That's a good point. Do they announce that from the offset? In the several cases I have paid attention to over the years, the theme channel has been a transition to a new offering.
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R.I.P. 40's on 4
- Thread starter CaliRadioFan
- Start date
That's a good point. Do they announce that from the offset? In the several cases I have paid attention to over the years, the theme channel has been a transition to a new offering.
I agree that customer service is wretched.
I have had to call several times about adding a new car to a multi-car account, removing an old car and similar issues. I'm a polyglot, and deal pretty well with accents and dialects, but the call center staff has, more times than not, used words and pronunciations and syntax that I can not comprehend. In one case, I asked, very politely, to be transferred to another person because I was not able to understand the conversation, I was treated rudely. I hung up, and eventually got a person I could at least partially understand.
I would clarify that those call center people are native speakers. They just speak a very different form of English than is common in North America, and they are not trained to deal with the American idiom.
Still, Sirius / XM is hardly a badly run company. Since the merger, they have become profitable for the first time and finally have a business model that is sustainable. Their shortcoming is in the customer service.
As a 25 year old I did listen to the 40s on 4 sometimes, and I am disappointed that it's gone. It makes sense though. People in that age group are less likely to drive because its not safe for them to drive. Hence, they'll cancel their Sirius XM subscription. They're less likely to listen to satellite radio in general because they grew up with AM.
My dad is probably going to miss 40's on 4, he had S-XM in his shop where he works on cars. Sad part is he's almost 90, and the last couple of years his mobility just isn't that good. While I don't subscribe to decade-ism and like to listen to all kinds of music, I'm not the norm. Just as beautiful music had its run, so it is with the 40's (and maybe 50s)
And once again I'm glad I don't spend money on this.
I was once assured that if I couldn't find what I wanted on Siriusly Sinatra, I could find it on 40s on 4.
No, I was not alive when these songs were popular. I'm not old enough to remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. That doesn't change the facts. I've liked this music for years, ever since radio stations started playing it again.
Even when I was in high school, when the high school band would play a concert in the auditorium, the students liked that music. This is in an era when "Free Bird" was the usual song played in the auditorium on the day Yearbooks were given out to those who wanted them.
I was once assured that if I couldn't find what I wanted on Siriusly Sinatra, I could find it on 40s on 4.
No, I was not alive when these songs were popular. I'm not old enough to remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. That doesn't change the facts. I've liked this music for years, ever since radio stations started playing it again.
Even when I was in high school, when the high school band would play a concert in the auditorium, the students liked that music. This is in an era when "Free Bird" was the usual song played in the auditorium on the day Yearbooks were given out to those who wanted them.
Just received an email from SXM:
THE BILLY JOEL CHANNEL
Exclusive, limited-run (emphasis added) channel featuring music spanning Billy Joel's 50-year career: from his earliest work with The Echoes in 1964, to his solo debut Cold Spring Harbor from 1971, through his upcoming release, A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia. Plus interviews, guest DJ sessions, rarities, live performances and more.
Now through June 25 The Billy Joel Channel - Channel 4 ›
I guess the conspiracy theorists can get some rest. They used this channel over the holidays for specialty music.
THE BILLY JOEL CHANNEL
Exclusive, limited-run (emphasis added) channel featuring music spanning Billy Joel's 50-year career: from his earliest work with The Echoes in 1964, to his solo debut Cold Spring Harbor from 1971, through his upcoming release, A Matter of Trust: The Bridge to Russia. Plus interviews, guest DJ sessions, rarities, live performances and more.
Now through June 25 The Billy Joel Channel - Channel 4 ›
I guess the conspiracy theorists can get some rest. They used this channel over the holidays for specialty music.
Did they say that the standards would return after the BJ channel comes to a happy ending? Or could this be another case of a new offering on 4?
I never get surveyed by Sirius/XM about my listening. I also won't protest the lame moves, the make far too many to do that. I don't have the time and I doubt it would do any good. There will just come a day when I'm fed up with them and say cancel!
Channels I liked but are no longer available include:
Luna, Cinimagic, CNET, WLTW, and some of the talk stations offered by Clear Channel. Okay I know that Clear pulled out but why do they still carry Z-100 and Kiss?
Instead of leaving a comment on Facebook that will get ignored I will vote with my subscription and opt OUT!
Channels I liked but are no longer available include:
Luna, Cinimagic, CNET, WLTW, and some of the talk stations offered by Clear Channel. Okay I know that Clear pulled out but why do they still carry Z-100 and Kiss?
Instead of leaving a comment on Facebook that will get ignored I will vote with my subscription and opt OUT!
I would not expect them to survey every subscriber. A good sample of a few thousand listeners will reveal nearly exactly what the entire listener base is using and determine what their feelings are about the channels they use.
Why not survey every subscriber, or at least rotate the ones you survey? They have no problem billing us.
I only know of one other person who listens to XM. Her favorite XM channel is/was 40s on 4. She was born in the late 70s.
I listened to it too, despite the narrow playlist and the over-reliance on WW2-themed songs (yes, they were hits during the war, but a lot of non-military music was being aired during the war as well). And no, I was not alive in the 1940s.
I really do hope they bring back 40s on 4 (being out for THREE months seems suspicious), but if they do, I think they should broaden the playlist, and add some 30s and early 50s music to the channel (1950-55 is totally missing from XM altogether, while more than half of the music on 60s on 5 is not from the 50s).
I also suggested they start up a new channel, not limited to any one decade, with non-electric pop music from several decades - a sound somewhere between what ABC Stardust sounded like circa 1990, including a few pop-country crossovers, and the wildly eclectic take on adult music done by WRMR Cleveland before the owner sold it. It would fit perfectly in vacant channel 73 (where the too vocal-dependent and slow "Standard Time" had been in XM's first few years).
I listened to it too, despite the narrow playlist and the over-reliance on WW2-themed songs (yes, they were hits during the war, but a lot of non-military music was being aired during the war as well). And no, I was not alive in the 1940s.
I really do hope they bring back 40s on 4 (being out for THREE months seems suspicious), but if they do, I think they should broaden the playlist, and add some 30s and early 50s music to the channel (1950-55 is totally missing from XM altogether, while more than half of the music on 60s on 5 is not from the 50s).
I also suggested they start up a new channel, not limited to any one decade, with non-electric pop music from several decades - a sound somewhere between what ABC Stardust sounded like circa 1990, including a few pop-country crossovers, and the wildly eclectic take on adult music done by WRMR Cleveland before the owner sold it. It would fit perfectly in vacant channel 73 (where the too vocal-dependent and slow "Standard Time" had been in XM's first few years).
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"Bring Back 40's on 4" has almost 600 likes on Facebook. Since only a tiny fraction of listeners do anything like this, the station must have a large audience.
I have never seen such an overwhelming negative response to anything SiriusXM has ever done. Obviously, Billy Joel's record company wanted that particular channel for their client and SXM is making tons of money airing the channel. IMHO only Sinatra,Elvis and The Beatles deserve their own channel. However money talks and thats why there is a 24/7 Pearl Jam channel,for example. This has to be one of the major blunders in the history of SiriusXM. Most people will not bother to write on social forums,and judging by the thousands of complaints this is huge. It would have been so easy to move the 40's channel to one of the unused channels on the satellite, particularly the Limited events channel which is unused now. XM refuses to do so and pisses off a whole lot more people than they ever thought they would.
This music is timeless and cannot be heard anywhere else on XM and you don't have to be over 75 to enjoy it. Judging by all the comments on the various boards, a lot of people who listened to the channel were quite younger.
This music is timeless and cannot be heard anywhere else on XM and you don't have to be over 75 to enjoy it. Judging by all the comments on the various boards, a lot of people who listened to the channel were quite younger.
You should know that record companies do not pay to program "oldies" or catalog material. They make their efforts to push new material, not stuff that came out decades ago and which has pretty much sold as much as it ever will. In fact, if you can listen to Billy Joel non-stop for several months, why would you buy a new Joel CD.
So your theory about financial gain is likely just another theory with little ground in fact.
More likely is the realization that only a minute fraction of the user base cared for standards any more, and the channel could be better used with something more contemporary.
600 out of 25,000,000 subscribers? Hardly.
Of course The Billy Joel Channel is there to promote his new album and tour, but the channel is playing everything Billy Joel has ever recorded. I was just saying there are many channels on SXM and the one of them is for limited run channels like Billy's channel. The 40's on 4 will return on June 26.
The negative backlash about replacing the 40's channel is overwhelming. I've had XM for ten years and I've never seem anything like this. Unlike regular over the air radio, the idea of Satellite radio was to play music that cannot be found on regular radio. A beautiful music channel, a true standards channel, a Broadway showtunes channel, a traditional jazz channel and an all 50's channel are part of the offerings SiriusXM has. This is the place for formats that cannot be heard on terrestrial radio.
Obviously, the 40s music channel has a lot of fan support and should not have been pre empted for one of their single artist channels.
David, you know radio and have been doing it for a long time and everybody appreciates your insightful, thoughtful posts, but replacing a unique channel like the 40s on 4, even temporarily, has stirred quite a backlash and I don't think they expected this. This is radio people are paying for and they expect their favorite channels to be there when they want them. The channel is still on line, but most people want the music in their cars, where listening on the satellite is the preferred and easiest way to listen.
The negative backlash about replacing the 40's channel is overwhelming. I've had XM for ten years and I've never seem anything like this. Unlike regular over the air radio, the idea of Satellite radio was to play music that cannot be found on regular radio. A beautiful music channel, a true standards channel, a Broadway showtunes channel, a traditional jazz channel and an all 50's channel are part of the offerings SiriusXM has. This is the place for formats that cannot be heard on terrestrial radio.
Obviously, the 40s music channel has a lot of fan support and should not have been pre empted for one of their single artist channels.
David, you know radio and have been doing it for a long time and everybody appreciates your insightful, thoughtful posts, but replacing a unique channel like the 40s on 4, even temporarily, has stirred quite a backlash and I don't think they expected this. This is radio people are paying for and they expect their favorite channels to be there when they want them. The channel is still on line, but most people want the music in their cars, where listening on the satellite is the preferred and easiest way to listen.
At one point, I managed the programming of 5 XM channels, so, despite it being over a decade ago, I have some perspective on satellite.
First, just as over the air radio is about advertisers, satellite is about subscribers. So they survey a sample of subscribers to find out what they are listening to.
I'm making the assumption that they put 40's on hold because there is very little interest and usage of the channel.
As to backlash, sometimes tiny but passionate groups are the largest noise generators. In over the air radio, dance, or EDM, fans will seem to be a huge multitude but in reality are a small listening group that can't sustain a radio station. So take any apparent protest in the context of the possibility that few people are making a big racket.
Over on the New Mexico board there was a discussion of why there was a station playing a continuous loop of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" for three days before their format change. The reason given was to 'flush the audience' or something similar. Clear out all the old audience before starting something new. All Billy Joel, all the time, certainly fits into that category. I heard a rumor that a 'patriotic channel' for the 4th of July was going to follow Billy Joel. And by then the 40's audience will have moved on and they can do what they really wanted to do with the channel in the first place (but don't ask me what it is, I have no idea).
The reason for stunting on a terrestrial station is to attract attention. It is definitely not to "clear out" the old audience, as there is no real or imagined reason to want this.
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