XM's switcheroo

I have been a very happy subscriber of XM for a year and 3 months. For anyone who wishes they had more choice in radio, XM is most certainly for you. You can transcend geography and pull diverse stations from the skies. How many cities have a 24/7 Blues station for example? They have a new Chill station (appropriately named XM Chill) and Big Tracks that specializes in "later rock" to complement Top Tracks.

The problem is that some of the cool niche channels have gone the way of condor (near extinction, still available online) like Ngoma (all African Music), On The Rocks (retro lounge lots of Prima and Prado), among others.

Starting in 17 days there will be some additions and naturally some removals (from xmradio.com)

U.S. Country - XM 17 - Country Superstars of the 80s and 90s Flight 26 - XM 26 - Modern Hits 90s & Now XM Hitlist - XM 30 - Today's Hit Music enLighten - XM 34 - Southern Gospel XM Liquid Metal - XM 42 - Heavy Metal XL The Heat - XM 68 - Rhythmic Hits Escape - XM 78 - Easy Listening Viva - XM 91 - Latin Pop Hits

Unfortunately there are some stations getting the axe:

XM 31 - The Torch moves to XM Radio Online, DirecTV, and AOL. XM 51 - Music Lab moves to XM Radio Online only. In addition, the music and shows heard on Music Lab can now be found on the following channels: Fine Tuning® - XM 76 focuses on the ethereal side of progressive and Deep Tracks - XM 40 covers the harder edge of the progressive spectrum. XM 61 - The Flow moves to XM Radio Online, DirecTV, and AOL. Suite 62 - XM 62 will have a neo soul show Sunday mornings from 8AM until Noon ET. XM 95 - Luna moves to XM Radio Online, DirecTV and AOL. Real Jazz - XM 70 will now offer some Latin jazz programming.

This works out probably about as well as it could have. It seems like XM may be listening to the subscriber messageboards that have heavily suggested that axed channels reemerge in some capacity. With the timeshifting XM2GO units, you no longer need to have 24/7 programming to satisfy the commutes. A 3 hour over night block would be great, a weekend show etc. Enlighten a formerly XMOnline only addition has been added to the service, and Liquid Metal which was cut last year, is now back. So there is always some hope of putting online only stations back on the birds.

Some of those descriptions of the new stations may seem awfully familiar to those that have the service, or shocking-that-they-are-just-now-being-added to people that haven't had the pleasure of being introduced to satellite radio.

The answer is yes on both and it is a bit political. Clear Channel which is currently pinching out a brick shaped turd about the future of their "free FM" is trying to sabotage satellite radio and make some money in the here and now. The Mix, Nashville, Sunny et al which are currently being programmed by Clear Channel under an old agreement when they were an investor, are adding commercials...something XM said would never happen. So to make up for it they are having to duplicate the commercial stations thus taking up valuable bandwidth. Unfortunately, this will continue for years. Once they get out of the agreement they will be able to be commercial free once and for all (assuming the CBS takeover rumor is false) and of course have the ability to add back the cut stations.

--Joey