BusinessWeek discusses the impact of podcasting and satellite radio on traditional broadcasters:
Listeners,
increasingly bored by the homogeneous programming and
ever-more-intrusive advertising on commercial airwaves, are simply
tuning out and finding alternatives. Says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief
innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media: "Radio pissed on their own
product and then cluttered it up."
….
Already the forces of
commercialization are circling. Entrepreneurs are offering software and
services to help podcasters turn out more polished shows. Advertisers
such as Volvo are
sponsoring podcasts. And traditional radio stations, such as the
British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) and National Public Radio (NPR) station
WGBH in Boston, are launching podcasts.

"One of the reasons to
do this is because we don’t know what it will add up to," says Ruth
Seymour, station manager at NPR station KCRW in Santa Monica, which on
Mar. 1 began podcasting 22 shows. For now radio stations aren’t
charging for podcasts, hoping instead to lure more listeners nationally.