Sirius/XM’s Boneyard Bone Head Programming

Corporate greed had turned rock radio into another way to squeeze every penny they could from commercial revenue, all but ignoring the content and quality of the music. Somehow they figured out that people wanted to hear the same songs from the same artist’s over and over, day in and day out. And for the most part it was working, even though the play list’s were mind numbingly boring and repetitive they were bringing in huge revenue and it still goes on today, even on satellite radio. But now the revenue is a fraction of what it used to be due to all the other ways people can get and listen to music and I’m glad, it serves them right for being so greedy and running rock radio into the ground. The same thing is going on with the record industry.

The Howard Stern effect.

I first became interested in Sirius Satellite radio when Howard Stern announced he was taking his show to the heavens and beyond, well at least into outer space to a satellite orbiting the earth. Now I was interested. Being a fan of The Howard Stern Show and realizing that satellite radio offered many different choices in music, I signed up.

Howard Stern

Now even though as I said, Sirius offered a lot of music choices, I was only interested in hard rock music. I thought this is going to be great Howard Stern uncensored and commercial free rock music from a library of literally thousands of songs. Well two out of three wasn’t bad. Howard was uncensored and better than ever and the music was commercial free but there it is again the same songs from the same artists over and over, day in and day out, it was FM radio without the commercials, what the hell is this?

Satellite radio misses the mark.

I focused on the station called Buzzsaw, they claimed to be “Hard and heavy classic rock” what a joke. Their play list included along with the usual songs from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Metallica, songs from Billy Squire, Pat Benetar, Cheap Trick and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hard and heavy? hell no, needless to say I was very disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, Billy Squire, Pat Benetar, Cheap Trick and Lynyrd Skynyrd have their place on the radio (i guess) just not on a station that claims to be “Hard and heavy” radio.

Then came the merger between Sirius and XM. “Buzzsaw” became “The Boneyard” which was the “Hard and heavy” rock channel at XM. Okay, they seemed to be stepping it up a bit. I heard more bands that I considered to be “Hard and heavy”. But after a few days of listening a pattern started to develop, here we go again same bands, same songs over and over, day in and day out. All these bands and artists have written and recorded thousands of great hard rock and metal songs, so why only play a few hundred over and over?

What drone thinks this a good radio? How did it become so repetitive and unimaginative?

Ipod Classic

I recently discovered the IPod. Sometimes it takes me awhile to embrace new technology. When CD’s came out I had so many crates of albums I didn’t want to switch.  When a new album (actually a CD) came out I decided to start the transition. Soon I found myself updating all my albums to CD besides,  new releases were only on CD anyway, vinyl was a thing of the past.

Rock music bliss.

I have loaded my Ipod with all the great rock, hard rock and metal music that I love, I set it on shuffle and  listen to the greatest commercial free, DJ free kick ass radio station ever, at least I think this is what radio should sound like. And with all the technology available to Sirius/Xm I believe it could. Here is what they need to do (are you listening Sirius/Xm?) Lose the DJ’s, most of the stuff they say is really stupid, the unit tells you what song  is playing and what group is playing it, what else do you need? Hearing these DJ’s talk is a waste of good air time that could allow for more music. Now, load the computer up with all (not just the hits) great hard rock music available and let it roll. Let me at the controls and the Boneyard would be the most “hard and heavy” diverse rock radio station ever, just check out my podcasts.