In the Wake of Howard Stern's departure, CBS Radio, revamped many of their rock stations to all-talk outlets called Free FM.  The stations feature either David Lee Roth in Mornings on the east coast, or Adam Carolla on the west, as well as a variety of other shows from Penn Jillette to Leslie Gold the Radio Chick.  Personally, as I have argued here before, I think that this strategy of going with an all-talk format in the wake of Howard Stern's departure was a miscalculation.  However, with that aside, since the CBS station's changed formats, I have noticed one thing: radio does whatever it takes to keep up with the times and stay relevant.

Since radio's debut in the 1920's as a technology it has certainly faced its share of competitors and yet it has despite all of its new found competition the medium has managed to remain an important part of the American media diet.  With television, radio too the opportunity to extend its billboard messages and let the audience know what they could find on the airwaves.  Then, with the advent of the internet, radio took sought out ways to develop an new audiences beyond its physical signal limitations by streaming their signal online.

Today, stations like Free FM have again sought out new technologies to grow their audience and remain relevant, in this case its podcasting.  Missed a show, not sure if you'll like what they have to say, or simply want to catch it later now through most of the Free FM sites, or even in iTunes you can find short form version's of the station's different shows from David Lee Roth to Chris Booker.  Regardless of what you think of the content itself radio itself has found a way to stay at the forefront and continue to build its audience.