Pandora is hiring to ramp up a local ad sales force, and is also planning on strong advertising dollars from political ads in 2012.

After three years of declines, the radio industry returned to revenue growth last year – with a 6 percent gain - as rebounding automakers and elections boosted momentum.

According to an Ipsos report, consumers exposed to radio advertising were more engaged throughout the purchase funnel than a core group who were not exposed. As for newspapers, their readership is gaining traction as well.

The agreement marks LivingSocial’s expansion from an online and mobile platform to one that now serves listeners, specifically the 80 million listeners per week that Clear Channel can provide.

For radio to play a bigger role in their marketing mix, the CMOs from Sears and McDonald's--who spend to the tune of millions of dollars annually on the channel--ask for assistance in building broader campaigns, as well as more ethnic insights.

The online-radio company, which held its initial public offering last month, is getting most of its growth from users of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers.

AARP's Internet radio service is designed for those entering their twilight years, and features a dead-simple UI and a rotation of songs more common of sock hops than online streaming players.

The RAB study also included scanning the brain of six people, three men and three women, to record its activity level during when listening to radio or watching TV.

The research found ad response rates were 3.5 times higher when Internet radio was added to a broadcast radio campaign, and twice as high when Internet radio was added to an online campaign.