I have to admit, I’m still not completely sold on the concept of satellite radio, but I’m slowly getting closer to appreciating its full potential. At the moment, it seems a little weird to actually pay for radio unless there is a specific program you want to hear (ie. Howard Stern). I doubt very many people nowadays consider radio to be a form of entertainment worthy of the same time and money as, say, movies, TV or video games. For most people it’s just background noise to help pass the time, mainly in the car or at work.

Since most of us are already paying for things like cable TV, HDTV, internet access, DVDs and video games in our lives, it’s going to be pretty hard to convince anyone to pay another monthly fee for something that only exists to break silence.

But wait a minute now… portable MP3 players and podcasts are taking off, giving people the means to handpick the music and talk shows they hear every day instead of letting someone else decide for them. Here’s where satellite radio has an opportunity to jump in and truly capitalize on the situation.

Both XM and Sirius already offer a plethora of specialty stations for fans of every possible genre of music and a wide variety of interests and demographics. What they don’t necessarily have are the personalities to bring in all of the niche markets. They’re still thinking about the big picture, trying to pry mainstream listeners away from terrestrial radio with Howard Stern instead of looking at the smaller audiences. Think college radio. Think blogs. Think podcasts. Offer me a chance to hear more cutting edge, alternative programming and I just might budge.

Sirius seem to be the first ones pondering the possibilities, as they have Adam Curry’s Podshow and the recently launched “Blog Radio“, a programming block on their Left of Center station featuring shows by a couple of my favourite MP3 blogs, Gorilla vs Bear and Brooklyn Vegan. Why doesn’t someone offer Ricky Gervais a boatload of money to bring his wildly popular comedy podcast to satellite radio? I’d be much more willing to pay for it if I was getting plenty of other programming along with it.

As someone who’s already immersed in the world of blogging and podcasting, I’m excited about the idea. This could be a new way to weed out the good from the bad, a new forum to present the best that homegrown broadcasting has to offer. I am tempted to sign up for one of these free trials in the near future, but I still think they’ll need a few more interesting shows before they can get me as a subscriber.