question about the stock radio.

Hello
I acquired a radio from a 2009 aveo sedan, nicer radio then my factory one. Hooked it up worked fine after switching one wire in the plug for the brightness control of display. I'm now having an issue where my front speaker works intermediately at times. So I'm thinking it the radio and was just going to find another one either through eBay or at the scrap yard. I have been seeing that it needs to reprogrammed to work but not everyone selling them say that. So i'm a bit confused does it need to be reprogrammed or not. I know it worked when installed but that might have been a fluke in nature and I want to be sure to see where I stand on my problem. Yes I know I could just go get aftermarket radio and have it work.I Don't want to worry about removing it if car gets wrecked.