Dennis Elliott, a Web manager at Clear Channel, in fact reached out to Google with some compliments, and his message wound up being posted on the Google Wave Blog.  Elliot began, "Just wanted to tell you guys that we are loving the wave here at Clear Channel Radio in Greensboro NC where we have 5 FM radio stations."

Then here’s another key point: "We have just started using it and only have a small number of our staff on it right now, but we plan on expanding it to everyone as soon as possible."

From there, Google Wave could make its way up (and back down) the corporate ladder, coming into use at radio stations all over the country.  Or at the least, radio personalities in North Carolina might start discussing it while on the air, causing a lot of their listeners to give the real-time communication tool a shot.

Of course, it would be rather ironic if old-fashioned radio is what helps Google’s newfangled means of communication really catch on.

Inergize Digital Media, which is the interactive Web services arm of Clear Channel Television, will work with Google Apps in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Viewers of KOKI-TV Fox23 will be encouraged to get personalized email addresses and homepages, and use Google’s products.  That’s it.  That’s all.  For now, anyway.

Such a small deal between such huge corporations can’t end there, of course.  An official release proudly notes, “This partnership makes Inergize the first media company in the U.S. to offer the Google Apps service,” and unless something goes wildly wrong with this test (which is what the limited agreement must be), an expansion should take place sooner or later.  Other geographic markets might become involved, or Clear Channel Communications (as opposed to Clear Channel Television) could step in.

Still, for the time being, there’s nothing to get too alarmed about.  And for Google’s investors, the development may even be an encouraging piece of news.

Listen Up: Google Audio Ads

Google’s oft-stated desire to organize the world’s information meshes well with Clear Channel, which has managed to consolidate much of the US radio landscape under one umbrella. Together, they may make audio advertising for AdWords customers more appealing than people realize.

On the Google Consumer Packaged Goods blog, the company’s Corrine Perri provided an update on Google Audio Ads. She referenced their agreement with Clear Channel, one that provides a “portion of guaranteed, premium 30-second advertising inventory on 675 Clear Channel AM & FM stations.”

Clear Channel stations are all over the country. People spend a lot of time in their cars, where they are likely tuned in to one of those stations for a period of time. Perri provided some numbers that make Google’s Audio Ads program a more interesting proposition:

These Clear Channel Radio stations, when combined with our existing radio station partners, give our advertisers access to radio inventory on over 1600 top-rated radio stations throughout the country, with “Top 10″ stations in 24 of the top 25 U.S. markets and coverage of over 99% of the U.S. population aged 12 and older (meaning 99% of people 12+ can tune in an hear one of our stations; Source: ACT1 / Arbitron).

Various options for targeting these ads, like location, day and time, demographics, and station type, make the product one a marketer should at least consider when building a campaign.

Clear Channel Launches Mobile Program

The initiative will start in the largest DMA market in the U.S. with free programs for New York radio stations WHTZ-FM Z100, WAXQ-FM Q104.3, WKTU-FM 103.5, WWPR-FM Power 105.1 and WLTW-FM 106.7.

Clear Channel says they will launch similar programs on up to 100 of their radio stations by the end of 2008. Users will be able to send text messages into the studio, take part in contests, make requests and view the last 10 songs played on New York City radio stations.

Listeners can also sign up for alerts about breaking music news, in- studio performances, interviews and contests. Users will have access to traffic conditions, trivia and opinion polls. Mobile users will be able to customize their phones with station logos, wallpaper and ring tones beginning in July.

"By making these applications available for free via any cellular phone carrier, Clear Channel Radio is monumentally expanding access to its growing mobile content portfolio," said John Hogan, Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Radio.

 "Each application allows users to have an individualized, on-demand experience, which will strengthen listeners’ connection with their favorite radio stations."

Clear Channel Tunes Into Social Networks

Each social network will focus on the local listening area and will be operated by the local station.

Seven social networks are launching today in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. Other cities include Minneapolis, Dallas and West Palm Beach.

Onesite.com, a provider of social networking technology, will power Clear Channel’s social networking sites.

The social networking sites will be a separate Web destination from the stations existing site. Both sites will share links to each other.

Clear Channel hopes to attract users to the social networks by using the "listen Live" Web radio streaming area on the stations sites. Each station will have a chat feature in the web radio player that will have profile pictures of members participating in the chat.

 Stations will promote the social networks through on-air announcements and promotions focused on the sites.

Users will be able to create profiles, upload photos, music, video and blog. To protect against copyright infringement, Clear Channel will monitor the networks. Users will be required to acknowledge that what they upload is not infringing. User who do not comply with the requirements will denied access to the site.

Today, we learn that the deal has been signed and Google will now have access to around 5% of Clear Channel’s commercial time slots. While we have no confirmation on the value of the deal, we do know it will run for several years and include 30-second spots on 675 stations owned by Clear Channel.

It appears Google managed to ease any concerns that it would end up snatching away existing radio advertisers, by focusing purely on new radio ad buyers.

[John Hogan, the chief executive of Clear Channel] said that Google would bring new advertisers to his stations and would work with those companies rather than with Clear Channel’s existing advertisers. But, he said, the Google advertisers would have access to premium inventory — in contrast to some of Google’s deals with newspapers that are allowing Google to sell only leftover ad space. And, he left the door open for a broader deal.

So, it doesn’t exactly sound like Clear Channel was beating a path to Google. If anything, it looks like Google gave away a lot, in order to win that one big radio network to validate its audio ads. Let’s recap…

• Google pays Clear Channel a rumored $1 billion for 5% of radio ads of the next few years.
• Clear Channel gets to pre-sell ad space that would likely have gone unfilled anyway.
• Google is not allowed to work with existing Clear Channel advertisers.
• Clear Channel will let Google up-sell new advertisers to premium inventory (how nice of them).

Looks like Clear Channel held all the cards on this deal and Google gets to prove that once it has your technology, it doesn’t need the people who invented it, in order to make it work!

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Google Finds Clear Channel For Radio Ads

Google Audio Ads advertisers will have nationwide distribution, which will be geared towards specific audiences, at specific times, in targeted markets.  The partnership gives Clear Channel an additional sales avenue and opens their inventory to advertisers who have not used radio before.

"This is a true win-win," said John Hogan, Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Radio. "Clear Channel Radio gets access to an entirely new group of advertisers within a new and complementary sales channel, and Google adds another option for its existing customers."

"Google has proven its ability to gain premiums for advertising inventory and that fits perfectly into our broader strategy of building value for advertisers while increasing our overall revenue yield. We’re committed to working with the best-in-class and Google has a real economic incentive to produce meaningfully higher CPMs."

Clear Channel will continue to focus on the company’s advertiser relationships, and on advertisers who request specialized advertising packages. Google will concentrate on advertisers who currently run ads online but do not run ads on radio. Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

"Clear Channel is the market leader in delivering radio value to consumers and advertisers and has built an innovative platform to manage its on-air ad inventory," said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google.

"We look forward to working with Clear Channel Radio by providing a unique set of advertisers and a system that will increase the effectiveness and measurability of connecting advertisers with radio listeners."