On The Passing Of The Decades
Written Oct. 16, 2008 by Sean Ross in Satellite with 5 Comments
I was sorry to hear about the recent round of layoffs at the newly merged Sirius XM Radio, and particularly sorry to read how many of those exiting were the programmers of its "Decades" oldies channels. Over the years, with the mainstreaming of XM, the Decades channels had done a fairly good job of maintaining the "not radio, but an audio experience" feel of the satcaster's early days. With rumors that many of the music channels duplicated by the two services would go away shortly, with the Sirius counterparts being the ones that remained, I figured it was worth another listen today to '60s On 6, '70s On 7, and the R&B Oldies Soul Street (channel 60).
'60s At 6 still had a lot of its initial atmosphere intact -- PAMS jingles, "top 6 on this day in ...." countdowns, drops from Vietnam-era Armed Forces Radio. '70s At 7 sounded relatively mainstream musically -- some songs that generally do better in music research than others, but nothing in flagrant violation of radio law, except for that music image promo that contained "You Never Done It Like That" by Captain & Tennille. Both the '60s channel and Soul Street did manage to play at least one song I didn't know -- which takes some doing. A final salute to all involved is in order.
Here's a stretch of each from around 3:30 this afternoon:
'60s On 6
Dave Clark Five, "Catch Us If You Can"
Len Barry, "1-2-3"
Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Delfonics, "La La Means I Love You"
Moody Blues, "Lovely To See You"
Status Quo, "Pictures Of Matchstick Men"
Archie Bell & the Drells, "Tighten Up"
Gale Garnett, "We'll Sing In The Sunshine"
Brenton Wood, "The Oogum Boogum Song"
Herman's Hermits, "I'm Into Something Good"
Terry Stafford, "Suspicions"
'70s On 7
Doobie Brothers, "Minute By Minute"
Ace, "How Long"
Al Green, "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)"
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, "Mr. Bojangles"
Billy Preston, "Outta Space"
Van Morrison, "Domino"
Heart, "Magic Man"
Edwin Starr, "War"
Jim Croce, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown"
Steely Dan, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"
Edison Lighthouse, "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Diana Ross, "Love Hangover"
Soul Street
Johnnie Taylor, "Testify (I Wonna)"
Walter Jackson, "Speak Her Name"
Rufus Thomas, "The Dog"
Temptations, "I'll Be In Trouble"
Tammi Terrell, "Come On And See Me"
O.C. Smith, "Little Green Apples"
Frankie Lymon & Teenagers, "Goody Goody"
Jackie Ross, "Selfish One"
Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye, "My Mistake (Was To Love You)"
Black Ivory, "Time Is Love"
O'Jays, "Time To Get Down"
Spinners, "I'm Coming Home"
Impressions, "I've Been Trying"
Reader Comments
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It's sad that the Decades channels, and Soul Street, are being gutted like this.
I have been subscribing to XM for 3 years, and 50's on 5, 60's on 6, and Soul Street especially, were the reasons I purchased it to begin with. The Sirius channels don't have the same feeling - music depth, imaging, and personality - that the XM stations have/had. I purchased Sirius, but dropped it because it just wasn't as good as XM.
I am now canceling my subscription to XM - Soul Street was my favorite channel, and with the people behind that station gone, I see no reason to keep my subscription up.
Back to the iPod and punching around the dial I guess.
Windsor, Ontario's CKWW 580 AM is continuting with the '60s at Six, and has even taken it a step further by doing top five countdowns based (by their admission) on the WKNR and CKLW charts for those respective dates.
I give them credit for being the lone voice in the wilderness. If only others would follow suit!
The ONLY reason I subscribe to XM is for the decades channels! We have no oldies station here in Buffalo, and I for one miss it. I also like that XM's Decades had a little more "depth" musically than the "traditional" oldies you hear on radio.
Thanks for the memories!
JC
I cannot BELIEVE you canceled SOULSTREET and replaced it with that "Tired" Soul Town. Soulstreet was the only music channel I listened to. Many of the songs played by those excellent DJs are never played on any other station. I am truly hurt. I feel as if I've lost a loved one. I see Sirius has multiple pop and rock stations. BRING BACK SOULSTREET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am appalled at the loss of Soul Street. Soul Street was my reason for subscribing to XM. I've listened to Soul Town and it plays similar music, but its DJs have nowhere near the range of knowledge of the music as Dr. Nick, Bobby Bennett and especially Leigh Hamilton!
I'll probably just let my subscription lapse.