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Urban Radio Fans lose in Sirius/XM Channel Consolidation

S

Scholarm1111

This is just my opinion but I don't think these changes went well for the urban radio fan.

XM's Soul Street was eliminated and Sirius's Soul Town stayed. Soul Street had a much deeper playlist and especially had a great evening show of soul classics. Soul Town is quite listenable but doesn't blow me away the way Soul Street did in its last 2 years or so. Ironically, when both services started I preferred Soul Town but Soul Street was far superior as time went on.

XM's Urban AC Suite 62 was eliminated while Sirius's Heart and Soul stayed. I liked Suite 62 somewhat better.

XM's internet radio only Neo-Soul The Flow was also completely eliminated, there is nothing comparative left in the new combined Sirius/XM.

I don't listen to the youth hip hop channels enough to comment on the changes in relation to those. I am interested in hearing what others have to say.
 
But Urban wise...

Hip-Hop Nation has improved and is transforming its music to edited/clean.
The Heat is a good rhythmic outlet, MUCH BETTER and CURRENT than Hot Jamz.
Shade 45 is good for raw hip-hop.
Then Heart & Soul for slow jams.
Backspin gone though.... that is disappointing the older audience.

So better or worse??
 
Have you forgotten about the former XM 67, "The City"? Now that it's gone, there is no mainstream Urban Contemporary format on the line-up. Maybe I consider it a bigger loss because where I live there are no Urban stations on FM. "Hip-Hop Nation" is pretty good, but not a suitable replacement for "The City." "Shade 45" is not as good as "Raw" and I liked "Soul Street" better than its replacement.

On the positive side, "The Heat" and "The Groove" are still good. And I'm glad they kept Leo G.
 
I think its wrong for SiriusXM to lump all the rap into the Slim Shady channel. I don't want to fight through Lil' Wayne to hear some Public Enemy. I think SiriusXM is making a mistake by not keeping a hip hop classics channel. Those who can't stand today's (c)rap music have no where to go to except to that station in AZ.
 
Backspin needs to be on there... but otherwise it's not bad...

HIP-HOP NATION is the Mainstream Urban and if u think about it, it never played R&B tunes as well... now we hear Keyshia Cole, T-Pain, and such. They're slowly cleaning up the lyrics too.

THE HEAT will get some of The City listeners. It's just Rhythmic/crossover.

SHADE 45 will do well, too. It's not all Em all the time, but it does often get annoying.

I don't see it as a bad move per, se. Just different.

I'd like to see a Jammin Oldies or a MOViN type format.
 
"Hip-Hop Nation" is not Mainstream Urban. I haven't heard any Keyshia Cole on there or anything even close. "Hip-Hop Nation" is ok, but it's like the icing with no cake. I guess I'm the only one who listened to and appreciated "The City."

"The Heat" was a good Rhythmic CHR and one thing I used to like about was that it was all current or recurrent. But now I'm hearing worn out '90s tracks on it. Give me a break. FM is better than this now.
 
I don't listen to Hip-Hop Nation all the time but when I do... I do hear Keyshia Cole and T-Pain and more! The Heat is still good! They are programming the damn thing well.
 
I have heard T-Pain on "Hip-Hop Nation" and I was really very pleasantly surprised when I listened today and heard Raheem DeVaughn "Customer" so maybe they are closer to mainstream than I thought. If that's the case, the title "Hip-Hop Nation" is a bit misleading. Even the Siruis XM format description on their channel guide list the format as "Hip Hop Hits."

"The Heat" sounded good today too. I guess I'll give these guys another chance.
 
It appears that Hip Hop Nation is Evolving from Uncut Hip hop to a True Urban Station. I have XM and when the line up merged it seems like Hip hop nation and Shade 45 Were BOTH Similar to 66 RAW. It is now playing more Edited music as well. I think Leo G May move over to Shade 45 soon though.

The Heat Was starting to sound a bit Urban right at the changeover. But it has move back more Rhythmic, it Still Lacks some of the Pop Leaners Like Jesse McCartney Brittiany Spears. They still Spin Pink. One thing that Remains that I don't Like is the TIGHTER Playlist. I swore I heard. The Dream "I Love your Girl" like 10 times in 1 day. I can get that on FM, this was one reason I got a Sat Radio to get away from the repeats.


Now is seems like

Shade 45 = 66 RAW
Hip Hop Nation = The City
 
hip-hop nations is uncut hip-hop because many xm listeners complain about hip-hop nation being a censored station so they made it uncut but its going to take time tho but the mixshows are all uncensored, and the heat is going to be more like tha city well in the later moths since they putting music into the programming
 
Ok, now that I've had time to get used to the changes on XM ...

"The Beat" which used to be purely rhythmic, now seems to be spinning songs unique to BOTH the rhythmic AND urban charts. They have obvioulsy realized that a bunch of music was no longer being played once they cancelled "The City." "The Beat" is now my station of choice on Sirius/XM.

I'm cool with "Hip-Hop Nation" too. I look at it this way. I liked 66 RAW but sometimes it got a little too obscure for my tastes, HHN solves that problem. I like Leo G as just a regular jock, but I don't dig the G-Mix.

"Shade 45" plays good songs once in awhile, but I can't stand Eminem, so this station is not for me.
 
And from the other side of the urban radio pond -

Thank God that Sirius/XM kept the "SoulTown 53" name - i checked out "Soul Street" a couple of times (back in the day when XM Radio used to stream on AOL AND before i got my Sirius subscription) and for my part of it, it didn't float my boat...the only thing with the merger that i'm NOT happy about was that they got rid of Bobby Jay - a classic soul (and r&B and oldies) personality who to me was one of the newer and nicer parts of SoulTown...and replaced him with Jeff Foxx (i can't listen to him - Foxx to me does NOT have that kinda groove as Bobby) - and then reduced Wanda Ramos' time as well - Wanda being another personality from the old days of classic soul, r&b, and disco - iirc, she was on the old 'KTU Disco 92 in New York as well as WBLS - but that's just MY opinion... :)

Andrea
 
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