RadioInsight Says Z100 and WLTW to be Broadcast on XM

[Barry]

Clear Channel programs several music channels that can be heard on XM satellite radios (but not Sirius), as part of a longstanding arrangement.
The website RadioInsight asserts that at midnight (about 40 minutes from now) they will be replacing them with simulcasts of several of their terrestrial stations.
According to the article, Z100 will be replacing their Hot AC station called, "Mix."
WLTW is expected to be added in place of The Music Summit, a (very good) AAA channel. Of course, WLTW is A/C, not AAA.
WLTW was previously on XM about 9 years ago, when the satellite radio service began.

RadioInsight: http://radioinsight.com/

 

[nd2023]

Couldn't they just simulcast some of their iHeartRadio stations instead? Or simulcast a different Clear Channel CHR every day. Would be interesting to hear a random CHR station every day.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

I'll bet the stations and personalities are being paid nothing for this.

 

[ansky212]

Are they going to run these simulcasts with local commercials, or do inserts? Do most XM stations have commercials anyway? If not, I would be pretty annoyed by having non-commercial stations replaced with stations that play commercials. Lack of commercials is one of the few reasons to get satellite radio anyway.

 

[Oldiesmike]

They should also add KTU or WMIA from miami for dance music.

 

[DToTheJ]

If they're gonna put two New York radio stations back on the air, then they might as well put "The Big 98" WSIX/Nashville back on the birdhouse, too.

 

[Barry]

If they're gonna put two New York radio stations back on the air, then they might as well put "The Big 98" WSIX/Nashville back on the birdhouse, too.

WSIX is back.
So is another CHR in addition to Z-100, KIIS out of L.A. So XM will be carrying two CHR stations. Are KIIS and Z-100 similar?
Clear Channel is also simulcasting an urban station on XM for the first time. That is WGCI, from Chicago.

 

[d21ofnj]

I agree with having the iHeartRadio stations be simulcasted through XM. Big disappointment for the longterm loyal XM subscribers (circa 2004 like myself)

 

[Martin Mac]

If they're gonna put two New York radio stations back on the air, then they might as well put "The Big 98" WSIX/Nashville back on the birdhouse, too.

WSIX is back.
So is another CHR in addition to Z-100, KIIS out of L.A. So XM will be carrying two CHR stations. Are KIIS and Z-100 similar?
Clear Channel is also simulcasting an urban station on XM for the first time. That is WGCI, from Chicago.

KIIS and Z100 are both pop stations, but KIIS tends to incorporate alot more R&B/Hip-Hop product and less pop-rock into their playlist then Z100.

So does the simulcasting of these stations mean you will hear commercials now on these satellite stations? I thought most people listened to satellite radio so that they wouldn't have to hear commercials like they do on terrestrial radio.

And what about people that already live in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago that have XM subscriptions?

 

[uncamark]

If they're gonna put two New York radio stations back on the air, then they might as well put "The Big 98" WSIX/Nashville back on the birdhouse, too.

WSIX is back.
So is another CHR in addition to Z-100, KIIS out of L.A. So XM will be carrying two CHR stations. Are KIIS and Z-100 similar?
Clear Channel is also simulcasting an urban station on XM for the first time. That is WGCI, from Chicago.

KIIS and Z100 are both pop stations, but KIIS tends to incorporate alot more R&B/Hip-Hop product and less pop-rock into their playlist then Z100.

So does the simulcasting of these stations mean you will hear commercials now on these satellite stations? I thought most people listened to satellite radio so that they wouldn't have to hear commercials like they do on terrestrial radio.

The Clear Channel-programmed channels on XM have always had commercials, including the early days when some of XM's music channels had commercials (it was Sirius' decision to sign on with commercial-free music channels that forced XM to match them).

 

[CTListener]

I agree with having the iHeartRadio stations be simulcasted through XM. Big disappointment for the longterm loyal XM subscribers (circa 2004 like myself)

CC made a big initial investment in XM before the service launched and apparently has perpetual squatters' rights on XM bandwidth, even though XM has been swallowed up by Sirius. This is a return to the original CC programming philosophy on XM: rebroadcasting local FMs. For a while, CC has been programming special feeds for XM, but all of those but Nikki Sixx's hard rock channel are now history. Wouldn't be surprised if CC got to report a few layoffs to its bottom-line-obsessed investors as a result.

 

[CTListener]

If they're gonna put two New York radio stations back on the air, then they might as well put "The Big 98" WSIX/Nashville back on the birdhouse, too.

WSIX is back.
So is another CHR in addition to Z-100, KIIS out of L.A. So XM will be carrying two CHR stations. Are KIIS and Z-100 similar?
Clear Channel is also simulcasting an urban station on XM for the first time. That is WGCI, from Chicago.

KIIS and Z100 are both pop stations, but KIIS tends to incorporate alot more R&B/Hip-Hop product and less pop-rock into their playlist then Z100.

So does the simulcasting of these stations mean you will hear commercials now on these satellite stations? I thought most people listened to satellite radio so that they wouldn't have to hear commercials like they do on terrestrial radio.

The Clear Channel-programmed channels on XM have always had commercials, including the early days when some of XM's music channels had commercials (it was Sirius' decision to sign on with commercial-free music channels that forced XM to match them).

Right. And CC took XM to arbitration when XM told them they couldn't put commercials on their bandwidth. CC outlawyered XM (as most of the company's opponents in litigation have) and got to sell time. And now the commercials are on a service with "Sirius" in its name, although Karmazin won't allow them on the Sirius side of the service.

 

[pjc1961]

The XM Radio feeds of the Clear Channel stations are much like the internet feeds of these stations (as heard on iheartradio.com) - commercials using AFTRA talent are replaced by non-AFTRA commercials, public service announcements and maybe a song to fill up the commercial block time that's airing on the terrestrial signal.

In general, Sirius/XM music channels are commercial free; the talk & entertainment channels run a few minutes of spots per hour. For example, I believe the Howard Stern channels are running 6-8 commercial minutes per hour - these are usually run in once-per-hour clusters that also include show staff "bits", song parodies, Howard 100 News reports, etc. and/or playing a song coming out of a break, making each break 5-10 minutes in total length.

"Clear Channel has simulcasted KIIS, WLTW, WSIX, KHMX Houston, and WLW Cincinnati at various points in XM’s history."
From the news page here on radio-info.com:
"This isn't the first time Clear Channel has simulcast at least one of its terrestrial brands. L.A.'s KIIS-FM was simulcast in the early years of XM, until December 2003. Clear Channel has recently been featuring a generic 'Kiss-XM' top 40 product, which was replaced at midnight by KIIS-FM. Country WSIX, Nashville was also simulcast at the beginning of the Clear Channel-XM relationship, then once again later in the decade, and now for a third time. Cincinnati talker WLW-AM was on the bird until March 2009. Clear Channel also put Houston hot AC KHMX on at the beginning of its programming deal, until late 2003."

Thus, this isn't something that hasn't been done before; they're just re-shuffling the lineup on the 5 channels they have on XM, replacing 5 nationally programmed formats (granted, they were commercial-free) for 5 terrestrial broadcast formats, with some of the replacements being similar to what was replaced. Also note that some of the channels replaced will continue to be available via www.iheartradio.com.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Right. And CC took XM to arbitration when XM told them they couldn't put commercials on their bandwidth. CC outlawyered XM (as most of the company's opponents in litigation have) and got to sell time. And now the commercials are on a service with "Sirius" in its name, although Karmazin won't allow them on the Sirius side of the service.

As Karmazin shouldn't. They didn't buy Sirius bandwidth and simulcasting any CC offerings would just be throwing free money at Clear Channel.

In general, Sirius/XM music channels are commercial free; the talk & entertainment channels run a few minutes of spots per hour. For example, I believe the Howard Stern channels are running 6-8 commercial minutes per hour - these are usually run in once-per-hour clusters that also include show staff "bits", song parodies, Howard 100 News reports, etc. and/or playing a song coming out of a break, making each break 5-10 minutes in total length.

[...]

Thus, this isn't something that hasn't been done before; they're just re-shuffling the lineup on the 5 channels they have on XM, replacing 5 nationally programmed formats (granted, they were commercial-free) for 5 terrestrial broadcast formats, with some of the replacements being similar to what was replaced. Also note that some of the channels replaced will continue to be available via www.iheartradio.com.

I can't speak for Stern, but Opie and Anthony frequently go an entire hour without taking commercial breaks. A couple times recently they went two hours, but that is incredibly rare. The preferred method at Sirius XM is for talk shows to break roughly once per half hour, but it's a rule they don't really enforce. It's such a refreshing listening experience to be able to hear a talk show finish their bit without being forced into commercials.

Also, the 5 Clear Channel XM music stations did run commercials. It was never more than 4 minutes per hour, and at lower listening times it was usually 1 minute or even zero. The only time it was different was during syndicated music shows with barter network inventory. For example, they ran the required 4:00 network spots during Blair Garner when it ran on Nashville! 57, and the 4:00 during Dawson McAllister on Mix. The local breaks had commercials, or featurettes/PSAs/music depending on the size of the block.

 

[musichead1029]

The Clear Channel programmed XM bandwidth has always had commercials. XM pretty much ignores the CC channels in their advertising and program guides, sticking them down at the bottom under the "More" heading. While I suspect most XM subscribers also pass by the CC channels, most of which have XM-programmed noncommercial counterparts, it's pretty unimaginative of CC to run its terrestrial dreck on XM. You'd think they could come up with at least a feed of some of their webstreams intended for HD use or something with a bit more variety.

About the only thing CC programs on XM that's worthwhile is the "America's Talk" channel with Quinn & Rose. Since they cancelled Rollye James, that's about it, but at least it's something.

It's Cheap Channel on XM (TM). Hey, we're still one grade above government-mandated bandwidth brokers.

 

[nd2023]

Instead of Lite FM, Clear Channel should have brought Sunny 104.5 back on XM. There was a Sunny XM format years ago that sounded exactly like Sunny 104.5.