banner ads.

    Terry Howard’s last blog post..Mark Gormley Is The Answer

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