Golden,
I think i found what i was looking for. I've been looking around and reading quite a few threads and it seems like they all say the same thing, that unfortunately you first need to unlock first and then flash to a sprint rom to get the radio upgrade this thread gives you a step by step look at how to do it.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=21167 . I havent done this myself as of yet because i don't have the phone yet but it seems that everyone agrees that this is the way that it needs to be done. The important thing to do is to make sure that the customizations do not run on the sprint rom when it boots otherwise you are in for a world of pain apparently.