Root What does flashing the radio do?

[Hook]

I have never flashed a radio, but I am planning on installing Cyanogen and they seem to say I have to. I assume it is like flashing a ROM and is therefore easy to do, but I'd like to understand it a bit better.

I assume this is the Cell radio we are talking about.

Does Cyanogen (or any ROM) need it to work with the radio or is it an enhancement (the radio will work fine as is with Cyanogen, but might have more battery drain)?

A more important question is, if I do flash it, what happens when I go to another ROM or flash stock? Do I have to re-flash the radio with different files? Do I need to locate and archive a radio file for stock Gingerbread?

Thanks for any clarity you can provide.

 

[Rusty]

It changes the baseband software, seeing as you already have GRI40 installed, you will have the 5.08 radio and have no need to update it for CM7, unless you particularly want the 5.12 radio.