When I first wrote about Color Matched Antenna and their great idea for a product (you give them your VIN number and they match your satellite radio antenna exactly to your car's color), I couldn't resist but to ask for some product review samples.

Afterall, looking at something on your monitor, versus looking at it in person - especially when it comes to paint - really cannot be compared. I just had to see the quality of these products myself, to hold, and touch, and play with in my grubby hands.

But unfortunately, as my wife can attest to, most things that I touch... I destroy. I simply couldn't just ask for some review antennas and leave it at that. Afterall, Blogging isn't like Traditional Media, and so the first ever Orbitcast Product Test can't be traditional either. Right?

So three days later, I had three antennas in my grubby, accident prone hands. Interestingly enough, I'm pretty much rebuilding a house I just bought... and I have all these tools laying around, so conditions weren't really "optimal" for taking photos... or were they?

Well, the gautlet has been thrown down. Infinity has announced it will convert it's San Francisco KYCY AM station to a Podcasting station called KYOURadio.

I hope this sparks some interest for the Satellite Radio providers to setup a dedicated Satellite Podcasting station.

Submitted content will be screen to ensure it meets quality standards and does not violate FCC broadcast guidelines - this is where Satellite Radio can kick Infinity's ass. Part of the beauty of Podcasting is the unregulated nature of it all.

With Infinity's new KYOURadio, approved podcasts will be simultaneously broadcast over the AM airwaves and streamed online at KYOURadio.com.

Blech. Satellite could do this so much better.

UPDATE: Radio Marketing Nexus has some funny thought on this. It's a great PR stunt for Infinity who has a failing AM station collecting dust, and afterall - it's cheap to pull off, and the content is free!

There's some speculation that Real Networks will announce Rhapsody To Go to compete with the Napster To Go digital music subscription service. Something smells like this being too little, too late.

Who knows, I guess we'll find out for sure on April 26th. A day before XM's Conference call and two days before Sirius' Conf call - it's gonna be a fun week.

The Satellite Radio industry isn't all just XM and SIRIUS, WorldSpace is a huge player in the international market. Well, word has just come in that WorldSpace is seeking to raise about $100 million in an initial public offering of common stock under the NASDAQ listing symbol WINR.

WorldSpace Satellite Radio, which provides 5% of XM Satellite Radio's programming, has not yet said how many shares it plans to offer or a price for the IPO shares. Apparently, UBS will be the underwriter of the IPO.

A new study by Forrester Research is causing quite a ruckus by estimating that Satellite Radio will have penetrated 20 million US households, and Podcasting will be listened to in 12.3 million US households, by 2010.

This new report titled "The Future Of Digital Audio" apparently has some nice tidbits (I have been able to get the report yet):

- Forrester suggests that the satellite radio industry consider offering multitier subscriptions to reach the more than 85 percent of US households that fall outside this wealthier, early-adopter segment.

- Online radio will reach 50 percent of broadband enabled households by 2010.

- Podcasting will see 12.3 million households as MP3 adoption climbs and broadband reaches 62 percent of households. (Please, oh please, why can't Satellite Radio have a Podcasting channel?)

- HD radio growth will lag satellite but will eventually reach 9.7 million US households by 2010.

They also mentioned how the Terrestrial radio industry will have to deal with increased ad skipping as the adoption of timeshifting digital radio recorders (DRRs) increases. Awwww..

Yeah great. Now we have the nation's third-largest cell phone operator Sprint PCS launching a new Internet radio service, titled MSpot Radio, that lets customers listen to music, news and talk radio over their cell phones.

You can get 13 channels for $5.95/month or it's available to Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services subscribers. The whopping whole 13 channels include eight music channels, plus news and talk from AP and NPR. Yay.

Can we work on getting goddamn cell coverage nationwide before we go launching new services? Give me all the Interstates, how about that. Let's compromise. Just cover all the highways with an "i" and I'll be happy. How 'bout it? No? Ach.