The RTL-SDR folks made an ubuntu distro with all the SDR, Software Driven Radio, software built in, I wonder how well it works in a VM? Anyways this is a nice simple package to start playing with. Why would you want to do this, start sniffing the airwaves of course.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2013/06/27/live-dvd-includes-ubuntu-gnu-radio/