'60s, 70s, 80s, etc.

I'm a relatively new satellite radio subscriber. I subscribed mainly for news and talk because AM radio is pretty much unlistenable where I live.

I've also been sampling the music channels and enjoying some of them but, what's the point of the decade channels?

Don't people gravitate toward the styles of music they like rather than the time the music happened to be popular? Besides music geeks, do they even remember?

These channels are probably perfect as background for a reunion, an antique car show or some other time-specific event, but other than that they seem pointless to me.

Anyone else have an opinion?

wadio said:

Anyone else have an opinion?

Click to expand...

It was a Sirius thing. Not XM. Some radio programmers think in terms of decades. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I find that I'll use them for variety, an option when there's a song on a format channel I don't like. Which happens a lot.

TheBigA said:

It was a Sirius thing. Not XM. Some radio programmers think in terms of decades. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I find that I'll use them for variety, an option when there's a song on a format channel I don't like. Which happens a lot.

Click to expand...

Beg to differ. XM had decades channels from the beginning, and XM beat Sirius to the air by a year. It must have been Lee Abrams' idea. The only time "crossover" material is allowed is on the 50s channel, which will play songs from 1960-63. But that's because the 60s channel has been reduced to a 1964-69 channel (British Invasion as dividing line), with very few exceptions -- "Louie, Louie" (1963) is the only one I can think of right now.

Addition: The '50s channel doesn't play 1950-54 -- those years are covered by the '40s channel. I think "Rock Around the Clock" might be the watershed hit that establishes the boundary.

CTListener said:

Beg to differ. XM had decades channels from the beginning, and XM beat Sirius to the air by a year.

Click to expand...

Funny...I had both for a while and kept switching, so I lost track of who was who.

CTListener said:

Beg to differ. XM had decades channels from the beginning, and XM beat Sirius to the air by a year. It must have been Lee Abrams' idea. The only time "crossover" material is allowed is on the 50s channel, which will play songs from 1960-63. But that's because the 60s channel has been reduced to a 1964-69 channel (British Invasion as dividing line), with very few exceptions -- "Louie, Louie" (1963) is the only one I can think of right now.

Addition: The '50s channel doesn't play 1950-54 -- those years are covered by the '40s channel. I think "Rock Around the Clock" might be the watershed hit that establishes the boundary.

Click to expand...

Other exceptions on 60's on 6 include Cousin Brucie's 2 shows which play the 50's, 60's & 70's, the 60's satellite survey which does the whole decade and I believe Pat St. John may have some leeway with the decade when he does different music sets.

FrankF said:

Other exceptions on 60's on 6 include Cousin Brucie's 2 shows which play the 50's, 60's & 70's, the 60's satellite survey which does the whole decade and I believe Pat St. John may have some leeway with the decade when he does different music sets.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about the channel's standard playlist. You're right about Brucie and the countdown show. I'm usually at work when Pat's show is on, but in the portions I've heard, I've never heard him play anything from outside the narrow time frame, but that's a small sample I'm working with, so it's entirely possible he does so.

The strict separation of decades is ridiculous when you have songs by decade-bridging acts. The Grass Roots' "Let's Live for Today" is '60s exclusive, while "Temptation Eyes" is '70s exclusive. The '60s channel can play Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now," but not "Someday Soon," which can only be played on the '70s channel. Who on earth stopped listening to either the Grass Roots or Judy Collins as soon as the decade changed, or now loves their '60s songs/hates their '70s songs (or vice versa)?

CTListener said:

I was thinking about the channel's standard playlist. You're right about Brucie and the countdown show. I'm usually at work when Pat's show is on, but in the portions I've heard, I've never heard him play anything from outside the narrow time frame, but that's a small sample I'm working with, so it's entirely possible he does so.

The strict separation of decades is ridiculous when you have songs by decade-bridging acts. The Grass Roots' "Let's Live for Today" is '60s exclusive, while "Temptation Eyes" is '70s exclusive. The '60s channel can play Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now," but not "Someday Soon," which can only be played on the '70s channel. Who on earth stopped listening to either the Grass Roots or Judy Collins as soon as the decade changed, or now loves their '60s songs/hates their '70s songs (or vice versa)?

Click to expand...

I agree. The standard playlist should be larger, and it was once upon a time. If memory serves me correctly, before the Sirius XM merger, Sirius's 60's channel was called 60's vibrations. They played British invasion thru the early 70's which included song examples like the ones you mentioned. After the merger the channel took on the 60's on 6 name from XM and dropped the 70's music from the standard playlist. Also FWIW before the merger there was no 50's on 5 on Sirius. It was called Sirius Gold and played what 50's on 5 (which also came from XM) currently plays.

As an avid listener. I find the concept useful because it doesn't suffer from the "oldies timeshift" that oldies stations do on the radio. Those of us who think of oldies as 50's, 60's and a little of the 70's aren't interested in oldies stations that drop 50's and 60's because it is "too old", and add more and more 70's, 80's and soon 90's. By clearly stating the decade, Sirius XM isn't using a term corrupted by corporate format stations. They drop real oldies - add really BAD 80's - and they wonder why people quit listening to oldies? What's next on oldies stations - Britney Spears? Give me primarily 60's and don't start trying to be relevant by adding stuff I don't want! I know a lot of other Sirius XM listeners, some pretty yong, with the same observation. One girl likes the 70's, because her mother played the songs to her when she was little. Another likes the 80's, because she grew up with the music. By clearly identifying decades, Sirius XM makes it easy to find exactly what we want without wading through the stuff we don't!

DavidEduardo said:

When you remove the 60's and add 80's what you get is a cessation of listening by geezers. And you get, as perhaps a hundred or so stations have proven, a big boost in the under-55 audience that advertisers want in the markets where ad agencies place most of the dollars on radio.



Then get satellite. Or tell your Amazon Eco "play oldies". Or look for streams... there are many. Commercial radio in large markets can't afford to program 50's and 60's as there is no revenue attached to the format.

Click to expand...

Lest you forget - this IS the satellite radio board. And a specific question about the utility and reason for decades, which I answered on topic.

I have not yet heard a satisfactory explanation as to why 50's, 60's, and 70's music remains popular with people who clearly were not alive during the era. Perhaps my friend whose mother played 70's music when she was a child provides the answer. I know my granddaughter now has a playlist of 600 50's, 60's, and 70's - so I can thoroughly corrupt her musical taste and make her into an unbelieved oldies fan. Time and again, I get comments from others - clearly not of my generation - about how great that playlist is / can they get a copy. Along with invitations to DJ weddings, school functions, etc.

DavidEduardo said:

Commercial radio in large markets can't afford to program 50's and 60's as there is no revenue attached to the format.

Click to expand...

I actually think that's a piece of conventional wisdom groupthink. Yes, all advertisers covet the 25-49 demographic.
But increasingly people at the lower end of that don't listen to radio. (I went out of state to visit my millennial daughter, and she didn't even OWN a radio at her apartment).

Granted when you play 50's music you are attracting people who are now in their 70's. But those people DO have money to spend. In many cases they have more disposable income than people in the prime demographic who are still saddled with mortgages and student loans. It's just a matter of finding the right businesses who have products and services targeted to them.

And frankly there is little choice, because radio has lost the under-40 crowd. There is a small station in these parts that manages to make some nice revenue alternating 50's and 60's oldies with medical infomercials. I'm not a particular fan of the latter, but it's working for them.

FreddyE1977 said:

And frankly there is little choice, because radio has lost the under-40 crowd.

Click to expand...

Then who is listening to all those CHR, Hot AC, hot (contemporary) country and urban/hip-hop stations that dominate most cities' ratings?

CTListener said:

The strict separation of decades is ridiculous when you have songs by decade-bridging acts. The Grass Roots' "Let's Live for Today" is '60s exclusive, while "Temptation Eyes" is '70s exclusive. The '60s channel can play Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now," but not "Someday Soon," which can only be played on the '70s channel. Who on earth stopped listening to either the Grass Roots or Judy Collins as soon as the decade changed, or now loves their '60s songs/hates their '70s songs (or vice versa)?

Click to expand...

It's possible to way overthink those things. No, someone didn't stop listening to an artist (or station) when a decade changed, but it simply creates a logical distinction that's easily understood (plus, they have genre based channels as well). Some songs get cut off from artists that spanned decades, but that hardly constitutes a concern for most listeners.

Bottom line, Sirius XM wants the maximum total number of subscribers. It doesn't matter that some channels aren't getting huge ratings or if one has only under 25 listeners, and another only those over 75. If they believe those channels retain a sufficient number of paid subscribers, that's all that matters. Now and then they try dropping a channel or two, and wait to see if there is a big negative reaction. They did that with Escape a couple of years ago, and then added it back, reportedly because of the number of cancellations, or cancellation threats. That is hardly the same goal of a broadcaster who wants maximum numbers, in the most profitable demographics, for every station they own.

When Mom is in the car, the 40's channel comes on.

When I am alone I scan 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's (not big on it but sometimes I get a good tune) 17 ( Love Songs, just added it.... hit or miss) 18 the new Beatles Channel ( not impressed), Elvis on 19, Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, Deep Tracks (ehhh) Tom Petty, The Bridge, First Wave ( again ehhh) and the Comedy on Channel 95.

I spend the majority of my SatRadio listening on 60's and 70's though...

I live North Of Boston MA, and pardon me for saying so, but we have great radio here, including a new translator on 98.9 that is playing "oldies" of the 60's, 70's and other decades and it is giving the XM tuner a run for the money ( I just renewed my XM subscription 112 dollars for the year), then Tim Coco's WHAV LP plays great tunes, the WNBP translator on 106.1 (when it is in area and not WCOD or the WRCA TRANSLATOR) is playing my songs.... toss in WBOQ ( leaning too much into the late 70's and newer for me, but that is radio these days) WFNQ Nashua, WZLX, WROR, WROR HD2, WODS HD2, and I have a LOT of choices ..... something I do not take for granted as I travel up and down the east coast and I don't find too many cities that can give me what I have in NE Mass.

I enjoy my XM radio, when I bought a new car for my business last year SatRadio was a must have/deal breaker, and for the C note a year I enjoy it, but if I had to pay the 200+ dollars a year they wanted me to renew at it would have been gone. I have unlimited data I can stream all day long... for free.

but to the discussion, I like the Decades format, I had XM Radio from 2002 to 2009 , I dropped it when I was not using my car as an office, and got it back in 2016 when I got the Rav4. I'd miss the decades if they went away, and would probably drop the subscription

Hi there, you made two statements that seem at odds with each other:

1. When I am alone I scan 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's (not big on it but sometimes I get a good tune)
2. I'd miss the decades if they went away, and would probably drop the subscription

Click to expand...

Now suppose they sliced and diced those 4 decades differently. For example, Mainstream pop hits, Motown oriented hits, Country oriented hits, Rock oriented hits. I don't know if those are the right categories but you get my drift. Would you gravitate toward one of those channels and get a good tune more than just sometimes?

wadio said:

Now suppose they sliced and diced those 4 decades differently. For example, Mainstream pop hits, Motown oriented hits, Country oriented hits, Rock oriented hits. I don't know if those are the right categories but you get my drift. Would you gravitate toward one of those channels and get a good tune more than just sometimes?

Click to expand...

They have pretty solid lineups of genre-based channels too (like the Blend or Pulse for pop hits, etc.). So it doesn't seem like an either/or type scenario. When I had satellite radio, my presets went from 70s/80s/90s to the selected pop and rock genre channels.

rbrucecarter5 said:

I have not yet heard a satisfactory explanation as to why 50's, 60's, and 70's music remains popular with people who clearly were not alive during the era.

Click to expand...

I have said many times and I will say it once more - the music era from approximately 1955-1984 was the most varied and generally "best" era of popular music ever. People like it because the music sells itself and doesn't have to remind them of an event (such as Swing for WWII for instance). It is simply the best popular music ever made. Vastly superior to the soundalike junk produced today and leagues better than the garbage that came after it (such as grunge).