Radio industry website FMQB.com reports that public radio station KCRW/Santa Monica has been awarded a $600,000, three-year grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which the public radio station plans to use for “Web initiatives and podcasting.”

paidContent.org elaborates that as part of “public media‚Äôs push into online media,” KCRW, the NPR flagship station for Southern California, will use the grant, not for its radio operations, but specifically for its website. They report that the money will be used ‚Äúto develop business models to sustain the station‚Äôs webcasting activities and to further its innovative online music service.‚Äù The grant will allow KCRW to experiment with a variety of online strategies, it said.

The station has been online since 1995 and has been streaming its three live feeds since 1999. During the past month, about 1 million KCRW podcasts were downloaded at AOL, NPR and KCRW, station officials said.