KCRW, a Santa Monica, CA public radio station, has doubled its audience using podcasting and other Internet audio technologies. KCRW is aggressively pushing live streaming of programs, podcasting and other Internet audio technologies, and in the process, demonstrating the potential the Internet may hold for all radio stations, public or commercial.

KCRW online had 760,000 unique visitors in October, well over the terrestrial audience of almost 600,000.

“They have less to lose,” says David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “They’re all about delivering their content to the audience, without worrying about how [new technologies] might displace the audience and the advertiser.”

Radio is “in the process of morphing and becoming something else,” says KCRW station manager Ruth Seymour. She predicts more changes to come. “What if, suddenly, with WiFi, you could hear Web broadcasts in your car? What will that do?” she asks. “One of the things we know is how much we really don’t know.”

via WSJ