Edition #01: A special catch-up edition.
Team Coco signs up with SiriusXM, the end to a long era, Black Music Month, new hires and more.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2022.
Welcome back to the SeriousXM newsletter. Today, this first edition takes a look back at the last two-three weeks’ flurry of news and announcements that have recently taken place at the company. One of those includes new limited-time channels for the month and a huge podcast/radio deal for a late-night superstar.
Team Coco + SiriusXM = Joining together.
Probably the biggest news out of the past couple of weeks is that late-night superstar Conan O’Brien has signed a $150 million deal with SiriusXM and Stitcher under his podcast and digital business company, Team Coco. Under the terms, for five years, he’ll be able to continue to host his popular podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend and bring Team Coco’s other podcasts, 10 of them in total, over to SiriusXM’s podcast platform, Stitcher. But they’ll continue to be distributed to other podcast platforms as well.
Also, they’ll be able to do video portions of their podcasts and have live shows and merchandise all around the mini-empire that Conan built and created.
Finally, starting this Fall, Team Coco will have their own 24/7 full-time SiriusXM channel. It will join other channels in the Comedy category, including…
93 = Netflix is a Joke Radio (XL)
94 = Comedy Greats (XL)
95 = Comedy Central Radio (XL)
96 = Kevin Hart’s LOL Radio (XL)
97 = Jeff and Larry’s Comedy Roundup (XL)
98 = Laugh USA
99 = Raw Dog Comedy (XL)
168 = Just for Laughs Canada (XL)
770 = Carlin’s Corner (Streaming; XL)
771 = She’s So Funny (Streaming; XL)
772 = Comedy Classics (Streaming; XL)
ANALYSIS: Where this channel will be placed, I will have no clue. It will be hard to find a place to put it as the channels that sandwich this category are major sports channels, ranging from ESPN Radio (80) to PGA Tour Radio (92), and Howard Stern (Howard 100 - XL and Howard 101 - XL). Unless they take out one of these channels to place the new Team Coco channel on there, it may be very likely that it will be placed outside the 93-99 slots on the service, more likely on the streaming-only lineup. My guess is that it will be placed on streaming channel 773, though there is also a chance that one of the 93-99 channels will move to channel 773 to make way for Team Coco’s channel. We’ll see how this plays out.
iHeart - SiriusXM = Finally apart.
Last week, on June 1st, marked the end of a long era at SiriusXM. The service finally dropped the last two radio stations from iHeartRadio that date back to its Clear Channel days in 2001. Two legendary Top 40 CHR stations, 100.3 WHTZ (Z100) Newark, N.J. - New York City and 102.7 KIIS-FM Los Angeles, are now gone from the satellite radio service.
KIIS-FM was the last station to survive the traditional satellite radio lineup as it was last on Channel 14 before being taken off last week while WHTZ was moved to the streaming lineup in 2020.
However, this does mark the end of an era. Back in 2001, when XM Satellite Radio was really starting out, it signed an agreement with Clear Channel to carry some of its local stations nationwide as part of Clear Channel owning a stake in XM (which was later sold off in 2013, five years after the SiriusXM merger). Other than KIIS-FM and WHTZ, at one time, the service had 106.7 WLTW New York City (Adult Contemporary), 97.9 WSIX-FM Nashville (Country), 96.5 KHMX Houston (Hot A.C.), 107.5 WGCI-FM Chicago (Urban Contemporary), and 700 WLW Cincinnati (News/Talk) with some shows from 104.1 WTKS-FM Cocoa Beach/Orlando (Hot Talk and Alternative Music) on its Extreme XM channel before those shows disappeared in 2008.
Sirius didn’t have this but did carry one local station on its nationwide service, the Country sounds of legendary 650 WSM Nashville from 2002 to 2006, which allowed the Grand Ole Opry to be broadcast nationwide past WSM’s 50,000-watt clear-channel signal. Today, the broadcasts are available on Willie’s Roadhouse (Channel 59).
As for what replaced the stations, nothing was replaced for WHTZ on streaming while temporarily for the summer on Channel 14, KIIS-FM is being replaced by Yacht Rock Radio which features smooth-sailing soft rock from the 1970s and 1980s with artists like Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Kenny Loggins, Toto, and much more.
WHTZ, KIIS-FM, WLTW, WSIX-FM, KHMX, WGCI-FM, WLW and WTKS-FM are all still broadcasting today and are still available via the iHeartRadio app.
Black Music Month and Pride Month at SXM.
SiriusXM is spotlighting two different occasions this month, Black Music Month and Pride Month.
For Black History Month, SiriusXM is doing the following on Channel 105 (home to one of two limited-run channels) and all month long on its streaming app…
The Prince Channel ended its week yesterday but continues on the app.
Notorious Radio (for The Notorious B.I.G.) debuts tomorrow and runs until June 14th.
The 2PAC Channel will have its turn next week from June 15th to June 21st.
Also debuting is The Whitney Channel (for Whitney Houston) from June 22nd to June 28th.
Streaming only will be Pandora’s Black Music Forever Radio which will spotlight current and breaking Black artists in hip-hop, R&B, and pop.
They’ll also have specials and performances from various notable Black artists throughout the month on Hip-Hop Nation (Channel 44; XL), The Bridge (Channel 17), Soul Town (Channel 49), and SiriusXM FLY (Channel 47; XL). They recommend checking out their Black Music Month page for more details.
SiriusXM is also celebrating Pride Month this month. They got a brand new limited-time channel to celebrate it called Country Pride, which will feature those in pop country and western twang in the LGBTQIA+ Country community, including icons like Brandi Carlile and Chely Wright to even allies like the legendary treasure herself Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves. That will be available on Channel 104 (another limited-run channel) until June 16th or on the streaming app all month long.
There will also be special programming related to Pride Month on Andy Cohen’s Kiki Radio (Channel 312), TikTok Radio (Channel 4; XL), Hip-Hop Nation (Channel 44; XL), Lithium (Channel 34), The Bridge (Channel 17), She’s So Funny (Streaming Channel 771; XL), P.O.T.U.S. (Channel 124), Doctor Radio (Channel 110) and Business Radio (Channel 132).
SiriusXM has a new program for Fleet Truckers.
SiriusXM has launched a new program this week aimed at North America’s fleet truckers. For just $5/month (which is around the same as what college/university students pay and lower than any other plan out there), drivers will have access to SiriusXM’s Platinum plan (on truck radios and streaming).
Think of everything under the sun, including all major sports and Road Dog Trucking Radio (Channel 146 but preemptable for play-by-play sports at times) which is the only 24/7 radio station devoted exclusively to truckers and the industry and arguably too, Rural Radio (Channel 147) which is devoted to all things agricultural and its lifestyle.
According to Transport Topics…
Fleets of all sizes, from two trucks to the largest fleets, can access SiriusXM’s fleet program rates with monthly billing and no long-term commitments. Fleets get billing flexibility with their own portal to sign up and manage trucks — created just for the trucking business.
If you know someone who is a truck driver and would love to take advantage of this program, then I highly suggest visiting www.siriusxmfleet.com for more information.
That’s it for now. This will be a one-time-only deal unless major news comes in and I’ll report on it as soon as I can. In the next news edition (Friday), we’ll take a look at this week’s news and upcoming events so stay tuned for that.
On Thursday, our first #TBT newsletter which will take a look at an old lineup from 2004.
In the meantime, have any comments, questions, suggestions, or news tips, email them to me at roly4266@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading today and I’ll talk with you then.
SeriousXM is a newsletter service of TheRolyPoly Productions.
Must gay pride be foisted on everyone this relentlessly?