I really wish I had good things to say about WorldSpace, but for a company with so much potential, there are just too many hurdles to overcome. The latest news from the only international satellite radio company is that they've hired radio guru Roberto Zaino.

Zaino is known in Italy as a pioneer of the radio broadcasting industry having began his career with the launch of Radio Milano International over 30 years ago. Since then he's produced for various radio, television and film endeavors. He did particularly well in RTL 102.5, where he increased daily listenership from 3.6 to over 5.5 million.

He comes on board as the content director for WorldSpace Italia - which is the prime hope focus of WorldSpace right now, as they actually have a license and an OEM deal in the country. Back in July, they struck a deal with Fiat - scheduling aftermarket receivers for late 2008, and factory-installed receivers in three models for late 2009.

But is it too little, too late?

Sure, WorldSpace has two birds covering Asia and Africa, the Middle East and Europe - which has the potential for some 5 billion people driving 300 million cars. But there's just a few hurdles in getting licenses in each of those 131 countries they cover (if you thought Sirius/XM have regulatory hurdles in one country, imagine what WorldSpace is experiencing). And to build out in Europe, WorldSpace will need more satellites.

Most of the company's subscribers - which total only about 177,000 - are mostly in India. But they don't have a terrestrial repeater license in India, and you need one of those to successfully tap into the automobile market.

So that brings the hope back to Italy, and Zaino will be influencing the content there. Let's just hope that he can create enough traction to get things moving.