>why is the medium relevant at all? what does radio do that a podcast cant

Deliver the news to you anywhere and everywhere with a receiver that can be built from scavenged garbage. Terrestrial absolutely still has a place, and will most likely outlive the internet.

Also, radio broadcasts a signal and is completely agnostic to who picks up the signal and listens. IOW, you can listen to radio without anyone/anything tracking what you. Not being tracked and data-collected for everything is still important to some of us.