It’s no secret that terrestrial radio has been watching its numbers decline for quite a while. The iPod, satellite radio, and a growing array of alternative entertainment consoles have been jamming the radio waves, drawing current and potential fans away from an already depleted pool of users. But as Valerie Block’s recent article in Crain’s New York Business demonstrates, radio stations need not fear an impending crash; on the contrary, perched atop the globe-spanning wings of the Internet, well-managed radio stations can expect to reach more ears than they’ve ever reached before. CBS Radio is a good case in point: while its terrestrial branch continues to wallow, CBS Radio on the Internet reached 2.2 million people in September, and it expects to add an additional 1 million listeners in February when its Internet player is embedded in some of Yahoo’s high-traffic channels.

Strong programming still counts toward success, online or off, as does revenue from radio ads, which at this point does not stack up in Internet radio’s favor — in the first nine months of the year, Internet radio brought in only a fraction of terrestrial’s $12.6 billion. But the world’s changing, and Ms. Block rightly points out that by the time Internet players are inserted into cars, terrestrial radio might not even be around to sulk about it.

Businesses both small and large can learn from the example of radio stations that are gradually moving their operations online. The Internet can offer almost limitless space to grow. Optimizing a personal or business website is an important first step toward harvesting the potential of the web, though how you do your optimizing counts, too.