As an life-long Angelino, I listen to my fair share or radio – both music and talk formats. While not a regular listener, I would occasionally listen to the syndicated Adam Carolla show, broadcast from LA on the former FM talk radio station KLSX. Growing up in LA, I’ve listened to Adam since his days on KROQ’s Ken & Bean show as Mr. Birchum, and then on the Sex Line show.  

An interesting thing happened on February 20, 2009 – KLSX’s owner, CBS radio, shifted the station to the less expensive Top 40 format and in effect cancelled the popular Adam Carolla show. Just another victim of the recession and the downturn in the media and advertising industry, right?

Instead of just riding off into the radio sunset, Adam Carolla decided to continue his popular show and just move it to a different format – a Podcast. On February 23, 2009, Adam began a daily podcast at www.carollaradio.com. In the initial 24 hours, the first Adam Carolla podcast was downloaded over 250,000 times and, as of the third podcast, it was the number one podcast on iTunes in both the U.S. and Canada. During the debut week, the Adam Carolla podcast recorded 1.6 million downloads. In the second week it recorded 2.4 million downloads. 

I just started listening to the Podcast yesterday, one of about 15 Podcasts I listen to when I’m on the Metro train heading home. However, after listening to Adam Carolla’s Podcast on the train, I decided to continue listening to it on the short 10 min drive from the train station to my house.  Interestingly enough, I was listening to Adam’s interview the Sports Guy Bill Simmons, and Adam asked him what he thought the future of radio and Podcasts was. Simmons’ answer was that Podcasts and Internet radio , would kill satellite radio. He spared terrestial radio in his futurecast.

I tend to agree with Bill Simmons. Internet-enabled cars are only a few years away. In fact, the technology is already here.  Moreover, formats like Podcasts provide consumers with same on-demand abilities they have come to know and love from their TIVOs. There is no doubt that the rapid success of Adam Carolla’s Podcast is a sign of the future of the media business. Radio beware.

Jose Villa

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