Sirius/XM made some major improvements to three of it's "decades" music channels last week. Two years ago I bought an add-on $49.99 XM radio at Radio Shack for my last car before the merger, but pulled it out and gave it to my sister last fall when I bought my 2009 Ford Focus which had a built in Sirius satellite radio.

Before the merger, Sirius and XM both had similar but (of course at the time) separate programming on their decades channels. Channel 4 (The '40's on 4) played music strictly from 1940 to 1949, channel 5 (The '50's on 5) played the popular music from 1950 to 1959 while channel 6 (The '60's on 6) played the hits from 1960 to 1969.

The problem comes in with how much popular music changed between 1940 and 1969. The improvement is that instead of being strictly "decades" music channels, they are now taking more of an "music era" approach.

The '40's on 4 now plays music from the 1930's to the dawn of Rock and Roll in 1954-1955. (They have a liner that identifies them as the "'40's and more".) This move more than doubled the play list on that channel which translates to half as much repetition.

Over on the '50's on 5, the 1950 to 1954-55 late big band and standards have been moved to channel 4 so they can now cover the early years of Rock and Roll playing only early Rock and Roll from 1954-55 to the start of the British Invasion in early 1964. This one really works for me as I used to change to this channel and hear an early Rock and Roll song that I like, but then change channels again when a standard or big band number would be played next. Don't get me wrong, I personally like standards and big band music, but remember just how many other channels and choices I have with Sirius/XM compared to antique 20th century terrestrial radio (3 HD channels? You joking, right? lol) This move also makes the '50's on 5 a true doo-wap '50's early Rock and Roll music channel. Also because they are only covering 5 to 6 years they also added a ton of songs that only peaked on Billboards charts at #20 or lower. So, I'm now hearing songs that I haven't heard since I was a kid or better yet, songs that I have never heard! :thumleft:

Then, since the '60's on 6 are only covering 6 years (1964 to 1969), this channel also added a ton of new songs that failed to peak over #20. So the same deal here with never hearing this music or not hearing it since, say 1975.

It's also something you will never hear on terrestrial radio which is dieing a slow painful death. I worked on-air in radio from 1979 to 2002. I'm glad I got out of that train wreck and I no longer even bother to listen to it. What's the point anyway? Even during severe weather, I can see more on my computer on the NWS site or www.trsweather.com.

This move also makes Sirius/XM more attractive to businesses that might be era formatted like say a 1950's tourist malt shop.