Let's hope you never leave old friend
Like all good things on you we depend
So stick around 'cos we might miss you
When we grow tired of all this visual
You had your time - you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio - radio

Lyrics from Radio Ga Ga by Queen

Do advertisers get that radio may still not have reached its finest hour?

Let's look at the where the money is flowing and go from there.

Business Week Online is reporting that Volvo paid $60,000 to Weblogs, Inc. for sponsoring the Autoblog.com Web log.

Wow. Advertisers are gaga over podcasting.

The rush is on. GM and Ford are advertising in podcasts. Lifestyle brands such as Heineken are using podcasts.

Can it be that the ones really starting to understand th DIY media are advertisers, not the big media? This sets up a dynamic that will sure to affect how the mainstream media adopts DIY media. But if the trend continues, how will it affect the ways that the mainstream media tells their stories? Will they change so the advertisers continue to grow their advertising with them? Podcasts are personal outlets. They're radio but as far from terrestrial as you can get. Podcasts also reach small audiences. The advertising costs for a sponsor are far less than what they would pay on syndicated radio or on TV. How does that balance out for big media companies? Creating a new network may be the answer. A network that is comprised of small shows that reach micro audiences. These may even be premium channels that use a Salon.com model so people may either subscribe for $35 per year or get it free by going through a series of ads to get to the good stuff.

Either way, advertising execs will no doubt be eager to try it out. Here's what one ad exec said in the Business Week story:

"Podcasting is one of the developments, along with online digital music services like iTunes and Rhapsody, that allow a consumer to be their own programmer. That will obsolete terrestrial radio for many advertisers," says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media.

GM's chief marketing exec even went as far to say inthe Business Week story that he can see a day when the broadcast budget is far less than what it spends to advertise across the Internet:

"GM marketing chief Mark LaNeve says he's very keen on such nontraditional media, especially for brands that have an "enthusiast" audience, such as Hummer, the Chevy Corvette, Cadillac's new V-Series of performance cars, and Chevrolet's SS performance cars. "The key will be improving the production and entertainment levels of these so they're really compelling and get passed around," says LaNeve.

In future, he says, brands like Pontiac may have a very small TV ad budget. Instead, GM could advertise Pontiac mostly on the Internet. Podcasting is one of the formats LaNeve is looking at for multiple products and brands."

One striking aspect of podcasting may be the creative platfor that it provides advertisers. It's far more playful to use than traditonal mediums. You can use it for radio theater or to do comedy sketches.

That may be where the big media players can use the podcasting platform to its advantage. But with their desire to get big names, I'd guess that they would be reaching a far more general audience. And it seems to be going this way already. Adam Curry going to Sirius is the clearest example of this trend.

What the great number of podcasters do is show that radio can be one of the most creative places for telling your story, be it commentary, comedy or high drama. Advetrtisers seem to be understanding this trend.

And as that podcast network extends, so will the advertising reach new pockets, new places where, perhaps it may actually be useful for the listener.

And perhaps those advertisers will hear the call of DIY media and use their clever creative ways not to destroy the medium, as some fear, but actually help propel radio to that time that Roger Taylor dreamed about when he penned that tune for Freddie Mercury to sing for Queen back in 1984:

So don't become some background noise
A backdrop for the girls and boys
Who just don't know or just don't care
And just complain when you're not there
You had your time, you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour
Radio - radio